Members of the Alberni Valley Rescue Squad, Ascent Helicopters and Totem Tree Service are spending part of their Canada Day rescuing a paraglider.
The trio responded late Saturday afternoon, July 1, to a report of a paraglider who became entangled in a tree just after takeoff and was unable to free himself.
According to an AVRS spokesperson the paraglider was trapped in a steep area with tall trees; search and rescue volunteers were responding by air as well as with a UTV containing medical and rope teams. The newly-certified AVRS hoist team and two arborists from Totem Tree Service were flying to the location with an Ascent helicopter pilot.
Although the AVRS did not reveal the location of the rescue, a witness said a blue helicopter landed on Mount Irwin at the end of Bainbridge Road in the Beaufort Range at approximately 5:45 p.m.
This is the second hoist rescue AVRS volunteers have answered since several members were certified by Emergency Management and Climate Readiness in mid-June.
On June 14, days after they were certified, AVRS members were tasked to rescue two hikers from a ledge deep in the Beaufort Range. An exact location was not identified. The two hikers, visitors from France, were “hours” away from completing a three-month hiking adventure when they became stranded on a high ledge with nowhere to go.
In that instance rescuers were lowered into the area and rappelled 75 feet in order to reach the hikers. The subjects were then placed in special rescue harnesses and plucked off the ledge using the helicopter’s on-board hoist.
Both AVRS and Arrowsmith Search and Rescue volunteers from Parksville Qualicum Beach took the helicopter hoist training in mid-June. “This new training allows search and rescue groups to quickly insert rescuers and equipment close to subject locations, as well as evacuate subjects requiring rapid extraction,” an AVRS spokesperson noted.
In the case of the Beaufort rescue, a specialized ropes team was also dispatched by land; if the helicopter team hadn’t been available the rescue would have taken two days instead of two and a half hours.
Both Alberni and Arrowsmith SAR groups are located close to Ascent Helicopters—ASAR’s building is at the Qualicum Beach Airport where Ascent is also located, and AVRS is only minutes away by air.