Two members of the Coquitlam Search and Rescue team may have been holidaying in the Bugaboo Mountains last month but they were far from off duty.
Mike Gudaitis and Kyle Skidmore were climbing McTech Arete outside of Golden, B.C., when they witnessed a climber in a separate group fall between 50 and 60 feet at around 12:30 p.m.
The pair rappelled off their route to the steep snow to meet up with the injured climber, who was accompanied by members of her group.
Skidmore built an anchor to lower the injured climber on to a safe ledge, where Gudaitis, who works as a paramedic, was able to assess her injuries.
By 3:30 p.m. Bighorn Helicopters carrying members of the Columbia Valley Search and Rescue team began to arrive, landing on a glacier. The injured woman was carried on a stretcher to the chopper and airlifted to Invermere Hospital.
Skidmore said that from the time the woman was injured to the time she arrived in hospital was about four hours.
"This is a very remote area with no cellphone coverage," he said. "It is not uncommon to have rescues in this area take multiple days."
