Dramatic rescue in Penticton Creek canyon

“FILTHY, SOAKED AND SAVED A LIFE”

PENTICTON – Search and Rescue volunteers helped save the life of a woman who tumbled 75 metres in the Penticton Creek canyon last night.

Local search and rescue crews were called out at about 8:30 p.m., July 24, to rescue the 54-year-old Penticton woman who had been hiking on a trail with three others near the Sendero Canyon Development east of the city when she fell down the extremely steep slope, according to a media release.

They found the woman wedged between a tree and a large boulder with severe leg and head injuries.

As the volunteers worked to stabilize the injured woman they realized she needed more urgent care.

Search manager Dale Jorgensen called Canadian Armed Forces Rescue Squadron in Comox for help.

It was 2:30 a.m. by the time the RCAF Cormorant rescue helicopter arrived from the base and lowered a pair of rescue technicians to the victim.

“Once stabilized the female subject was packaged and evacuated out by air with the two SARTECHs by her side and flown to Kelowna General Hospital,” Jorgensen says in the media release.

“This was a extremely difficult and challenging rescue considering the distance the subject was from the top of a 300 foot slope with an angle of 70 degrees,” he says. “Mixed with a severely injured subject, lack of light and rain showers we were grateful that 442 Squadron was able to fly over and assist.”

Jorgensen says one of the members of the local Search and Rescue High Angle Rescue Team commented, “Filthy, soaked and saved a life.”

No word on the victim’s current condition.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.