It has been a busy year so far for Whistler Search and Rescue (SAR), with the local team responding to 13 calls since Jan. 1 after a quiet end to 2023.
“That's certainly right up there with a quick-pace winter,” said Whistler SAR president, Brad Sills.
Sills said with such a damp and disappointing early season, what snow the area did get has everybody enthusiastic about heading into the hills.
Though Whistler got a healthy dump of snow over Christmas and at the beginning of the cold snap in January, conditions have remained below-average, and recent heavy rain and warm temperatures only made things worse by limiting the amount of terrain lost skiers and snowboarders can safely navigate across.
The unique conditions have made for a hectic few weeks for Whistler SAR.
On Jan. 21, a group of six skiers put in a call to SAR after turning back from the Kees and Claire Hut, with one of them having sustained a serious knee injury.
“Her friends called to say they were in the process of extracting her, but they wanted to signal us to say they weren’t sure they would be able to do it,” said Sills.
“Anybody that’s familiar with the west side of Oboe knows that it's a long haul back to Flute Summit to where we could get a toboggan in to her, and they did it with an impromptu sled they put together with her skis and ski poles.
“They had ropes, and the six of them joined together like a dogsled team and pulled her all the way back to where we could reach her.”
Sills said it was a good example of what SAR means when it encourages recreationalists to be prepared.
Two days before that, on Jan.19, SAR had to share some bad news with two skiers who skied out of bounds around the Khyber Cliffs on their way to the Microwave Tower Road, but ended up too low on the mountain and were exhausted.
“They put out a call for assistance and were waiting in a large opening for a helicopter rescue… but that was the night of the freezing rain episode, and there’s no helicopter in the world that’s going to fly in freezing rain,” said Sills, pointing out a previous airlift extraction from the Fitzsimmons Creek area was made possible due to ideal conditions.
“It was a bit of a challenging conversation, but they were encouraged to keep moving downhill,” said Sills.
The two were recovered and off the mountain by 9:30 that night, after SAR tracked their descent and managed to rendezvous with them further down the mountain.
“I caution people who think that they can get rescued by helicopter at night,” Sills said.
“I would say that during the winter months in the coast mountains, this is more unlikely than it is likely.”
On Jan. 25, 15 members of Whistler SAR were needed to extract five people to safety in what ended up being an “epic” night, with two calls coming in at once.
The first call was from three skiers who went below Piccolo and called for help halfway down. Two patrollers skied down to them, and decided to ski them out to Cheakamus Lake and then walk the rest of the way.
“There wasn’t much of an option in that there’s no snow at lower elevations … so we had two patrollers and three subjects having to walk seven kilometres in ski boots in really shitty conditions,” Sills said.
“Adding to that, we got a call from two more people in the cake hole (on the backside of Whistler Mountain) that had no safety equipment, nothing. The other three were used to skiing in Europe, they had all the safety equipment, some food, some water … they weren’t as big a concern as the next two that had nothing.”
More SAR members had to climb up the cake hole to find the two without gear, which made for a long night.
“It took 15 of our search and rescue members to affect that. The call came in at 1:20 p.m. and we finished at 11:30 p.m.”
Notably, Sills said the lack of snow at lower elevations is causing some trouble for lost skiers, including on Jan. 10, when a skier was lost below Disease Ridge.
“He was a tough one—his instinct was to keep going down towards Fitzsimmons Creek … one of the cautionary notes to Whistler residents is there is very little snow at lower elevations, and you will not be able to navigate your way out on skis,” he said.
“Your only options is to go back up. This gentleman did that, and it took him quite a while, about six hours. We were able to track him and position a snowcat in the ski area where he came out. He was brought out much later in the evening by a snowcat.”
Another three came upon the same issue on Jan. 21, after getting lost below Piccolo and becoming exhausted on their way back up the mountain in what turned into another late-night recovery.
The hectic start to the year for WSAR is reflected in-bounds at Whistler Blackcomb, where two skiers have died in unrelated incidents so far in 2024.
“Everything we do is founded in safety. We do not open up the mountains until Patrol and Mountain Operations deem it safe to do so,” said Whistler Blackcomb’s senior manager of communications, Dane Gergovich, in an email.
“That said, despite the recent snowfall, which has allowed us to open the alpine, there are still concerns about natural hazards including rocks, crevasses, other features that haven’t been covered yet and instability beneath the snow surfaces. Given this, we will continue to advise guests to stay in bounds, and stick to groomed and open trails within their ability levels.”
When tree-skiing, preparedness and awareness are key, Gergovich added.
• Always be on the lookout for tree wells — a hollow pocket that can surround trees after snowfall events.
• Always ski with a buddy (or buddies!) when entering a tree run and lookout for each other.
• Keep a whistle attached to the zipper of your jacket.
• Keep your eyes up and focused on where you’re going to avoid hitting tree trunks or branches.
Follow this link for a video with more safety tips.
As always, SAR encourages those heading up the mountain to be prepared with safety gear, food and water, know the terrain, let others know they are going to be recreating and where, and know the appropriate emergency numbers to call if in need.
