Major Search

Been on this since the weekend. It's damn hard to find anything in the forests and mountains of BC. We do 20 min shift in the spotter window to keep concentration high. PT test coming up, so I'm doing pushups during my breaks. DND article

Bugaboos

Just a few photos of a recent climbing trip with Giles to the Bugaboos and Leavenworth. I took a small fall in Leavenworth and twisted my ankle. Its healing up ok, but keeping me off my bike and the rocks. Summer has finally arrived, so that's killing me!! Ah well, I guess the statistics finally caught up with me.

Click on the album link to see all the photos.

From Bugaboos

SAR Techs in Jamaica!!

Canada lends search and rescue aid to Jamaica - Canada - CBC News

BASE

Did a couple BASE jumps off a bridge near Comox. Fuuunnnn!

Waddington

In July four of us from 442 went to the Mt Waddington Range, which is the highest peak in BC. We had several versions of the trip planned, including an ascent of Waddington, but the plan morphed and changed right until we stepped of the ramp. One of the objectives had been to parachute right to the glacier below Mt Waddington. This had been done in 2007. Unfortunately, we had so much snow this year that all of the crevasses were still covered. This may sound like a good thing, but with the snow rapidly melting, they were opening up before our eyes. Not a great place to land a parachute. So, we decided to jump to the river bed at the bottom of the glacier and then get ferried up but Cormorant to our camp.

The jump went off without a hitch (ie. our bundle drop of our gear didn't land in the river. Thanks Manny!!) As the weather came in we got dropped of on Sunny Knob, across the glacier from Waddington and below the ridge of Serra 2. The spot was secure, but limited us to the immediate area, because we were surrounded on three sides by huge crevasse fields.

We spent the next five days doing some exploring the ridge and surrounding area via some rock routes and mixed climbing. Fortunately the weather was good, which made the time spent in camp enjoyable. We played some cards, cooked up some gourmet freeze dried meals, and got some sun.

I definitely want to go back on my own to try out some of the fantastic rock routes and maybe even try for the summit.

Click on the album link below to see the full album.

From Waddington

Privatized Fixed Wing SAR

Ottawa Citizen article

On Aug 16 there will be a debate on the future of the fixed wing SAR project to replace the Buffalo. One of the options is to privatize that capability. No longer"Para"Rescue ???

Invading the US

We were called out to home an ELT that was being picked up near Victoria. Apparently, the signals often propagate over long distances. The aircraft wasn't in Victoria, but on one of the San Juan islands that are part of Washington State.

Once we landed at the private airfield, we hopped out with the handheld homer and tracked the signal to a locked hangar. One of the locals came over and called the owner for us. While we waited, he showed us a helmet from a Halloween costume.



The joke was that the civil defense wouldn't have to fight because the Canadians wouldn't make it past the dock side pub.