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The Hiatus | Oplopanax Horridus

The course, delivered by Emergco, and taught by instructors Bill Mark and Gavin Reed, was intense, thorough, and very complete. We went through risk analysis exercises, scenarios, "dry land" training with a hoist, and live training. Even though I've done upwards of 30 missions (training and rescues combined), I found the course extremely valuable. The insight of two backcountry professionals such as our instructors was hard to beat, and I also learned from the 10 other highly experienced SAR members taking the course.

Here's some video of one of the exercises:

You can see me being picked up and slung into a rescue site. As I'm being lowered I halt, and throw a tag line which allows the ground SAR member to guide me in. The reverse is done as I'm being lifted -- I pause and release the tag line, and am slung back to the staging area.

The long line technique is not new, and has become a standard SAR tool over the past 15 years. The addition of this skill set to my SAR team is much anticipated since we've averaged 5 long line rescues per year for the past 5 years where we've asked adjacent teams to respond to our area. Having the ability to do these rescues within the team means we can respond quicker, we can use our local knowledge of the terrain and types of rescues to our advantage, our team is more familiar with the technique which improves safety, and we can also use this to make our field teams safer -- ultimately, we can rescue our own searchers if they are injured "on the job."

Related posts:

1. Helicopter Rescue Drill and Recertification
2. SAR Day 40: Rescue on Diez Vistas
3. SAR Day 39: Rescue on Eagle Ridge

Helicopter long line rescue course | Oplopanax Horridus

In 1995 I cycled across Canada. On the trip I found a T-shirt lying at the side of the highway. Since my clothes were disintegrating from sun, bug spray and sweat, I picked it up, washed it, and wore it for the rest of the trip. This is that shirt.

Related posts:

1. BC Life expectancy highest in Canada

Cross Canada shirt | Oplopanax Horridus

Now I'm not saying that they didn't go into volunteering with their eyes open, and nor did they take on those roles for the recognition. But every once in a while some attention is deserved, and that's where National Volunteer Week comes in.

April 15th to 21st 2012 is National Volunteer week in Canada.

There are over 4500 search and rescue volunteers in British Columbia, most of whom never get any recognition for their efforts. Together, these people respond to over 1000 searches a year, and devote thousands of hours to training and preparation.

I'm not talking about my team, or any of the  other high profile teams who are lucky enough to be close to the media centre of the province (Vancouver) -- we tend to get a lot of attention in the press. I'm talking about the 80+ other SAR teams. These guys are the heart and soul of SAR in BC. What's more, coming from some of the smaller towns, as volunteers they often fill more than one volunteer role in the community.

The thing about SAR is that 90% of the work is preparation; training, fund raising, gear acquisition and maintenance. Keeping your skills sharp for the few times a year that someone is in dire need of help.

This week, take some time to look around and see the work being done in your community by unpaid professionals. Even if you've never seen them in action, remember that they are there and give them some love.

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On Volunteering | Oplopanax Horridus

The major difference between this proposal and the one to put huts on the spearhead is that the former is for profit, and the latter isn't. The other difference is the gondola proposes to remove land from a Class "A" provincial park.

The group Friends of the Squamish Chief, who worked to oppose the previous proposal to build a gondola to the summit of the Chief itself, make some very good points in the following letter.

STAWAMUS CHIEF UPDATE – APRIL 4^TH

Thanks to everyone who read and replied to the message from March 24^th, and who’s been following this, and offering support!

Here’s an update on the proposed Squamish gondola, including news about the new, revived Friends of the Squamish Chief (FOSC).

Please take a few minutes to:

1. Learn more about the Stawamus Chief (Siyám Smánit), and the proposed gondola (see below).
2. Check our FaceBook page - http://www.facebook.com/FriendsoftheSquamishChief  It’s a start, and a website is in the works.
3. “Like” the FaceBook page, and share it with everyone you know who would be interested. Feel free to add a comment to the page.
4. Write to the politicians and newspapers listed below. State in your own words any concerns you have about the proposed gondola and the process that has been used to review it. Tell them where you’re from, and your connection to Squamish and the Chief.
5. Forward this message to anyone who might contribute to the discussion.

