Another injured hiker airlifted from Vancouver Island's West Coast Trail
Another injured hiker airlifted from Vancouver Island's West Coast Trail
Just weeks after a U.S. man suffered a life-changing injury on B.C.'s West Coast Trail, search and rescue teams were called to another hiking emergency on Monday.
"We were called a little bit after 4 p.m. for a female that had fallen and hurt herself," said Jim Loree, search manager with North Shore Rescue. "She had a dislocated shoulder."
A helicopter was deployed from Vancouver by the provincial Emergency Coordination Centre. With the help of a 200-foot fixed line, the woman and her partner were extracted from the trail.
They were flown to a waiting ambulance in Port Renfrew, B.C., and taken to hospital.
"This is just an unfortunate incident of, you know, somebody who did everything right but fell down and got hurt," said Loree.
This is the second pair of hikers that had to be airlifted from the trail after being injured since the iconic trail opened for the season on May 1.
Two weeks ago, U.S. man Ed Steinkamp slipped on a log three days into his hike, sending a stick through his eye socket and lodging into his brain.
Ed Steinkamp is pictured. (Submitted)"He landed on the stick and it broke off in the fall," said his son, Bret Steinkamp, on Monday.
"The surgeon said, 'You’re lucky to be alive, you have this branch in your brain," the man's brother, Peter Steinkamp, told CTV News.
Ed Steinkamp lost sight in his left eye and remains at Victoria General Hospital while doctors treat him for an infection in his brain.
"Conditions are certainly muddy and slippery which are all things that visitors need to come prepared to experience when they come to the West Coast Trail," said Liam McNeil, visitor safety specialist with the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
McNeil says on average, only one per cent of hikers need to be airlifted off the trail per year.
"The vast majority of these rescues are completed by Parks Canada visitor safety technicians who extract the injured visitors by marine vessel," said McNeil.
Anyone planning to tackle the six- to eight-day hike, is advised to prepare for some wicked West Coast weather. If you do find yourself with an injury, don’t be afraid to call for help, officials say.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Conservative MPs free to attend 'freedom' protests this summer: Bergen
With the nation's capital bracing for anticipated anti-mandate 'freedom' movement protests during Canada Day weekend, interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen says her MPs are free to attend.

Biden signs landmark gun measure, says 'lives will be saved'
U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a bipartisan compromise that seemed unimaginable until a recent series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.
Norway terror alert raised after deadly mass shooting
A gunman opened fire in Oslo's nightlife district early Saturday, killing two people and leaving more than 20 wounded in what the Norwegian security service called an "Islamist terror act" during the capital's annual LGBTQ Pride festival.
U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, allowing states to ban abortions
The U.S. Supreme Court has ended the nation's constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.
Guns and abortion: Contradictory decisions, or consistent?
They are the most fiercely polarizing issues in American life: abortion and guns. And two momentous decisions by the Supreme Court in two days have done anything but resolve them, firing up debate about whether the court's Conservative justices are being faithful and consistent to history and the Constitution – or citing them to justify political preferences.
Abortion is legal in Canada -- but is it accessible? Experts weigh in
There is a renewed conversation about abortion accessibility and rights for women in Canada after U.S. Supreme Court justices overturned the Roe v. Wade case on Friday, allowing states to ban abortions.
Roe v. Wade: These U.S. states are likely to ban abortion
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end constitutional protections for abortion, 26 states are likely to ban abortions; 13 of which are expected to enact bans against the medical procedure immediately.
Russia pushes to block 2nd city in eastern Ukraine
Russian forces were trying to block a city in eastern Ukraine, the region's governor said Saturday, after a relentless assault on a neighboring city forced Ukrainian troops to begin withdrawing after weeks of intense fighting.
'We have to multi-solve': Experts warn against 'air-conditioned society' as heat waves get hotter
Hundreds of people who perished during the historic heat wave in British Columbia last summer died in homes ill-suited for temperatures that spiked into the high 30s and beyond for days, a report by B.C.'s coroners' service found this month.