North Shore Rescue - Thank you - January 24, 2024

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024 | B1

A SPECIAL FEATURE OF THE

THANKYOU

RESCUE

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NORTH SHORE

B2 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024

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North Shore Rescue posts second busiest year ever BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com

With 158 callouts, 2023 was the second busiest ever recorded for North Shore Rescue.

But, despite being tasked more than three times per week, not one mission for a lost hiker or injured skier ended in a fatality in the North Shore Mountains.

It’s a stat that makes team leader Mike Danks proud, but he quickly puts all of the credit on the level of planning, training and commitment the team’s volunteers put in.

North Shore Rescue team members were kept busy over the 2023 Thanksgiving weekend with four separate calls, including three for lost or injured hikers on North Shore trails. NSR

“It is a very efficient system that we have set up here. Right from the get-go of the call coming in, we have multiple people on a conference call, a helicopter is being called for, a doctor is being arranged, teams are moving to the search base. I think everything is really starting to streamline and come together,” he said. “I think if you look at the calibre of our membership, that speaks to our response.”

Over those 158 missions, the team logged

4,500 volunteer hours in the field. They estimate another 4,000 hours were spent in training, and at least that much on administrative tasks, fundraising, maintenance and public education.

”RIGHT FROM THE GET-GO OF THE CALL COMING IN, WE HAVE MULTIPLE PEOPLE ON A CONFERENCE CALL, A HELICOPTER IS BEING CALLED FOR, A DOCTOR IS BEING ARRANGED, TEAMS ARE MOVING TO THE SEARCH BASE.” Almost half of the team’s calls required the use of a helicopter, including 10 flights with night vision. They used Talon’s hoist system 29 times over the year.

Because of their unique training and access to helicopters, North Shore Rescue members were called to assist other B.C. search and continued on page B3

THANK YOU, NORTH SHORE RESCUE FOR KEEPING EVERYONE SAFE

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rescue teams 38 times in 2023, across the Lower Mainland, Sea to Sky region, on Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and in the Interior.

Only 2021 – a year when COVID-19 restrictions flooded the trails with inexperienced hikers – had more calls with 226.

Among the highlights for 2023: finding a lost and hypothermic hiker on Mount Seymour with a drone-mounted thermal camera; getting called out four times in a single night on Thanksgiving weekend; and rescuing an out-of-bounds skier who was injured in an avalanche off the Howe Sound Crest Trail.

”IF WE’RE STRUGGLING TO FIND MONEY TO DO THE TRAINING, THEN WE’RE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO PROVIDE THAT LEVEL OF SERVICE.” Being busy is a good thing, in some ways, Danks has found. The more rescues they carry out, the more donations seem to come in.

“We never want to take that for granted because the costs are continuously going up. And there’s always replacement of equipment that we need to factor in,” he said.

The team relies on sponsors and contributions from the public to fund the very expensive training and certification volunteers require if they want to keep saving lives, especially when it comes to using helicopters to rescue those in the most dangerous predicaments.

“It takes money to do that. And it takes dedication and commitment and volunteers to keep those skills at a very high level,” he said. “If we’re struggling to find money to do the training, then we’re not going to be able to provide that level of service.”

That service hasn’t gone unnoticed. In 2023, the Honourable Company of Air Pilots awarded North Shore Rescue with its Masters Trophy for outstanding, enduring,

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024 | B3

and meritorious search and rescue service.

The award cites the team’s “expert skillset and innovative techniques, commitment to continual training and improvement, and dedication to the preservation of life,” but also their contributions to rescue efforts around B.C. in November of 2021, when an atmospheric river flooded swaths of the province.

Also in 2023, the North Shore Rescue family grew, in a way. One of NSR’s major donors made significant contributions locally as well as to Bergwacht Oberau, the mountain rescue team in his hometown in Germany.

When Danks and several other members travelled to Europe for a search and rescue conference in the fall, they met up with their German counterparts.

“The pinnacle of [the donor’s] wish was that we form a relationship with a sister team in Oberau, and the stars really lined up well,” he said. “We got to actually do some training with them and really form a relationship.”

In April, North Shore Rescue will be hosting the Oberau team for training here.

And for the first time three years, North Shore Rescue will be putting out a call for new members to try out for the team. Danks said it is critical for succession planning, especially as the current leadership group ages.

“We’re getting into our late-40s. And we really need that new wave of volunteers, the new leaders of North Shore Rescue to come in and start at the ground and work their way through,” he said.

Danks said he worries the cost of housing on the North Shore is going to make it harder to find young people who live close enough to make it to calls.

