Injured snowboarder rescued from Vancouver Island backcountry

A brace of snowboarders were plucked from the Vancouver Island backcountry Monday aft an wounded led to a chilly nighttime successful the mountains.

Crews utilized a chopper and agelong enactment to rescue the brace Monday morning, a time aft search-and-rescue volunteers hiked successful with supplies overnight to support them warm.

The antheral and pistillate had acceptable disconnected for a time of snowboarding connected Sunday successful Strathcona Provincial Park, earlier the pistillate wounded her leg. They were capable to usage a cellphone to telephone for help.

“The taxable was incapable to determination and past got rather acold arsenic the time got later,” Comox Ground Search and Rescue squad person John Unger explained.

He said heavy snowfall and challenging forested terrain meant it took the squad astir 5 hours to scope the brace with warming vests and camping equipment.

The radical dug snowfall caves to structure done the chilly nighttime connected Mount Allan Brooks.

“I deliberation they’d been beauteous acold for immoderate clip truthful they were beauteous blessed to spot america with immoderate supplies and immoderate lukewarm apparel for them,” search-and-rescue unpaid Philippa Rees said.

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Unger said the incidental is an important reminder astir backcountry information arsenic the upwind gets colder and much radical spell retired exploring.

“Given it’s 1 of the archetypal weekends of having immoderate large snow, radical are anxious to get into the backcountry,” helium said.

“We don’t privation to discourage radical from going into the backcountry, but always retrieve to bring the essentials, permission a travel program with someone.”

Unger said anyone venturing into the backcountry should besides person a mode of calling for help, with either a telephone that has work successful the country oregon an exigency beacon.