Climber with broken leg rescued after fall into mountain ravine near Hope, B.C.

HOPE, B.C. – A climber has been airlifted to hospital after breaking his leg in a fall on Mount Ogilvie near Hope, B.C.

Capt. Zlatko Neral of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre says the facility received a request for help around 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

Neral says the 26-year-old man was alone in the mountain ravine and proved difficult to reach for ground search-and-rescue crews.

But he says the man had a bear banger — a type of flare — that rescuers could see, and he was also able to communicate via cell phone.

Rescuers aboard a Cormorant helicopter arrived at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday and successfully extracted the man within half an hour.

He was transported to hospital in Abbotsford.