If you ever have a heart attack on a hiking trail, you’ll want the right people to be coordinating your rescue.
That’s exactly what happened last spring, when a young woman went into cardiac arrest. She was lucky the bystanders included a former Squamish Search and Rescue (SAR) member. And she was lucky that the Squamish SAR members who arrived on the scene knew exactly what they were doing.
Coordinating the rescue was John Howe, president of the Squamish SAR, a veteran with almost three decades of experience who is being recognized this week with a provincial award.
When the 22-year-old woman had a heart attack at Garibaldi Park on a hike to Diamond Head, the bystanders performed CPR until Search and Rescue members arrived and took over. She was hypothermic. Nobody gave up on her, and the four hours of CPR set a Canadian record for longevity, Howe said. “That was a particularly satisfying call.”
“Usually people don’t survive,” explained B.J. Chute, vice-president of Squamish SAR.
The woman did in fact survive and was sent to hospital in Richmond, thanks to Howe’s coordination. He was busy making the right calls to set up not only his own team’s response, but also the helicopter – and the ambulance in the city.
After the long ordeal, he acknowledged, the rescue “felt pretty good…. It took a while to settle in, how significant it was.”
Howe and his team of about 60 rescuers are all volunteers, a fact that surprises many. The organization is funded partly through donations and partly through casino grants, the District of Squamish and a per-call amount provided by the province, he said. Most members not only donate their time, they pay for their own basic gear when they join – and the members even donate back the allowance they are given for vehicles and meals. The five managers include Howe, Chute, John Willcox, Murray Watt and Katie Chambers.
New members undergo initial training, then can later specialize – in swift water, avalanche, rope or mountain rescue, or the human external transport system, that long line off the helicopter. Once an emergency call comes in, the manager gathers a team of 15 to 20 rescuers with the right skills. Howe is an accomplished rock climber, as are many of the Squamish Search and Rescue members, and it’s a handy skill to have when rescuing a stranded hiker or climber from the Stawamus Chief.
Their busiest days are often sunny ones, when the Chief becomes busy with out-of-town hikers who are sometimes unprepared for a steep hike in rapidly changing weather.
The most common call the Squamish SAR receives, Howe said, is for someone who has a lower-limb injury on the Chief – someone who has broken an ankle after slipping and falling on the steep trail. That requires a team of 15 people if they need to be carried and often takes three to five hours to complete, he noted.
Many Squamish Search and Rescue members need to reschedule their days and arrange child care to help out. Howe owns a forestry consulting business, JCH Forestry, and Chute is a chief of paramedics in his paid professional life. Others on the team are park rangers, mountain guides, nurses; the volunteers have diverse backgrounds and skills.
When a call comes in, the manager develops a plan, and if it’s not an emergency, it might take a few hours before the rescue team arrives.
“In a medical emergency, we are very quick at getting people out the door quickly,” said Chute. “If they are lost on a backside trail and they are warm and safe, we might take more time.”
The team has an agreement with a helicopter company, but sometimes a helicopter is not available or the weather is not clear for flying.
“Most calls are not life and death. It’s important for people to understand that we need to be organized,” explained Chute. “And if it took you an hour and a half to hike up the Chief, it’s going to take us that long too.”
That’s why it’s important that hikers carry a backpack with the essentials. Hikers need to bring plenty of water and food, additional clothing, a thermal blanket, a plastic bag, a first aid kit, a headlamp with spare batteries, a whistle, waterproof matches, a charged cell phone, a map, a compass and a knife or multi-tool, as noted on the website at squamishsar.org – “every hike, every time.” The website also explains how to use these items to ensure survival.
Squamish Search and Rescue is seeing a rise in calls as more hikers visit and the local population swells. In the past, 50 calls a year was typical, but for 2013 and 2014, that rose to 80 calls a year, and 2015 is busy to date, according to the president. Squamish SAR is one of the busiest teams in the province.
“We are extremely busy. One of the emerging issues is that if the call volume continues to rise, it does add another dimension of burden on the team,” said Howe.
The majority of calls are to rescue people who don’t live in Squamish and may be unprepared or not wearing proper clothing or footwear, said Chute. Some even wear flip-flops.
On a sunny day, rescue team members usually expect there will be a call. “We can guess we have a high probability of getting a call on a warm, sunny day,” said Chute. “More people are out hiking.”
For Howe and Chute, one of their biggest worries is the safety of the volunteer rescuers. “Absolutely, it’s our primary concern,” said Howe. “We work on the principal of the levels of priority…. The first level is yourself and your teammates, and the subject is third.”
“It’s a hard juggling act for us, because we never want to endanger anybody,” said Chute. “The thing that keeps me up at night is potentially putting our team in harm’s way.”
The team is very closely knitted and often have barbecues and other family events together. “We are friends, not random people…. They are a huge part of our personal lives.”
Howe said there have been “no serious injuries, ever” of a Squamish SAR member on a rescue mission.
“It has to be that way,” he said.
Recently the team rescued a speed flyer who had jumped off the third peak of the Chief. His parachute didn’t open. The man managed to get to a ledge, from which the SAR team rescued him. Howe said it wasn’t a particularly difficult mission, despite the dramatic images the public saw.
“Most people are climbers who are going out there,” Chute said of the SAR members who responded. “It’s what they do.”
It’s what Howe has been doing for more than 25 years, with no plans to stop. This week, he’s in Victoria, picking up his BC Public Safety Lifeline volunteer award. “It’s a tremendous honour,” he said. “I have been at it a long time, but the reality is that my contributions are no more significant than the rest of the team…. It’s a great honour to be recognized by your peers. It’s like the Academy Awards.”
Chute said the team is “extremely proud” of Howe’s accomplishments in Squamish.
“We know John is a true leader and visionary in Search and Rescue.”
Like others on the Squamish SAR team, he’s the kind of man you hope will be there if you ever have a heart attack or get lost in the back country.