FRIENDS OF THE STAWAMUS CHIEF

Friends of the Squamish Chief (FOSC) works for the continued protection and wise stewardship of Stawamus Chief Provincial Park and area, for all the public. FOSC is based in Squamish, B.C., and includes everyone who support our goals, including Squamptonites, all British Columbians, and others. Many of us have been climbing, hiking and living at Squamish for years, and contributed to the Parks and the area. The Chief and area is internationally known for its natural and recreational values. Friends of the Chief was created in 2004, and has now been revived.

http://www.facebook.com/FriendsoftheSquamishChief - You know what to do!

THE ISSUES

A.    Land should not be removed from Class A provincial parks, such as the Stawamus Chief and Shannon Falls, except in very limited circumstances. Provincial parks, particularly those in the Sea to Sky region, have enough challenges already. What’s the point of all the effort needed to create parks, if they’re not truly protected?

B.    Land should not be removed from these parks for the development in question. It would be contrary to the values and master plans of the parks, and to the public interest, and the parks are already heavily used and highly visible. An additional, high-impact development doesn’t fit.

C.   If there is to be consideration of removing land from Class A parks, it should only be after thorough public review of a proposal by BC Parks, in context of the master plans for the parks, and their history and values. There should then be public meetings, where balanced information about the proposal is presented and public opinion sought. Those meetings, and the process, need to be inclusive of all those interested or who can contribute, and impartial.

D.   The B.C. Government and the District of Squamish should abide by the clear intent of the conservation covenant that is registered against the land where the gondola would be based, which prohibits such developments. Reliable conservation covenants are important to the people and governments of B.C., and to the work of our land trusts. Allowing anyone to “work around” such a covenant would set a dangerous precedent, and may jeopardize the acquisition by Squamish of valuable land in the heart of the Little Smoke Bluffs.

There are related matters, such as whether there are workable alternative location(s), the exact gondola route, its visual, noise, and other impacts, its benefits, the developer’s promises and holding it to them, and so on. You can read about those details on the developer’s website, and if you want comment on them. The real issue is that a gondola shouldn’t be built at all there, and if it is even considered, the process for doing so needs to be much more inclusive and impartial.

WHO TO WRITE

 

• Premier Christy Clark: premier@gov.bc.ca
• Terry Lake, Minister of Environment: env.minister@gov.bc.ca
• Joan McIntyre, MLA: joan.mcintyre.mla@leg.bc.ca
• Chief Ian Campbell, Squamish Nation: chief_ian_campbell@squamish.net
• Mayor Rob Kirkham: rkirkham@squamish.ca
• Chair Susan Gimse, Squamish-Lillooet Regional District: sgimse@telus.net
• Sea to Sky Gondola Corp.: info@seatoskygondola.com

Please send copies to:

• Vancouver Sun: sunletters@vancouversun.com
• Squamish Chief: dburke@squamishchief.com
• Globe & Mail: letters@globeandmail.ca
• Georgia Straight: letters@straight.com
• Vancouver Province: provletters@theprovince.com

Include the words “Stawamus Chief Gondola Proposal” in the title, and keep a copy for your records!

SQUAMISH-LILLOOET REGIONAL DISTRICT MEETING: APRIL 19^TH

For the proposal to proceed, Squamish-Lillooet Regional District must rezone some land at the upper end of the proposed gondola. The needed bylaw is at second reading stage, and there’ll be a public meeting at Britannia Beach Community Centre at 7:00 PM on April 19^th. It is an intermediate step in the process. It’s clear that all governments need to reconsider the proposal and the process, particularly the B.C. government and the District of Squamish. Writing letters is essential, but it will help if people attend the meeting. We understand that there will be opportunities for the public to speak, in a responsible and democratic manner. Please attend if you can. In our next message, and on the FaceBook page, there’ll be more information on the meeting, carpooling for those coming from Squamish, Vancouver, and elsewhere, and arrangements.

