Alberni Valley Rescue Squad (AVRS) and North Shore Rescue (NSR) worked together to save two hikers trapped in a gully on Mount Arrowsmith last weekend.
At approximately 10 p.m., on July 17th, RCMP tasked the AVRS to assist two climbers that were stranded in a gully west of the Judges route hiking trail up on Mount Arrowsmith.
The duo had accessed the West Ride from the Main Gully route, climbing using ropes and anchors on wet and slick rock.
Due to the rough terrain and fading light, the two did not have time to finish the route in daylight, opting to rappel off the ridge into the gully.
The gully led into a big snow moat (where rock meets snow) that was steep, exposed and impassable.
Unable to descend further down the gully or climb back up to the top, they called for help.
The AVRS Rapid Response Team located the stranded hikers using sound sweeps, finally making visual contact of the subjects via their headlamps.
Unfortunately, the exposed rock, darkness and slope made it unsafe to attempt to reach the subjects to extract them.
NSR responded AVRS’s call for aid in Talon helicopter AS365 with a pilot and a hoist operator, inserting two NSR hoist techs to successfully pull the hikers out of the gully and to safety.