For those who are selected, it tends to be a lasting commitment, he added.

“The majority of them are 10 years-plus. We have people that are 20 years-plus, and then we have people that are 30 and 40 yearsplus, and they’re still actively helping on the team,” he said.

THANK YOU The District of West Vancouver extends a heartfelt thank you to North Shore Rescue volunteers.

We appreciate all that you do.

Thank you North Shore Rescue, our valued and trusted partner. Together, we’re committed to keeping the north shore safe.

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THANK YOU THANK YOU to the brave North Shore Rescue volunteers THANK YOU for your time, energy, and expertise THANK YOU THANK YOU

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B4 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024

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Legacy of longtime leader Tim Jones lives on in North Shore Rescue JANE SEYD jseyd@nsnews.com

It was December of 2012 and had been whiteout conditions for the better part of three days when present day North Shore Rescue leader Mike Danks was long-lined into deep snow drifts on Cypress with then-team leader Tim Jones.

Three days earlier, snowboarder Sebastian Boucher had gone missing in the backcountry.

Everyone knew his chances were slim.

But then someone spotted fresh tracks in the snow.

Jones sprang into action, commandeering a helicopter to long-line him and three other members of North Shore Rescue into deep snowdrifts to re-start the search.

“We were up to our necks in snow, following erratic tracks down [the mountain],” said Danks. The tracks disappeared abruptly at the edge of a cliff. Then they heard the snowboarder calling back to them.

“We had to rappel down that cliff band and we had snow and rock fall coming down on us,” said Danks.

For Jones, however, giving up was never an option.

Jones, the long-time leader of North Shore Rescue, who died 10 years ago at the age of 57, was known to most as a larger-than-life personality who could be stubborn, blunt and who did not suffer fools gently.

But for the more than 25 years that he was part of North Shore Rescue, Jones was also the person you’d most want to come find you if you were lost in the backcountry. And most of the time, he was the one leading the search.

During his time with North Shore Rescue, Jones took part in more than 1,600 rescues as well as becoming the face of the organization.

In 2011 he was awarded the Order of B.C. Danks, who was mentored by Jones after he first joined the rescue team in 1996, took over

Tim Jones, the late leader of North Shore Rescue, pictured here in April 2013. NSR as team leader a decade ago following Jones’ sudden death. Jones died on Jan. 19, 2014, after he collapsed while returning from the team’s Mount Seymour cabin.

Legacy lives on in rescue team But Jones’ legacy is still very much a part of the rescue team, said Danks.

Sometimes that’s in the small details – like pieces of equipment that still bear Jones’ handwritten notes. Sometimes it’s the big lessons drilled into him by Jones to “front-end load” all rescue calls: “Get a helicopter going

immediately. Don’t even ask the province if we can do it.”

Jones had a vision of what North Shore Rescue could become and was constantly striving towards that, said Danks.

In earlier days, the rescue team had just one vehicle and an Atco trailer in the City of North Vancouver works yard. Under Jones’s command, the trailer was quickly filled with equipment and the number of vehicles grew.

The rescue base itself also morphed and continued on page B5

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completely lost,” said Danks.

expanded to encompass the vast space now known as The Embassy.

In some cases, where conditions have prevented a rescue team from accessing the area, shelter and food stored in the cache can make the difference between survival and death.

It was under Jones that the rescue team first got repeater stations for radio communications installed in strategic backcountry locations.

Up to that point, communications were lineof-sight only. If something went wrong, a team was on their own.

Jones set up SAR stations, backcountry caches Jones also established the team’s SAR outpost stations at Cypress, Seymour, Bone Creek, Cap Gate and Indian Arm – trailers containing needed equipment and a command centre from which to manage searches, which cut out the need to drive the team’s massive command vehicle up a mountain.

Jones also set up the network of caches that still exist throughout the North Shore backcountry – rudimentary shelters with basic supplies purposely placed in difficult terrain where people get lost.

North Shore Rescue doesn’t advertise those locations but “they are strategically located,” said Danks, with the most recent cache established in the drainage of Montizambert Creek, in honour of late British hiker Tom Billings, whom Jones was still searching for when he died.

Chances are, if anyone finds a cache, “they’re

know Jones, “he was a really sensitive, caring individual.”

Jones was also “on” all the time. Variously described as a Triple A type personality, Jones worked a day job as an advanced life support paramedic, but also made it his business to go to 95 per cent of North Shore Rescue calls.

Team pushed to embrace technology Throughout his leadership of North Shore Rescue, Jones was eager to adopt new technology and increase the efficiency of callouts, said Danks.