BACKGROUND

The Chief was made a Class A provincial park in 1995, after years of work. Its neighbour, Shannon Falls, has long been a provincial park. In 2004, Friends of the Chief, with support from many others, defeated a proposed tourist gondola to the top of the Chief. Afterward, the land where the gondola would have been based was bought by The Land Conservancy of B.C. (TLC), with funding from businesses and individuals. All agreed that the land, a gravel pit between the Chief and Shannon Falls, should be protected. The intent was either that it become part of the Parks, or used for a low-impact commercial development, but either way with a conservation covenant preventing it from being used for a gondola, or any similar development.

TLC couldn’t get the land rezoned to protect it, and BC Parks didn’t buy it. Earlier this year TLC sold the land, with a conservation covenant attached. The covenant prohibits construction of a gondola from that land to anywhere on the face of the Chief, or to a terminal in either park. Sea to Sky Gondola Corp. (http://www.seatoskygondola.com), wants to build a gondola from the gravel pit to a knoll just east of the Parks. It wants a 20 m wide strip to be removed from the middle of the Parks, so that the gondola wouldn’t contravene the covenant.

The provincial government process for considering the proposal has not addressed key issues, and has not been inclusive. Get involved as soon as you can. The District of Squamish has already approved the proposal, and needed rezoning from Squamish Lillooet Regional District has started. The developers want to start building this summer.

Stawamus Chief Provincial Park: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/stawamus/

Shannon Falls Provincial Park: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/shannon/

Sea to Sky Gondola Corp.: http://www.seatoskygondola.com/

NEWS MEDIA

Squamish Chief
http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20120330/SQUAMISH0303/303309953/-1/squamish/gondola-proposal-opposed

http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20120330/SQUAMISH0302/303309961/-1/squamish/not-a-done-deal-yet

http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20120330/SQUAMISH0304/303309951/-1/squamish/all-aboard-squamish-s-gondola

(Also http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20120323/SQUAMISH0101/303239957/-1/squamish/gondola-proposal-defended)

Georgia Straight
http://www.straight.com/article-634541/vancouver/gondola-split-chief-park

Related posts:

1. Projects in Provincial Parks
2. SAR Day 73: quick rescue in Squamish
3. BCA Tracker 2 Update

Update on the Squamish Gondola | Oplopanax Horridus

I could not help but wonder if this is at all related to the fact that BC has more SAR incidents than the rest of Canada combined, or stated another way more than half of the ground SAR incidents in Canada happen in BC.

Is our life expectancy greater because we spend more time outdoors in the backcountry? Do we have more accidents because the are just more people out there? Comments and opinions welcome.

Related posts:

1. Map of SAR Incidents in BC 2011
2. Frequency of SAR Incidents
3. Distribution of SAR Incidents in BC

BC Life expectancy highest in Canada | Oplopanax Horridus

This was not a good sign.

It was a warm spring day, and the subject had been missing for more than one day. One of the things we are always prepared for is finding the subject deceased. The fact that we had been asked to look for this individual in an wooded area in the middle of an urban centre meant that he was not considered mobile or responsive, and that he was very possibly deceased. In fact, due to other clues in the case, the RCMP suspected he had been killed.

In Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) training we're taught to consider all clues when looking for a lost person, including tracks, animal tracks, birds and smell -- scavengers are often used to locate someone who is dead. Being able to smell something this early in the search led me to believe that the subject was dead, and not far from where we were.

Several hours later we had found nothing. We had been walking through the bush in a maze of trails and trying to use our noses to find out where the smell was coming from. Of course the human nose is a pretty rough instrument, and a dog was not available until later in the day. We has resorted to doing several "closed grid" passes through the bush. This means lining up at about an arm length distance from each other and proceeding slowly forward -- painstakingly slow and methodical. We found nothing but the usual garbage you find in an urban wooded area.

