Pair of Injured Sledders Rescued

Update: 9 a.m. March 13:

Vernon Search and Rescue was called out to rescue two injured snowmobilers yesterday….one near Blue River, the other on Hunter’s Range near Enderby.

Canada’s only helicopter winch rescue unit based in Vernon was involved in both.

A man suffered a broken leg in the Blue River, the helicopter unit called by Clearwater Search and Rescue to extract him.

The other man severely injured his back on Hunter’s Range, where Vernon S & R already had a ground crew on scene to direct the winch crew to the location in very bad weather conditions.

“We were very blessed in that we had a couple of our search members already on the mountain. They were able to go in and give us a fairly assessment of what the situation was.”

Pete Wise from Search & Rescue says many sledders continue to fail to educate themselves operating safely in the back country.

“He was from what we gather was fairly severely injured. He injured his back. The guys, I don’t know, are dropping like flies out there, they’re not paying attention or whatever.”

Search officials are becoming frustrated over the number of snowmobilers they are being forced to find or save lately.

“We have such an issue with snowmobilers and its the same thing every year, every winter, it goes on and on. It’ll be this way now until we start slowing down in the high country.”

Both men were successfully flown out and taken to hospital for medical attention.

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Vernon Search and Rescue was called out to rescue two injured snowmobilers yesterday….one near Blue River, the other on Hunter’s Range near Enderby.

The helicopter winch rescue unit was involved in both.

A man suffered a broken leg in the Blue River rescue and the only winch rescue unit in Canada was called by Clearwater Search and Rescue to extract him.

The other man severely injured his back on Hunter’s Range, where Vernon S & R already had a ground crew on scene to direct the winch crew to the location in very bad weather conditions.

Both were successfully flown out and taken to hospital for medical attention.