WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 28 2022
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The curious case of West Van’s whalebone hash pipe gavel BRENT RICHTER
brichter@nsnews.com
It’s probably the most curious relic in West Vancouver’s archives, made only curiouser by the bizarre trajectory it’s taken to get there.
A whale’s tooth, carved into a gavel almost 100 years ago and used by the district’s reeve to chair council meetings, disappeared from the chambers for almost five decades, and has now, almost as mysteriously, reappeared. On Christmas Eve 1925, Duchess Avenue resident Ewart Long gifted the gavel to the municipality after he’d heard council was in need of a new one. “This, if properly used, will effectively and promptly settle any subject which may be out of hand or order,” Long wrote in his accompanying letter to council. The story is best told, though, from its beginning. Sometime in 1906 or 1907 (Long couldn’t remember which) a whale carcass washed ashore in Vancouver Continued on page 18
TAKE THE PLUNGE Deep Cove Kayak general manager Mike Darbyshire is feeling the chill as his daughter Kanami (8) and son Kane (6) hug mom Karly (the Penguin) as they acclimatize for the first New Year’s Day Penguin Plunge at Deep Cove in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the full story at nsnews.com. PAUL MCGRATH/ NSN
MILESTONE MISSION
North Shore Rescue completes first ever night hoist
BRENT RICHTER
brichter@nsnews.com
North Shore Rescue has entered a new era, having performed their first ever hoist of a lost and injured snowboarder from a helicopter after darkness. The team spent years lobbying
Emergency Management B.C. for permission to use Talon Helicopter’s winch system after dark, only to be told no. After going public with their frustrations in October, the province relented. On Thursday night, North Shore Rescue notched their first confirmed life saved using the night hoist – a Burnaby man in his
30s who had ducked the boundary rope at Cypress Mountain Resort and then fallen about 3.5 metres near Strachan Creek, injuring his back. “I’m not sure how he managed to get a cell signal where he was – it’s almost unheard of,” said Mike Danks, North Shore Rescue team leader.
They could tell from his cellphone’s “ping” location that he was about 100 metres above a North Shore Rescue supply but also in dangerous avalanche terrain. At the time, a heavy storm of snow and freezing rain was expected, raising the risk profile of the rescue. Continued on page 17
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