There was quite a discussion among the 7 or 8 members of the team who were present about the smell and what could be the source. We figured it could be an animal. One member swore it was propane. It could also be drifting in from outside the area we had searched.

In the middle of this discussion and while we were trying to figure out what to do next, Cam, a very experienced SAR member with more than a decade on the team, known for being quire taciturn, spoke up that the smell was coming from the mushrooms that were all around us on the forest floor.

Phallus impudicus, the common stinkhorn

Some members had previously remarked on how ugly these particular fungi were, and now Cam picked one up and held it out to me as proof of his assertion that they smelled like rotting meat. Not really believing him, I leaned forward and took a sniff.

Now this was not a small, tentative sniff which you might use if you knew something smelled disgusting, as this mushroom most definitely did. Not quite believing that we had wasted most of a day looking for a smell that was coming from a plant, I took a whiff like you might when trying to detect a faint smell among other, normal smelling things.

Imagine leaning forward to take a deep smell of dog poo, and you might have a sense of the overwhelming sensation I experienced smelling this fungi. It felt like my mouth and face were filled with a vile, horrible substance. I very nearly lost my lunch and spent the next several minutes recovering from the experience.

We abandoned the area and continued the search elsewhere.

I believe the mushroom in question is known as the common stinkhorn, or Phallus impudicus. If you think the word "phallus" is familiar here, you're right; they also look disgusting, like little penises sticking out of the dirt. The top of each fungus is covered with a slimy green cap, and is often covered by flies. What's worse is the "egg" form of the fungus, which the phallus grows out of, looks just like testicles. A quick Google for images of this plant will show you many instances of this (may not be safe for work, or if you are easily disgusted).

It turns out that they are well known for their smell, and can be quite a problem if they are growing near your house. The smell is used to attract insects to the slimy green area on the plant which contains the spores -- the insects spread these. Apparently they can be eaten before they reach the "fruit" stage but I am not tempted.

Later in the week we went back to the search area with a cadaver dog (trained to search for dead people). He didn't pay any mind to the mushrooms, which led us to believe that although they fool people and flies into thinking they are rotting meat, to the dog they don't smell like a dead person.

No related posts.

Fungi and the smell of death | Oplopanax Horridus

The Issue: Accuracy

Last week, North Shore Rescue helpfully pointed out some perceived flaws in the system.

That same week, Comox Valley SAR executed a rescue where the subject's phone was a key element in determining his position, and rescuing him quickly.

And this very day Kelowna SAR is rescuing two sledders in the Myra Canyon area; their location again determined by using a cell phone's GPS.

So what's the issue; do cell phones work, as illustrated in the latter two rescues, or are the positions completely inaccurate as North Shore Rescue seems to be saying?

Well, it turns out the answer to this question is complicated.

The Cellular System

There are several systems under consideration here. The first is the cellular network. The basis of the cell phone is that the signal from the phone is tied to a tower. As you move from place to place, the signal is handed over to whatever tower's area you are moving into. The key is that the cell system knows approximately where your phone is at any given time because it knows which cell towers, and which antenna on those towers are getting the best signal. This allows the system to triangulate the position of the cell phone by using the location of the tower, the strength of the signal, and the antenna's direction.

This is explained in much greater detail in this Wikipedia article.

The position determined by the cellular network is referred to as the network position, or the rough position. It's not very accurate because it depends on a lot of different factors. It's most accurate when the towers are encircling the user, and spaced fairly evenly about the compass. It's the least accurate when there is only one tower, or they are all in one general direction from the user's location (i.e.: all to the south, or east), and they are even less accurate when the signal is weak.

The GPS System

The second system under consideration is the Global Positioning System. Many phones also have a chip that allows them to receive signals from satellites and calculate their position on the surface of the planet. The accuracy of the calculation depends entirely on the number of satellites that the phone can "see", and the quality of the signal from those satellites.

The GPS determined position is known as the "fine" position.

Phones will generally display your position on a map. Getting the phone to actually tell you the latitude and longitude is another matter. Even worse is getting the phone to tell you the accuracy of the calculation, more on that below.

