Three unprepared hikers were hauled from an icy Mount Seymour mountain Thursday night after an attempt to tackle a trail went awry.
North Shore Rescue responded to a call around 5 p.m. for a group of hikers who were stranded atop Pump Peak after slipping while trying to descend the mountain via an unmarked trail, said search manager Stan Sovdat.
“They had decided to take a different route back down, and they saw a different path of footprints and decided to follow them,” said Sovdat.
“They got to a very steep area, had looked down and saw the main trail far below them, and figured they would just bum slide down the slope,” he said.
At some point, the group got stuck while “bum-sliding” down the mountain, and an attempt to make their way back up proved unsuccessful due to the mountain’s current slippery conditions.
Rescuers located the group, a man and two women in their 20s, on a “very steep slope,” with two stranded on a flat area between two trees, and the third, separated by around 40 or 50 metres, standing on higher ground, upright and clinging to a tree.
“They were definitely cold, they were afraid,” Sovdat said.
“It’s surprising they didn’t end up getting really hurt, or killed.”
Several rescue teams responded and deployed teams of two via snowmobile to where the hikers were trapped, said Sovdat. Eleven volunteers were on scene to aid in the rescue mission.
“Two teams managed to climb up from below, from different directions, and were able to get to their location. They gave them heat vests and little heat packs to keep their hands warm,” he said.
The hikers were strapped to harnesses and lowered one at a time to a safer area, where a second team was able to guide them through the steep terrain below.
With only one backpack between them, no headlamps, and clothing “more appropriate for city use than wilderness use,” the hikers weren’t as prepared as they should have been for hiking a difficult mountain, close to sundown, mid-winter, said Sovdat. All three hikers had been donning low-cut sneakers which, while fitted with micro-spikes, were still inappropriate footwear choices, he said.
Micro-spikes are of great assistance for grip on trails on moderate slopes, but “they are no substitute for full on, multi-toothed mountaineering crampons,” in the extremely slippery and steep terrain the hikers were attempting, said Sovdat.
Whether accurately equipped or not, the hikers would have landed themselves in trouble regardless as they had made the decision to detour from the designated trail, he said.
“They didn’t understand that they should stay on the main route. Trails are where they are for a very good reason, because it’s not safe for human travel off of them,” he said.
