SAR on getting injured hiker off Mt.Arrowsmith on the island

About 40 SAR volunteers from different parts of Vancouver island are on Mount Arrowsmith trying to bring down a stranded, injured hiker.

The man fell yesterday during a trek on a trail on the mountain, which is about 125 kilometers east of Port Alberni.

Search manager Paul Berry told Global News they have now reached the man after heavy rain and gusty winds got in the way of the rescue attempts last night and earlier today.

Berry says the man is in stable condition, but has fractures to his leg.

“He is now packaged in a stretcher and we are going to start the long process of bringing him down.”

Berry say the crews are now slowly carrying the man out, and they may make it out by  9 or 10 o’clock tonight.

A hiker was rescued off Mount Arrowsmith near Port Alberni early this morning after being trapped on the mountain for two nights.

The man was hiking Saturday with his wife and two dogs and was seriously injured when he fell and was stuck in a split in a rock.

“It was a pretty extensive rescue,” Paul Tasker, a maritime co-ordinator with the Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre, said today.

After a gruelling three days, at 5 a.m. today the injured hiker was aboard a Cormorant helicopter and flown to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. His injuries are believed to include a broken collarbone and ribs, and a compound ankle fracture. A Vancouver Island Health Authority spokesperson said this morningt that he is in stable condition.

Alberni Valley Rescue Squad rescued the man's wife and dogs. But wet weather and heavy clouds made it impossible for the helicopter to airlift the injured man to safety. Instead, search-and-rescue crews spent the night with the injured man.

The victim was eventually carried out on a spine board today while a fixed-win Buffalo aircraft from Canadian Forces Base, Comox, dropped flares to light the path down the mountain for rescuers, according to Tasker.

Alberni search-and-rescue crews received assistance from volunteer searchers based in areas as far away as Comox and the Victoria area. Approximately 90 people took part in the rescue.