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Search and rescue crew spends night on Vancouver Island's highest peak during rescue

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Campbell River, B.C. -

Three hikers are safe after being rescued off of Vancouver Island’s highest peak Thursday morning.

Members of the Campbell River Search and Rescue were called by RCMP to The Golden Hinde in Strathcona Provincial Park Wednesday after three men found themselves at the top of the mountain and unprepared for an overnight stay.

“Unfortunately, their planning wasn’t perhaps the best and they found themselves fully exhausted at the top of the mountain and so with that it was … ‘we need help,’” says the team’s search manager Daryl Beck.

Beck says the original plan was to fly a helicopter into the area to extract the hikers, but there was no safe place to land, so the helicopter had to set-down far from the target and off-load two searchers, who then began hiking up to the peak. It was then determined that the rescuers and the hikers would all have to remain on the mountain Wednesday night.

A road crew was then sent to the Buttle Lake area, where it met the helicopter so overnight gear could be shuttled back up the mountain.

Beck says the mountain can present challenges for those who are unprepared.

“This is a more complex hike and from what we understand these gentlemen weren’t familiar with this mountain and they may have not have consulted the best resources in terms of routes on the mountain and planning for the mountain,” he says.

Eric Teramura was one of the two search members who stayed the evening to ensure the safety of the three hikers. He says everyone was thankful conditions weren’t colder.

“There was a slight breeze,” Teramura says. “We built half a shelter and I chose to sleep under the stars because it was pretty spectacular.”

He says the hikers appeared grateful for the assistance.

“They felt really bad, of course, but we reassured them that it’s better that this is the outcome,” Teramura says. “They pushed it too far and there’s so many places to get hurt up there. They were quite grateful.”

While last month actually tuned out to be a slower July than normal for the team, Beck says this is actually the third call at the Golden Hinde in the past few weeks.

On July 24, the Campbell River team was assisted by members of North Shore Rescue in extracting two women off of the Hinde at the 2,100 metre level.

“They couldn’t go up, they couldn’t go down, North Shore came in and was very successful in extracting them out and back to safety,” Beck says.

NSR also assisted with long-lining a hiker who fell off of Myra Falls on July 30. Their teams were used in both instances because the helicopter normally utilized by Campbell River has been unavailable.

Beck recommends those heading out get updated information on routes from climbing groups on Vancouver Island or from better books on Strathcona Park’s terrain. The three individuals who found themselves in difficulty Wednesday relied more on cell phone apps.

“These three fellows apparently were using an app that didn’t have a great deal of detail on it for what they were attempting to do,” he says.

Beck says Vancouver Island has some strenuous and complex hiking locations. He’s urging the public to be better prepared before heading out.

“We have some wonderful mountains that people come from a long way away to enjoy and we want people to keep doing that, but we want people to keep doing that safely,” he says. 

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