Light was fading when Squamish Search and Rescue was called to help a rock climber who became stranded on the side of the Stawamus Chief Wednesday evening after dropping his rope. The crew had two options: a nighttime helicopter rescue, or a high line rope rescue. Both carried some risk. So they decided to try something new: a drone-assisted self-rescue. “We sent the light drone up, lit up the area, and then we sent the small drone with a pilot line tethered to it,” said Squamish SAR drone team member Dustin Wales. “And using the light from the other drone to navigate, we were able to successfully deliver the line to the climber, and he was able to bring a rope up to himself and self-rescue from there.” It was a scenario Squamish SAR’s drone team had trained for. “We’ve had some wins with the drone team. This, in my mind, is the first big one,” said Wales. “It was an example of where we were really able to do what these are meant for, which is remove risk from the human and place it on a machine. And that’s what we want to do whenever we’re using these types of tools. And in this case, it really was tailor-made to the situation and worked out just perfectly.” The climber made sure to show his appreciation for the unique rescue. “We have on video him giving gratitude to the drone, which was, honestly, it was a bit of a cherry on top. It was a crescendo. It was a great moment to see somebody in such a situation being so thoughtful to give us a little praise,” said Wales. The drone team has been part of Squamish SAR for 18 months. “We have two operational and we have five training. But where we really want to get to is having a heavy lift for payload delivery,” said Wales. “They have been successful ... taking equipment and emergency supplies to locations, so that to reduce the stress on the SAR team and maybe even to deliver to somebody in need.” Rescues like the one on Wednesday are proof drones can be an essential life-saving tool. “This was a really fun win for us,” said Wales. “I can’t be more proud of the drone team. They did a great job of getting this job done properly.”
