‘I owe them my life’: B.C. trail runner rescued on Christmas Day gives back to volunteer search crew

A Vancouver trail runner says he owes North Shore Rescue his life after they hiked for hours on Christmas night to save him from a dangerous situation.

When Shun Ma looked into volunteering for North Shore Rescue last year, he never imagined the elite SAR team would end up saving him.

“It’s a Christmas miracle. I think they are not just rescuers, they are really angels sent by God,” said Ma.

The 45-year-old is a very experienced mountain trail runner who set out on Christmas Day for a six-hour run on Cypress Mountain. He heard what he thought was a wild animal and took a detour, and when that put him behind schedule, he attempted a short cut.

“I went down more than 600 metres elevation until I encountered a big cliff there. I knew I couldn’t make it anymore,” said Ma.

Hypothermia was setting in and Ma realized he had lost a shoe. With one bar of cell phone service, he managed to call for help. A North Shore Rescue crew arrived on foot seven hours later.

“My first sentence was, ‘Thank you guys, so many thanks for coming. I ruined your Christmas night. ‘You should have been with your family in your home,’” Ma recalled, adding “they left their warm home to rescue a stranger in the mountain.”

The NSR crew warmed Ma up, gave him boots and poles, and helped him walk out in the middle of the night.

“They are all my heroes and I owe them my life. They gave me a second chance,” said Ma.

He knew he needed to give back. So the Vancouver venture capitalist donated $3,000 to North Shore Rescue.

“That’s very generous of him,” said North Shore Rescue search manager Don Jardine, who led the effort to rescue Ma. “We’re not demanding that people pay for a rescue. We’re really happy just to get out there and help somebody get out from a dangerous situation. But we appreciate the thought and the donation.”

He said Ma’s biggest mistake was going downhill when he realized he was in trouble.

“Typically, it’s better to go up if you’re lost, because the trails are all on the top ridges and the cell phone coverage is up in the top ridges, where they can get line of sight into the city,” said Jardine.

He added, “If you’re lost, don’t go downhill because a lot of people die. Unfortunately, they panic, they have this stream thought that they’ve got to get off the mountain and get downhill, and they will go over cliffs.”

Ma is sharing his story as a warning to other experienced backcountry users who don’t think this could happen to them.

“I think, ‘Oh, I’m an expert on this mountain,’” he said. “So that’s really leading to this dangerous situation not just for me, but also for NSR rescuers.”

“You know, everybody makes mistakes,” said Jardine. “And the main thing is to own up to them and learn from them.”

Ma is keeping his remaining shoe from that ill-fated trail run as a reminder of what can happen if he gets overconfident.

“The mountain doesn’t care about your resume, doesn’t care about your experience. It just needs your respect,” said Ma. “So, yeah—pay respect to those mountains.”