The family of a man who was rescued from Skaha Bluffs earlier this month says the climber has a long road to recovery ahead of him. As our Taya Fast has learned, the climber suffered life changing injuries – Jul 19, 2022
Penticton Search and Rescue (PENSAR) successfully completed a long and complicated rescue earlier this week at Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park.
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PENSAR responded around 7:30 p.m. to assist in the search of an overdue climber, a 55-year-old Okanagan Falls resident.
“Police were advised that [the climber] had gone climbing in the Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park and was overdue by about seven hours,” read the PENSAR release. “Police had located the climber’s truck in the Skaha Park parking lot and requested search and rescue support to locate the climber.”
According to PENSAR search manager, Ron Berlie, 18 search and rescue members were deployed into the area at multiple access points. The climber was found at 9:30 p.m. hanging from their harness five metres from the top of the cliff climbing feature called ‘Screeching Walls’.
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“It was apparent that the climber had suffered a fall sometime in the day and due to injuries was unable to extract themselves,” said Berlie. “But fortunately, was still attached to the cliff face and in their climbing harness.”
The injured climber was found in an extremely difficult location, according to rescue crews.
“Now that we had found the subject we were faced with the most difficult part of our operation, how to rescue the subject from cliff face and bring them out of the park,” said Berlie. “With darkness upon [us], difficult access in dangerous canyon terrain and not knowing the severity of the climbers injuries added to the urgency and complexity of the rescue.”
The climber was found in a difficult area, making for a long and complicated rescue.
PENSAR / Facebook
Penticton Search and Rescue at Skaha Bluffs Provincial park.
PENSAR / Facebook
Berlie added that nighttime air evacuation was not an option at the time.
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So, the search team carried in gear to begin a rope rescue to bring the climber to the canyon where they were then assessed by medical personal and packaged into a stretcher.
For over five and a half hours, rescue personal made a “slow methodical descent” from the area using a number of rope systems.
“Our rope team and [Ground Search and Rescue] members worked methodically, with purpose and completed the task in a safe manner,” said Berlie. “We got the job done, team members were motivated and happy to have completed the rescue successfully. It’s what they train for, and we put all of our assets to use in challenging terrain and it all paid off.”