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Coquitlam Search and Rescue was requested to help North Shore Rescue on Friday, September 18th in the search for 70-year old Barry Sharp. After searching through the night on Thursday, SAR teams from the across the region were called in to assist as the search area spread. The search continued on Saturday as several tips from members of the public who reported seeing Barry Sharp came in, and redirected search efforts. Mr Sharp was reported to have hiked the Baden Powell trail from Capilano gate area to the top of Hollyburn mountain. Late in the afternoon on Saturday, the search area was expanded to include the Howe Sound Crest trail with the reported sighting of the subject on Monday afternoon.
The search came to a sad end with the discovery of a body at the top of a 200' waterfall in the Harvey creek basin above Lion's Bay. The North Shore Rescue HETS team, assisted by an RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) member and 2 Coquitlam SAR members extracted the body. This was the fourth search that Coquitlam SAR has been involved this week; the week's effort included: - over 44 hours of task time
- 7 subjects and one dog found alive
- 1 subject found deceased
- the use of 4x4, helicopter, hover exit, long line, first aid, water resources, dog teams, rope and mountain rescue techniques.
Six of the above subjects (2 parties) ended up on steep terrain in gullies or cliff ledges, with weak cell phone contact. Neither party had any of the 10 Essentials. Had the weather been worse, or if they could not get phone contact with 911, these two searches could easily have extended into multi-day tasks like the search on Cypress Mountain, and could have resulted in equally tragic consequences.
The team would like to remind the public to take the 10 essentials and let people know where you are hiking. If you become lost, do not continue to move, especially in the dark! The Coast mountains are very steep and the terrain leads you into steep ravines that usually end in cliffs. People can no longer rely on cell phone coverage alone to help. Media: |
