At 3:45 pm on Monday afternoon the Bowen Island Fire Department got a call from dispatch telling them to meet the RCMP on Hiker’s Trail to help out hikers on Mt. Gardner. Fire chief Ian Thompson says he immediately called the RCMP’s Chris Coulter and learned that two hikers from the city, who had started up the mountain at 10am that, had called for help from the radio tower as they were uncertain about their ability to get down safely.
Thompson called North Shore Search and Rescue to ask whether they would be willing to fly over to get the hikers.
“They said no, as it would set a bad precedent to use the helicopter to get people who were basically tired,” says Thompson. “They did offer to send over a team of three to hike up the mountain and help the hikers, but by the time they would’ve made it over to Bowen our guys would’ve been up the mountain, so we said no to that.”
Fire fighter Colin Kerr says he met at the fire hall around 4pm. After being briefed on the situation he rushed home to get gear and proceeded to tackle Mt. Gardner from the Laura Road entrance.
“I brought snowshoes with me, but that side of Mt. Gardner had much less snow than the north side, and I didn’t need to use them until the last third of the mountain,” says Kerr. “I started hiking just before 5, and made it to the top around 6pm.”
Meanwhile, Ivor Kerr, Colin’s brother, brought his two snowmobiles up to Hiker’s Trail Road. Ivor and Alex Clayton snowmobiled up to the end of the skid road, and started following the footprints in the snow left by the hikers earlier in the day.
Colin Kerr helped the hikers down along the Mt. Gardner loop trail.
“One of the guys was okay, but the other one was extremely tired and really didn’t want to be on his feet,” says Kerr. “But we met up with Ivor and Alex within about 40 minutes, and from there it was smooth sailing.”
Ian Thompson says he brought the two hikers to their car at 7:15, and they took the next ferry off Bowen.
“They were both well equipped and prepared to be out there for the day,” says Thompson. “They had lighters, food, waters, cellphones and a hand-held radio. The smartest thing they did though was call from the top and stay there, because if they had tried to make their way down and gotten into trouble it could’ve been a lot more challenging to get to them and help them out.”
