Climber survives fall near MacBeth icefield

Posted on 29. Aug, 2011 by Chris Shepherd in Kaslo |

Search and rescue aircraft from Vancouver Island had to be called in to rescue a man near the MacBeth icefield, reports Sean Sullivan for the Vancouver Sun.

The hike up to the MacBeth Icefield.

The man fell 12 metres down a waterfall on the hike, north of Kootenay Lake. His leg was jammed between two rocks and local search and rescuers were unable to reach him. The Canadian Forces sent the Buffalo search plane and a Cormorant helicopter to pluck the man off the mountain.

As night fell, the injured man and his climbing partner waited as the Buffalo, one of the country’s most formidable search-and-rescue planes, began dropping flares from above.

The flares lit up the night sky, giving the chopper enough visibility to land on a steep ridge above the falls. “It took us a few tries,” pilot Capt. Wayne Atwood said in a media release.

Source: Vancouver Sun

The hiker is safe and was taken to hospital in Trail. Read more at the Vancouver Sun.