Hiking along the Diez Vistas trail near Buntzen Lake one Sunday in July, a young couple took a break at the third vista to get a rest and a better look at the view. They set down their two-year-old, who was strapped in a child carrier. It was an understandable thing to do on that hot, sunny day.

Then the unthinkable happened.

The carrier tumbled over, taking the child with it. The tot took a blow to the head, leaving a wound that began to pour blood.

Fumbling for their cell phone, the worried parents alerted rescue authorities. Although they were in the middle of a forested trail, two hours from the nearest accessible road, they didn’t have to wait long.

A helicopter dispatched from Vancouver International Airport’s south terminal in Richmond raced to the scene and two trained Coquitlam Search and Rescue volunteers, one a doctor, climbed out of the hovering craft and hiked up the trail to tend to the child.

The wound turned out to be minor and the rescue team, along with the parents and child, hiked down the trail to a staging area where all were picked up by the rescue team’s Argo all-terrain vehicle and transported to an ambulance at Buntzen Lake.

The call, one of 30 tasks carried out by the 40-member team this year, was concluded successfully, recalls Bill Papove, a mapping specialist who is also president of Coquitlam Search and Rescue.

The reason? Training, and lots of it.

Every Tuesday and on many weekends, members of the volunteer rescue team train to be fit, prepared and as professional as possible for the next rescue mission.

“We really never know what situation is going to present itself to us so we need to be trained in all areas,” said Papove. “Every scenario is different and we need to keep our skills up.”

The rescue organization, which gets money from gaming, private donations and provincial grants, pays for its own training, including the costs of a helicopter and pilot, seen as crucial to many rescue missions.

First aid, rope and swift water rescue are among the many training opportunities for the group, with members, many of them with five-year and longer service records, taking courses more than once.

The training is crucial, Papove said, because members will be called out in all weather, at any time of day and in all types of terrain. With a territory that extends from Indian Arm to the Fraser River and the Pitt Lake, including all inland waterways and local mountains, Coquitlam SAR covers some of the most varied and difficult terrain in the region.

Consequently, the members, who tend to be avid outdoors people and come from all walks of life, benefit from the constant training, including practising for rescues by helicopter, Papove said.

During one recent training day, for example, members of Coquitlam SAR practised loading a stretcher onto a hovering helicopter. The steep terrain in wilderness areas around the Tri-Cities makes it difficult to land a chopper, so rescuers need to be able to load a stretcher while it’s off the ground.

Team members learn during training that communication is critical to avoid disaster on a narrow precipice or trail. A team captain is assigned to communicate with the pilot, who indicates, usually with a nod of his head, that it’s okay to load the stretcher.

It’s gently manoeuvred into position, three members on each side, to avoid de-stabilizing the craft. Once on board, the stretcher is strapped down and the patient secured so nothing falls out of the open doors as the helicopter takes off.

And “all those things have to be done quickly and properly,” Papove explains.

In the rescue business, practice makes perfect. Training days — where members practise mid-air loading and more — ensure that every answered call ends in a successful mission.

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it