Seriously injured woman retrieved from crevasse at Skaha Bluffs park
A 50-year-old woman from the Vancouver area was sent to hospital in Kelowna with serious injuries following a harrowing seven-hour rescue Monday night from a cave in the Skaha Bluffs climbing area south of Penticton.
“This was a complex event with lots of logistics and moving parts however everyone had their eye on the objective and the teamwork was seamless,” Penticton Search and Rescue manager Randy Brown said in a press release.
PENSAR responded just before noon Monday after two people who were hiking with the victim inside the cave made it out and called for help.
The victim, whose name has not been released, had fallen into a crevasse about eight metres deep and 20 metres from the cave entrance, prompting PENSAR to call in the specialized Alberta-B.C. Cave Rescue Service.
“Over the next several hours, 14 cave rescue experts from Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland and the Interior were flown into Penticton by aircraft from the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association,” said Brown.
While awaiting arrival of the specialists, members of PENSAR and the Penticton Fire Department prepared the site with ropes, stretchers and medical equipment.
Finally, with upwards of 25 personnel on scene, the victim’s extraction began around 6 p.m., and an hour later she was airlifted to a waiting ground ambulance. After being assessed at Penticton Regional Hospital, the woman was transferred to Kelowna General Hospital due to the severity of the injuries to her head and upper body.
Alberta-B.C. Cave Rescue Service co-ordinator Doug Munroe described the mission as “challenging.”
“All cave events are a challenge and complex especially when working in confined spaces as you have low visibility, unstable rock, and then you add an injured subject to the mix and everything gets more complicated,” Munroe said in the release.
Brown estimated up to 50 emergency workers were involved in the rescue, including police, firefighters, rescuers, pilots and others.