Illuminating flares aid mountain search for hiker
25/02/2021
Illuminating flares helped rescuers find an injured hiker at night on the top of a Canadian mountain before a snowstorm blew in.
The hiker on Mount Benson, Nanaimo, who has a serious upper-body injury, was rescued by Nanaimo Search and Rescue crews. They were helped by Arrowsmith Search and Rescue and CFB Comox’s 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron.
Nanaimo Search and Rescue had helped another hiker lower down the mountain, where there were asked to help at the top, according to Nanaimo Search and Rescue.
It was too icy to use the summit road so it was decided to bring in a Cormorant helicopter to assist. But once it arrived, it was too cloudy for the helicopter, so a fixed-wing Buffalo aircraft circled. It lit the night sky with illuminating flares to assist the rescuers on the mountain side.
The Search and Rescue rope team used fixed ropes to bring the hiker down steep inclines until the reached a waiting Utility Terrain Vehicle. That brought them to a truck, and then to an ambulance, some six and a half hours after the initial call came in.
