North Shore Rescue airlifted Grouse Mountain hiker

In the early hours of Wednesday, the North Shore Rescue (NSR) team airlifted an injured hiker from Grouse Mountain.

The NSR says in a statement posted on Facebook that the hiker was stuck in steep terrain, northwest of the Grouse Tram.

Due to night conditions and the difficulty of the terrain, NSR’s ground and air response teams had a hard time locating the person.

The helicopter team eventually located the hiker by identifying “a faint glow emitted from the subject’s watch.”

As the hiker’s location was inaccessible for the ground response team, two hoist technicians were deployed to reach the hiker from the helicopter.

However, the steep terrain and vegetation caused the helicopter to have only limited rotor clearance, which made the rescue effort quite challenging.

One technician had to descend approximately 150 feet to access the subject.

North Shore Rescue airlifted Grouse Mountain hiker. (NSR)

The subject says he had fallen to the position and came to rest on a small ledge supported by a tree.

“Directly below this ledge was an estimated 100-foot vertical cliff, which would likely have resulted in severe injury or fatality had the subject continued to fall,” the post read.

NSR says teams wrapped up by 3 a.m.