Other methods

Both iPhone and Android phones have another way to determine the rough position of the phone by using the "SSID" of wireless routers and access points that are in range. This generally doesn't work in the backcountry.

Blending the two

Depending on the provider (Telus, Rodgers, Bell Mobility, Fido, etx), the type of phone (Android, Windows, iPhone, etc) and other factors the phone can use the "rough" position the assist in solving the "fine" position. This is known as Assisted GPS

Misconceptions and Misunderstandings

Most of the issues around using the signals from a position determined from a cell phone are based on misunderstandings on the accuracy of the position, some of which are promulgated by TV shows such as CSI and 24. These misunderstanding even have a name: the CSI Effect.

Network Location

When a SAR team asks the cell phone provider to get the location of the phone, the provider is probably only going to be able to get the rough network location. With some phones and some providers it is possible to get the phone's fine location, but in general the complications of how providers set up phones and how phones communicate with the network have made this an impractical set-up.

This seems to be the situation North Shore Rescue seems to be commenting on, which stems from unreasonable expectations of the network location. Even slightly remote wilderness locations such as the North Shore Mountains have spotty and marginal cell coverage, tend to be to the north of all of the cell towers, and result in very poor network locations.

The single most important piece of information to get from the mobile phone company is an estimate of the error in the position they are giving you. Without this a SAR team has no idea how accurate the position is, and how to even treat the information.

The second most important piece of information is the time that the fix was obtained by the network. If a phone is turned off in the parking lot, the network will report the last location as being where the phone was turned off. Similarly, if the phone can't get a cell signal, the network assumes the phone is still in the last place it had a good signal.

In 12 years of SAR work, only one network determined cell phone location has provien to be accurate, and that was for a phone in the middle of a built-up industrial area with perfect mobile coverage. Several locations provided by the phone companies have been 10km from where the subject was located.

Fine Location

The phone can determine it's fine location using the GPS, but it needs a good signal, and several satellites to do this. Rain, clouds, tree canopy and other factors interfere with the signal, and make the determined location less accurate.

Position (triangle) showing error (Circle); Google Maps on Android. NOTE no coordinates are displayed.

The subject would need to provide the location to the searchers, since as outlined above most providers don't use the phone's GPS to report it's position. This can introduce errors when the subject and the receiver write down the information wrong.

Each phone brand, and even different providers, have different software; some phones do not come with software that can tell you the GPS coordinates that the unit has found, and most phones don't report the accuracy of those coordinates. SAR teams receiving coordinates from a subject in the field must assume that there's some error in the location.

The error can be huge.

In one search we did last year the subject with a iPhone attempted to determine their location, only to find that the display on the phone indicated they could be anywhere within a 2km circle.

Comparison:

As a comparison, my team's recent rescue a group that had a personal locator beacon is useful. In that case, the device was built with the sole purpose of notifying Search and Rescue that the party needed assistance. Even with this device there was confusion about the accuracy of the signal, and even with a perfect signal it was impossible to reach the subjects for over 12 hours.

Summary:

1. Mobile phones have several methods to determine their location.
2. The network location is rough, and only valid when there is good signal and towers in all directions from the subject. This makes it almost useless for the backcountry.
3. The fine location also has issues with accuracy, and the phone's user generally has to report the location in some way (voice, text, email).
4. Reporting positions also induces error through transcription
5. Always attempt to determine the accuracy of the location.
6. Always take the position reported with a grain of salt since even accuracy estimates can be wrong.

Recommendations:

1. Turn off the cell phones to conserve battery.
2. Do not rely on the phone alone to determine position, get a wilderness GPS
3. If you only have a phone, learn how to get the GPS coordinate to display, and the accuracy.
4. Figure out how to send coordinates to a trusted person.

Related posts:

1. Cell phone locations
2. Why you shouldn’t use Smart Phones for Backcountry Navigation
3. Smart Phones and Battery Life

Cell phones and GPS | Oplopanax Horridus

Recently two projects have reached the"public input" stage.