Under Jones, North Shore Rescue became the first team in the province to be permitted by regulatory authorities to conduct long-line rescues.

Danks has carried on that lesson, pushing for years to win provincial approvals to conduct both night vision helicopter rescues and to conduct nighttime hoists.

“That literally took us five years,” said Danks, recalling that the first bureaucrat he asked “literally laughed at us.”

“It has been a game changer,” he added.

When he died, Jones had been advocating for installation of trail-side cameras in the backcountry.

That project was eventually abandoned, said Danks, but these days, search helicopters have forward-facing infrared cameras mounted

On behalf of West Vancouver-Capilano constituents, we thank the skilled members of North Shore Rescue for volunteering your time and energy to keep us safe all year round.

- Karin

THANK YOU NORTH SHORE RESCUE

Karin Kirkpatrick

MLA West Vancouver-Capilano

604-981-0050

Karin.Kirkpatrick.MLA@leg.bc.ca

He also had a habit of taking command of every call.

Tim Jones, the late leader of North Shore Rescue, left an indelible mark on the team. NSR onboard that can pick out heat given off by a lost hiker or skier. A newer device is a helicopter mounted reco device that can pick out reflectors often included in outdoor gear over a wide area.

Larger than life personality remembered To those who didn’t know him well, Jones could be abrasive.

He was infamous for sometimes being tough on rescue team members, calling them out in a dressing down he called “the shred” if he felt they behaved in a manner that was stupid or unsafe.

“He had this drill sergeant mannerism to him,” said Danks. Yet when anyone got to

In the wake of Jones’ death, there were huge holes to fill, said Danks – including the need to build up a group of senior search managers and the advanced medical provider program.

The AMP program now includes a pool of about 10 local doctors and a registered nurse doing the job that Jones had often filled singlehandedly.

The workload has been more shared in the time since Danks took over, and no one person is indispensable. That’s part of planning for the long-term success of North Shore Rescue, said Danks – something always in the forefront of Jones’ thoughts.

“Some of the stuff we’ve accomplished was not even on his radar,” said Danks, adding he wishes he could have a few minutes to chat with his mentor about changes that have come over the past decade.

“I really feel like the magic is happening for us,” he said. “I’d be interested in what he would think.”

B6 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024

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Donor gives North Shore Rescue life-saving avalanche gear BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com

Inside North Shore Rescue’s team base, volunteer Bryan Burgess pulls the ripcord dangling from strap of his backpack. Within a couple of seconds, his head is enveloped by a massive orange pillow inflating behind his head.

And thanks to a generous donor who funded the purchase, North Shore Rescue is now the only team in the province to issue avalanche bags to all of their members, which they’ll be encouraged to take with them even when they’re headed into the mountains for fun.

”IT PROVIDES YOU WITH A LARGER SAFETY FACTOR WHILE SKIING OR RECREATING.”

It’s a test of the team’s newest gear intended to protect them from the terrifying prospect of being caught in an avalanche.

North Shore Rescue team member Bryan Burgess demonstrates a newly acquired avalanche air bag. PAUL MCGRATH / NSN

“It lets you float on top of the snow and then also it can create an air bubble around you under the snow … so you don’t get as compacted by the snow, which then can suppress your breathing and eventually asphyxiate you,” Burgess said. “It provides you with a larger safety factor while skiing or recreating.”

Although avalanche bags have been on the market for years, older models used heavy compressed air cylinders for inflation.

Arc’teryx’s Micon LiTRIC model, which North Shore Rescue now has, uses a small fan powered by a rechargeable battery.

We are all in the back country together.

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to all the North Shore Rescue members who work so hard to keep us safe.

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his first name Ken, said he was “a little bit overwhelmed” to learn the impact his donation was having. He sought out North Shore Rescue to make a donation because he regularly goes for hikes on mountain trails and wanted to make the famous rescue team’s members safer.

North Shore Rescue team leader Mike Danks said he feels “a massive relief” knowing that every one of his volunteers now has that added layer of protection.

“The metrics don’t lie. Increasing your chance of survival by 50 per cent is huge,” he said. “Whenever we send people into these situations, you have to consider their family, their commitments to other people, their well-being. It’s something that wears not only on the search manager or the avalanche safety officer, but everyone on that team.”

“I was very pleased that I could help in such serious rescue work. People are always exposed to danger,” said Ken. “This is a good feeling.”

But Danks cautioned, better technology is no replacement for local knowledge and proper training to stay out of harm’s way.

