By Alistair Taylor
Campbell River Mirror
A mountain between Woss and Tahsis was the scene of a dramatic rescue on Saturday.
Campbell River Search and Rescue (CRSAR) scrambled to gather their gear, to attend an accident high up on Rugged Mountain which overlooks both Woss and Tahsis.
A woman from a party of three had taken a fall while negotiating a bergschrund, which is a deep crevice between a rock face and a snowfield, says Tim Fairbank, president, CRSAR. The patient had broken a leg, and was at risk from hypothermia.
Six CRSAR members flew north in helicopters provided by the RCMP and a local contractor. They landed on the mountain with little time remaining before dark.
One volunteer medical doctor rappelled into the bergschrund, while another first aider brought supplies while being lowered on a helicopter long-line.
While the patient was successfully stabilized, daylight did not allow for a completion of the rescue.
That meant a call to the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Center in Victoria, who dispatched 442 Squadron’s Cormorant, which has night flight capability. Around midnight, CCFB Comox Sartechs winched the patient, her daughter, and the doctor into the hovering craft, to then rush to hospital.
The remaining CRSAR volunteers then spent the night up at 500 ft elevation, to be flown out early Sunday morning.