Chilliwack River Valley/Chilliwack Lake/Radium Lake – With the melt, footing on mountains can be treacherous. SAR Search and Rescue have already put out cautions for hikers in the back country.
On Sunday evening May 19, Chilliwack SAR was activated from a satellite device to respond to a hiker who had gotten off route, lost his footing on snow and slid 50 feet over a cliff above Radium Lake, in the Chilliwack River Valley. CSAR was wrapping up another call assisting stranded hikers on Vedder mountain and was able to send a team up to the subject with @Valleyhelicopters.
The patient was treated for hypothermia and a fractured ankle, extracted with helicopter longline and two technicians with little daylight to spare and handed off to @BCEHS Paramedics.
A ground team was sent up to assist the other member of the party down the trail.
The Satalite messenger device (a Zoleo) was able to activate SAR very quickly, and in this case, prevented the patient from being out overnight on the snow, unable to move and stay warm.
