Snowboarder ‘very lucky’ after getting lost, rescue official says

VANCOUVER — A 27-year-old Vancouver man got lucky after snowboarding out of bounds from the Cypress ski resort and eventually getting to safety on his own, a search-and-rescue official says.

“He was uninjured, very lucky, but he lost his snowboard,” North Shore Rescue team leader Mike Danks said on Friday.

“Typically, people go out of bounds there and get caught by darkness without a light source and continue to try and get down to the ocean. More often than not, they encounter cliffs. The terrain is very, very steep and they fall off.”

Danks said the incident happened about noon Friday as two Vancouver snowboarders, both 27, went out of bounds off the west side of the ski area and into the area of Montizambert Creek.

“For some reason, they separated,” Danks said. “One of them made it out by going back uphill, which was a great decision, but the other continued downhill.” He told his friend that he’d see him later, Danks added.

Danks said the snowboarder who was headed downhill ended up at the top of a waterfall, where other snowboarders have fallen off. “He recognized the danger … and called 911 to West Vancouver police, saying that he would continue down.

“He started to traverse around the waterfall and found an escape route that we’d made there.”

Danks said the man made it safely to the highway about 1:30 p.m. after North Shore Rescue had dispatched two field teams into the area along with an aircraft. “They were stood down.”

The moral? “Don’t go out of bounds,” Danks said. “It’s still winter conditions.”