SAR Call-outs in the North Shore Mountains (2018 - 2020)
The North Shore Mountains are an iconic part of Vancouver’s natural beauty - however, as beautiful as they are, the mountains can be a dangerous place for the unprepared and inexperienced. From avalanches to rolled ankles to getting lost, dozens of call-outs are made to Search and Rescue (SAR) groups every year. The two SAR teams monitoring the North Shore Mountains are North Shore Rescue (NSR) and Lions Bay Search and Rescue (LBSAR) - these groups are comprised of volunteers that are on standby 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. To support these hard-working and dedicated organizations, please consider making a donation to NSR and LBSAR.
Given both the surge in popularity of hiking and surge in number of SAR call-outs over the past couple of years, I was curious where most of these call-outs were taking place and what was the primary reason for the call-outs. I put together a spreadsheet of call-outs in the past 3 years based off of Emergency Management BC’s weekly incident summaries and using NSR’s and LBSAR’s Facebook posts for more detailed descriptions. As this analysis is focused on the North Shore Mountains, I did not include call-outs outside the region (as defined by David Crerar et al.), call-outs in urban areas (e.g. missing people) or call-outs on trails close to urban areas (e.g. Quarry Rock, Lynn Canyon). I also omitted call-outs where the SAR teams were stood down due to erroneous reports, the subject(s) self-rescuing, or another agency taking over the call.
As British Columbia’s busiest SAR team, North Shore Rescue alone handles over a hundred calls each year. In 2008, only 70 call-outs were made but since 2014, there has been a sharp increase in the number of call-outs with record breaking years in 2015 (139 calls), 2018 (144 calls) and 2020 (151 calls). The limited dataset for this analysis also follows this trend, with 2018 and 2020 being relatively similar and an unusually quiet year in 2019. Generally, things are quiet in the first couple months of the year, with calls ramping up in May and June as snow starts to melt at lower elevations, then a busy peak in the hot summer months, and a gradual decline in the fall. 2020 started off relatively slow as COVID-19 kept people indoors, but calls shot up in the summer as people likely got antsy and wanted to get outside, ending the year with a new record high.
NSR team leader Mike Danks attributes the spike of calls in recent years to social media use - Instagram posts of beautiful mountain views are popular but often do not accurately portray the risks of the backcountry. Given Vancouver’s relative proximity to the North Shore Mountains, the easy accessibility to nature also “creates an illusion of relative safety”. Many SAR calls come from inexperienced hikers who are inspired by social media and make their way to the mountains only to find themselves woefully underprepared for the terrain and conditions. Just a few kilometres into the backcountry of the mountains, there are avalanche chutes, steep gullies, and often little to no cell service. From 2018 to 2020, medical reasons were consistently the primary reasons for SAR call-outs, with over 40% of the total every year. If you are thinking of venturing into the mountains, please follow NSR’s six tips to avoid becoming their next rescue.
The above is a heatmap of the SAR call-outs in the North Shore Mountains from 2018 to 2020, separated by year. Use the menu on the upper right to switch between the different years and different basemaps. The latitude and longitude positions were derived from the call-out descriptions and social media posts, and are only a rough estimate of the location of the call-out. To determine the locations, trail descriptions, pictures of the rescues, and my personal knowledge of the area were used. However, the points are only accurate to about 1 km, and the zoom level on the map has been restricted to reflect this. Not included in the heatmap are call-outs with vague location descriptions such as “in Lynn Headwaters Park” or “in the Cypress Bowl area”.
Looking at the heatmap, there are three main areas that have frequently received SAR calls every year - St. Marks Summit, lower Grouse Mountain (Grouse Grind, BCMC), and Dog Mountain. This makes sense as these trails are very popular shorter hikes that can be done year-round (Grouse Grind is closed in winter) and are not too difficult. However, their reputation as easy-medium difficulty trails has led numerous hikers to show up underdressed and underprepared. In winter and early spring, these trails are still covered in snow, and the running shoes that many hikers wear will have little traction and grip. Other areas with numerous call-outs are The Lions, Crown Mountain, and Hanes Valley - these trails are less popular than the above but are longer and more technical, involving steep climbs and scrambling.
The table below shows the ten trails with the highest number of call-outs along with a breakdown of call-out reasons:
| Trail | Call-outs (2018-2020) | Used year-round | Medical | Lost | Stranded | Missing | Unknown | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dog Mountain | 15 | Yes | 67% | 33% | 0% | 0% | 0% | |
| St Mark's Summit | 14 | Yes | 57% | 14% | 22% | 7% | 0% | |
| BCMC | 11 | Yes | 18% | 64% | 9% | 9% | 0% | |
| The Lions | 11 | No | 27% | 0% | 64% | 9% | 0% | |
| Crown Mountain | 8 | No | 63% | 0% | 37% | 0% | 0% | |
| Elsay Lake | 7 | No | 71% | 0% | 0% | 29% | 0% | |
| Hanes Valley | 7 | No | 29% | 0% | 14% | 43% | 14% | |
| Mount Fromme | 7 | Yes | 43% | 29% | 14% | 14% | 0% | |
| Norvan Falls | 7 | Yes | 86% | 0% | 0% | 14% | 0% | |
| Pump Peak | 6 | Yes | 83% | 0% | 17% | 0% | 0% |
*Call-outs for the Grouse Grind are underrepresented in this dataset as many of the rescues are done by the District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services.
As noted above, the trails with the most call-outs are generally trails that are easy and accessible-year round. However, the Lions (Binkert) trail has a relatively high number of call-outs given that it is rarely used in the winter and spring. Many of the calls at The Lions were due to a stranded hiker on the West Lion, which requires a steep exposed scramble to get up and down from. In addition, a large number of missing hikers were reported in the Hanes Valley, which is a long and remote trail with notoriously poor cell reception. Hikers here should plan to take longer than usual and bring a satellite communicator or Personal Locator Beacon if possible. The breakdown for the BCMC trail shows that a large majority of calls were due to lost hikers, perhaps indicating the need for increased signage. The trail has many junctions with other trails and can be confusing to those hiking it for the first time. Although this was a limited dataset with a small sample size, I hope that it provided some valuable insight into where and why SAR calls usually occur and which trails to pay extra attention to.