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Volunteers rescue hiker in medical distress from steep slopes of Mount Arrowsmith

Multiple agencies involved in complicated retrieval from Judges Route on Island peak
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A hiker who suffered injuries while on Mount Arrowsmith’s Judge’s Route trail is rescued due to the combined efforts of Alberni Valley and Arrowsmith volunteer rescuers. (PHOTO COURTESY ALBERNI VALLEY RESCUE SQUAD)

Volunteer searchers successfully evacuated a hiker in medical distress from Mount Arrowsmith on Saturday.

The complicated rescue involved multiple agencies from across Vancouver Island.

Alberni Valley Rescue Squad received a call at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2022 that a hiker was in distress. A medical team hiked up the Judges Route to meet the injured party and prepare them for transport, an AVRS spokesperson said.

Members of the public provided early assistance by keeping the subject warm while they waited for aid.

Because the hiker was on a portion of the trail that is difficult to access, a call was put out to Arrowsmith Search and Rescue for more volunteers to assist with a rope system to carry the patient via stretcher to a more accessible spot.

“As the subject was carried along the steep trail, convergent volunteers who were hiking down the Judges Route joined us in our efforts to slowly pass the stretcher bearing the subject hand-by-hand and with great care along the Judges Route nearly to the trailhead,” the spokesperson said.

At 3:45 p.m. members of the Comox Valley and Campbell River SAR hoist team arrived along with an Ascent Helicopters chopper to hoist the patient out of the location and to a “higher level of medical care” with BC Emergency Health Services (EHS).



susie.quinn@albernivalleynews.com

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