Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue will be holding our annual Christmas tree chipping fundraiser in January.

We will be holding our tree chipping on the weekends of January 7th/8th and January 14th/15th from 09:00 to 16:00. The location will be at our building, 23598 105th Avenue in Maple Ridge, near Belle Morse Park and Planet Ice.

All chipping is by donation, and your generous support over the years has made this event our single biggest fund raiser of the year. Thanks go out to Bartlett Tree Experts for the supply of the chipper and truck. Hope to see you there!

A SAR Tech with the Canadian Forces was fatally injured during a rescue in Nunavut on Thursday.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/10/28/north-soldier-igloolik-death.html

While at the annual Fire Safety Days displays in both Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, we received a page from BCAS to respond to Golden Ears Park for a male who had gone over "the falls". Maple Ridge Fire was dispatched as well. Initial information from the complainant was sketchy as her cell-phone call kept breaking up and we were only able to get parts of the conversation at one time. Typically calls such as this occur at Lower Falls on Gold Creek. MR Fire was first on scene at the East Canyon Parking lot and dispatched crews up the Lower Falls trail in their Polaris ATV. Once at Lower Falls there was no sign of any one in distress. At this point SAR was sent up the West Canyon trail in the thought that the subject may be on the west side of Gold Creek. Every time we were able to make cell-phone contact, the call would be dropped. We were finally able to determine that the subject was on the Viking Creek Lookout trail. Teams were sent up and made contact with the subject and the complainant. Subject had suffered head and facial injuries after falling some 7 – 10 meters down the Viking Creek waterfall. Subject was placed in the care of BCAS and transported to hospital.

During a recent search in Golden Ears Provincial Park, a helicopter fly-by revealed why we were having problems using our Raven repeater site. It appears that the heavy snowfall and freeze-thaw cycle caused considerable damage to the com-shell. After a helicopter extraction, it was revealed that in addition to the structure, there was damage to the batteries, antenna, and solar panels. This will be a repair costing several thousand dollars and will have the repeater out of service for a considerable length of time.