A Gondola!

The first is the Sea to Sky Gondola project, a proposal to build a gondola and other infrastructure from a gravel pit next to the Stawamus Chief to a ridge on the shoulder of Mount Habrich.

I'd like to point out that the gondola will travel over park land. Much has been made of this gondola "bisecting" a park -- which is true in the sense that some lines on a map will be changed. It's probably also true that trees will be cut down in the swath below the gondola for construction.

It seems that people had no trouble when the borders of  Garibaldi Park were changed to allow Whistler/Blackcomb to expand, and expand again, and they're not up in arms at the recent 5 year renewal of heli-ski tenure in the park. From my point of view, this seems to be very similar to the gondola 90% of Vancouver can see on Grouse Mountain. Perhaps we should consider applying similar logic to all modifications of a park boundary, rather than paying attention to a rather minor change to a rather minor park.

Huts! Huts! Huts!

The second project concerns the building of a series of backcountry huts in an area known as the Spearhead Traverse (map link) in Garibaldi Provincial Park. The building of a system of huts in a class "A" provincial park is not without precedent, except for the plural -- most huts in provincial parks are simple and singular. This proposal is for a number of huts (how many is not known) in a small area (spread over 40km) next to a world class ski resort (Whistler/Blackomb is used exclusively for access and egress), in one of the busiest areas of the park which is already used for Heli-skiing and backcountry touring.

The proposal is not just for simple huts either; explicit in the plans are heat and cooking facilities. Not many other details are available. I would hope that the proponents would have posted more details on their web site by this point. I also hope that this isn't just some massive memorialising project, and that there's a real need for this much modification to an already busy park area.

Changes to the Park

Which brings me to the approaching revisions to the Garibaldi Park Management Plan. The government has been soliciting input to this process for several months. If anyone is interested, the existing management plan, approved in 1990, may give you an idea of what we're talking about. Unfortunately, the opportunity for public input is now closed (March 15th)

Related posts:

1. Garibaldi Park Management Plan Amendment

Projects in Provincial Parks | Oplopanax Horridus

Storm Whistle

The brand we use is the Storm whistle; a huge monstrosity in orange plastic that has the ability to damage your eardrums if you blow it without plugging your ears. Which is what we do when we're looking for someone in the bush around here -- the whistle blasts travel a lot further than voice, and you don't get hoarse from yelling. Hikers, however, are usually carrying the more common and popular Fox 40.

As an aside, I was surprised to learn the Fox 40 was invented by a Canadian; the whistle came about because of an embarrassing whistle malfunction while refereeing the Gold Medal basketball game at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Ron Foxcroft invented a pea-less whistle which still bears his name.

The Fox 40 comes in many colours, including a glow-in-the-dark version that we give out when we teach the "Hug-A-Tree and Survive" program to various groups. Which brings me to my point.

Fox 40 Whistle

After a whistle blast, we pause and wait for the subject to blow a whistle in return, if they have one, or to yell. So for those few seconds after a whistle blast, the entire team of three searchers stops, and listens carefully for a return. Hearing the lost person calling or whistling back to you through the dark is one of the nicest sounds a searcher can hear.

However, starting about an hour before dawn on the south coast, there's a bird that begins to call that sounds just like a fox 40 whistle. In the SAR community (at least the local one in the lower mainland), we refer to that bird as "the Fox 40 Bird" because it drives us crazy. For that period of time just before dawn, it makes whistle blasts almost useless because every bird sounds like a distant subject blowing their whistle in return, except presumably the subject would be blowing more frantically.

Not being a bird expert, I can't be certain of the following, but I went to the trouble of trying to identify the bird that makes this noise. I think it's the Varied Thrush. You can hear the sound it makes on this web site, just under the "Identification" section.

The Varied Thrush

It's a pretty common bird; by the picture I recall seeing it myself many times.

If anyone has any more learned insight into this, feel free to comment.

No related posts.

The Fox 40 whistle and bird calls | Oplopanax Horridus