WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 28 2016
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Snowboarder rescued, hikers missing Cypress search continues for pair missing on Christmas Day BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
It’s one down, two to go for North Shore Rescue.
The volunteer team saved the life of an out-of-bounds snowboarder who was stuck in a creek drainage overnight Monday but a desperate search continues for two snowshoers who haven’t been heard from since Christmas Day. West Vancouver police contacted NSR around 5 a.m. Dec. 26 after Cypress Mountain employees spotted a car left abandoned in their parking lot. Officers tracked down the vehicle’s owner and confirmed he was planning to be out snowshoeing on the mountain with a friend that day, but neither had returned. North Shore Rescue immediately began a search but high winds and tremendous snowfall made for very poor conditions. “There were widespread natural avalanches occurring,” said Mike Danks, North Shore Rescue team leader. After more than two nights in the cold, the outlook could be bleak for the men, Danks said. “To be honest, it’s going to be touch and go for these guys. I really hope they’re doing OK,” he said. “What these guys do have going for them is that they’re together. Hopefully they’ve found a safe spot and they’ve hunkered down, but at this point, all of our searches have turned up no sign of them whatsoever.”
North Shore Rescue volunteers prepare for a helicopter to touch down at Cypress Mountain’s parking lot Tuesday morning. The team was called out for two search and rescue operations on Boxing Day, one of which was still active as of press time Tuesday. PHOTO LISA KING On Tuesday afternoon, the team had 25 members and a helicopter fitted with an infrared camera out searching Black Mountain, Hollyburn Mountain and Mount Strachan but, because the subjects never told anyone where they were going, it has forced searchers to spread out. To help narrow down the search, North Shore Rescue is asking anyone who was
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West Van victim services unit needs volunteers BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
Michelle Robarts was hooked from the beginning.
The West Vancouver Police Department’s Victim Services Program manager was a volunteer, joining officers as they attended the homes of people in the worst kind of crisis. Oftentimes,
they were victims of crime or family members of someone who died suddenly. While the police must do their jobs, the victim services volunteers see to the immediate emotional and practical needs of someone “on the worst day of their life.” “I was dispatched to the hospital to support a young woman whose partner had
passed away from an overdose. Her life at the time of the incident was really not good. She was going down the wrong road and then this happened,” she said. “I kept contact with her for a little bit after that and she did a complete life turnaround and she went on to do great things in terms of helping other people who are heading down the same road she
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was heading down.” It was the kind of interaction that led Robarts, an engineer by training, to pursue a new career helping those in crisis, eventually leading her to head up West Vancouver’s victim services unit. “I started volunteering for victim services, fell in love
See Volunteers page 10