A SERIES WORTH SAVING

In B.C.’s Lower Mainland, no group is as revered as the volunteer members of North Shore Rescue. Like the fabulous Ghostbusters, NSR members, spiffily attired in their red Arc’teryx team jackets and perforated lightweight climbing helmets, swing into action with each incoming 911 call for lost skiers, snowshoers, hikers, trail runners and, yes, even lost dogs.

Last winter, B.C.’s Knowledge Network (Ontario readers can think

TVO, but without the politics) aired the five-part Search and Rescue: North Shore series to adventure lovers forced indoors by the pandemic. Shot in glorious 4K HD by Grant Baldwin, it’s an intimate look at not only critical-incident situations that require dangling from North Shore Rescue’s signature yellow Talon helicopter, but the amount of professional-level training that these volunteers go through. These highly skilled professionals can also be medical doctors, software engineers and home builders, many with young families, whose volunteer efforts save lives while putting their own at risk.

If ever there’s a place that could be defined as a “terrain trap,” it’s the steep, powder-choked gullies that live beyond the boundary ropes at Cypress Mountain and Mount Seymour. Not everyone—man nor his best friend—makes it out alive, and one episode tackles the mental anguish that accompanies digging out a buried victim after an exhausting search.

Part docudrama and part reality show, Search and Rescue: North Shore is great fun to watch and will definitely make you think safety while planning your next backcountry trip. The show can be streamed via the Knowledge Network’s website. Baldwin and NSR have dropped the odd hint that there might be a Season 2 coming up.

_STEVEN THRENDYLE