”THE METRICS DON’T LIE. INCREASING YOUR CHANCE OF SURVIVAL BY 50 PER CENT IS HUGE.” There have been calls in recent memory when Danks said he wished his members could have had the bags ready to go, including one in 2017 when a skier was caught in a slide on Hollyburn Mountain.

“They were buried up to their chest. The weather conditions were really poor that night,” he said. “We had teams that had to go into that area. They were very aware of the immediate hazard above…. You have to roll the dice sometimes to save a life, so they

These are the inner workings of a newly acquired avalanche air bag to be used by North Shore Rescue. PAUL MCGRATH / NSN put themselves in harm’s way to get him out of that immediate hazard area as quickly as they could.”

Because of unusual avalanche risk conditions, the winter of 2022-2023 was a

record year for deaths in the mountains of British Columbia. To buy an individual bag costs about $2,000, but it’s cheaper than a funeral, Danks notes.

The donor, who has asked only to go by

“I have to reinforce that you never want to get caught in an avalanche and it’s all about ensuring that you’re not in avalanche terrain when the hazard is high,” he said. “Learn about avalanche safety. Learn about how to use a transceiver, a probe and a shovel and get to know avalanche terrain so you can avoid it.”

Even with the bags, sometimes the risk to rescuers’ lives may be just too great to venture after someone, he added.

“That’s someone’s son, that’s someone’s daughter. We always want to do everything we can to save them,” he said. “But there may be a point where we say we cannot come and rescue you.”

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B8 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024

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New tech lets North Shore Rescue zero in on out-ofservice cellphones BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com

Nikki Donnelly was distressed when she called her boyfriend. Donnelly, a 21-year-old visitor from Toronto, had snowshoed the Howe Sound Crest Trail to St. Mark’s Summit but got off trail on her return. Donnelly said she was getting into deeper terrain but the call quickly dropped. Her boyfriend called police and North Shore Rescue launched a massive search. The next day, they found her body down a gully.

With the help of some new technology, it’s the kind of outcome team leader Mike Danks hopes to never see again.

North Shore Rescue is soon to deploy Lifeseeker, a helicopter-mounted phone location device that practically takes the “search” out of “search and rescue.”

In much of the North Shore backcountry and mountain drainages, there is little hope of getting a strong enough cell signal to call for

help. Lifeseeker acts like a portable cell tower that has the ability to zero in on a specific device and ping rescuers to its location, even when they’re in an area with no coverage.

Danks described the technology as “an absolute game changer.”

“As long as that phone is on … as soon as it comes within range of that phone, it will automatically lock onto it and it will provide the co-ordinates for it,” Danks said. “It’s no longer a needle in the haystack.”

More than greatly upping the chances of finding someone before it’s too late, the technology will help keep rescuers safe as well, allowing them to stay out of risky terrain that they don’t need to search on foot, Danks said.

The notion of rescuers being able to almost instantly locate any individual’s cellphone may trigger privacy concerns, Danks acknowledged, but the Lifeseeker’s use is strictly regulated.

In order to get the device, they first needed approvals from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the federal department that oversees telecommunications.

North Shore Rescue volunteer John Blown operates the hoist on Talon Helicopters’ Dauphin helicopter, Dec. 2021.

GRANT BALDWIN/NSR

The only time they’ll be able to use it is when they’ve been tasked by the police for a search and it will only pick up the cell signal of the phone it’s been programmed to find. And unlike law enforcement Stingray devices, Lifeseeker does not intercept calls or text messages for surveillance purposes.

“So there’s no opportunity for us to use this to spy on people or to lock onto other phones.

It is very specific to the device that you are looking for,” Danks said.

Although North Shore Rescue is the first civilian search and rescue team to have a Lifeseeker-type device in Canada, they are very common in Europe, Danks said.

But, Lifeseeker will only work when a cellphone is turned on, so it’s more important than ever for hikers to follow North Shore Rescue’s advice to conserve their phone’s battery or carry a backup, said Danks.

The North Shore Rescue team sees tremendous potential to save lives, especially in searches for a subject who is injured, unconscious or otherwise unable to reach out

for help, just like Donnelly was.

“We were already there. We were probably 400 feet away from her. But she was in the trees in a gully. We couldn’t see her. She was unresponsive at the time,” Danks said. “She was the needle in the haystack. If we had Lifeseeker, we could have gone right to her location.”

The team invested $250,000 just to buy the device. Installing it on one of Talon’s helicopters will come with its own price tag.

Danks said they would love to find a sponsor in the community to help offset the cost of the life-saving device.

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