*** Boy Scout Dies on Winter Hike to Mt. Harvey ***


From: Martin Colwell  sarinfo@istar.ca
December 22nd, 1998

Lions Bay, British Columbia

 Shortly after nightfall Lions Bay Search & Rescue received an urgent call that a member of a Scout group had fallen into a snow-filled gully on the south face of Mt. Harvey (1677m), near Vancouver, B.C.. The scout was part of a group of two adults and seven boy scouts who were undertaking a winter hike up the steep, snow-covered peak.

A rapid urgent response by Lions Bay SAR and the North Shore Rescue was immediately initiated, followed by requests for night illumination flares and helicopter support from the Buffalo aircraft and Labrador helicopters of 442 Squadron in Comox, B.C.

The SAR teams were deployed from the Rescue Base in Lions Bay. A road clearing team and two hasty initial-response medical teams were despatched first, followed by two technical rescue teams. Support teams were then despatched to provide logistic support for all the forward teams. Ambulance crews were placed on standby in the village of Lions Bay.

The ground searchers found the scouts, both adults and children, at different locations up the ridgeline of Mt. Harvey. The exceptionally cold temperatures (-5C to -8C) at night on the mountain had already caused the onset of mild hypothermia in a number of cases, requiring triage to determine the most needy subjects. 

As these subjects were being treated reports were received that one of the boy scouts was trapped on a snow-covered ledge, somewhere in the Alberta Creek gully system on Mt. Harvey. He had apparently attempted to rescue his fallen comrade and became stuck on the ledge when he tried to exit across the gully wall.. Soon afterwards another report was received that an adult, who was trying to maintain contact with this boy, was also in need of treatment for hypothermia.

The two forward hasty medical teams were assigned to search for the two boys in the gulley system, while the support teams treated the scouts already found and escorted them down the frozen trail to the rescue vehicles at the trailhead.

By approximately 2130hrs the Buffalo aircraft and Labrador helicopter arrived on scene. The Labrador searched up and down the Alberta Creek drainage without success while the ground teams looked for tracks leading into this gully. Eventually the ground teams found tracks at the 1050m elevation and began to fix ropes to descend into the hard frozen snow in the gully. The gully team then found the subject's ice axe and, at about the same time as the Labrador Sartech, the body of the fallen boy scout.

An onsite review of  the situation determined that, given the icy conditions in the gully, darkness and the now critical fuel shortage in the Labrador helicopter, that the body recovery should be left until daylight for a helicopter extrication.

Meanwhile another hasty team had made contact with the boy trapped on the snow covered ledge and escorted him to the relative safety of the frozen ridgline trail. There the remaining adult, who had also become hypothermic, was treated. The adult and boy were then escorted back down the slippery trail to the waiting rescue vehicles.

Anxious parents, scout officials, medical crews, social services and stress councellors were waiting in the village for the return of the surviving scout group members, who were first examined and treated for hypothermia before being returning to their parents.

An examination of the incident will be undertaken by the Coroner's Office, the RCM Police and Scouts Canada.

RCMP File # 98-7271