Out-of-bounds snowboarder rescued with help of thermal drone on Metro Vancouver’s North Shore

North Shore rescue shared several photos of their rescue effort. (facebook.com/NorthShoreRescue)

An out-of-bounds snowboarder on Mount Seymour was lucky to get lost during “pleasant” conditions and in an area where he could find cellphone service Wednesday afternoon, according to the search and rescue team that found him.

In a “task debrief” posted on social media Thursday, North Shore Rescue shared details of what happened and advice the team hopes will prevent others from needing similar rescues in the future.

According to NSR, the snowboarder had already been lost for two to three hours when he was able to get cell reception and call 911.

“While the weather at Seymour was partly cloudy/sunny, dense, low-lying cloud and fog below prevented a helicopter from being able to reach the area,” the team’s post reads. “NSR thus responded with ground teams, including a thermal drone, for the search.”

The missing snowboarder’s location was unclear. GPS co-ordinates he provided showed him very close to the Seymour parking lot, but he was not there, and crews concluded the co-ordinates provided were incorrect. This was likely because the caller omitted some of the digits after the decimal points in the latitude and longitude figures, according to NSR.

With the help of Seymour Patrol, rescuers “signcut” the skill hill boundary, looking for fresh tracks leading away from the designated runs, NSR said.

“A patrol team was able to locate a track heading into a drainage in Suicide Gully (off the West side of Seymour), and NSR teams on skis and snowshoes redirected to that area,” the post reads.

An RCMP officer flying a thermal drone was able to locate the subject as crews made their descent.

“Once reached, NSR members assessed him, warmed him up, gave him snowshoes, and began the long climb out of the field to the ski hill area and then to the parking lot,” the post reads.

North Shore Rescue noted that going downhill after ducking a boundary rope at a ski hill on the North Shore—and at most other ski areas—will lead away from the parking lot and into “remote and challenging conditions.”

“Skiers/snowboarders wishing to leave the controlled rec area of a ski hill should only do so with an appropriate backcountry setup and training,” the team said.

It also described the rescued snowboarder as “lucky” that weather conditions were favourable and that he was able to find cellphone service.

“He did not have any extra clothing/equipment apart from his ski wear,” NSR said. “Looking at the timeline, over seven hours elapsed between the snowboarder becoming lost and him eventually returning to the parking lot with search crews. As you can imagine, in worse environmental conditions, hypothermia can very quickly become a concern.”

Similarly, if he had been unable to find service and call 911, it would’ve taken longer for him to be reported missing and for the search to begin, “which could have made matters much worse for him,” according to the team.

“Finally, as always, we again remind readers that we share these lessons learned for education, not to shame,” the post concludes. “No SAR team supports charging for rescues. And for those who may be inclined to comment about the ‘out of bounds’ aspect of this call, keep in mind that NSR is called out for more dementia/Alzheimer urban walk-away searches than out of bounds skiers/snowboarders.”