Hunter rescued in northeastern B.C.

When you’re out hunting deep in the bush, it can be tough to call for help. That’s why we’ve previously recommended satellite-based emergency locating devices as a way to make contact. Recently, a Fort St. John man was lucky he had one.

On Sunday, the Northern Rockies RCMP received a distress report through a GPS messenger from an area near the Todd River in northeastern B.C. Within a few hours of the first call, about 20 more emergency signals were received from the same location and RCMP were able to identify the owner of the unit. The signals were coming from two males who were on a hunting trip that involved travelling up the Todd River by boat before hiking up the side of a mountain.

The two men were located the following day by RCMP and the Northern Rockies Search and Rescue who spotted the hunters’ truck and boat trailer. The men were found on the side of a mountain, where the 40-year-old Fort St. John man had broken his ankle and was unable to hike out of the wilderness for help. Both men were flown to Fort Nelson, where the injured man received medical help.

According to reports, Constable Lesley Smith said the rescue was successful for a number of reasons: The two men were well-equipped and experienced, they had mapped out the area they were hunting in, and they used a satellite GPS unit, which enabled search terms to locate them quickly.

For some of the most popular models of satellite-based emergency locating devices, check out this post.