Penticton and District Search and Rescue was called out to an incident involving a biker on the Three Blind Mice mountain bike trail system in the Naramata area.
Kelvin Hall, PENSAR manager, said the team was stood down while enroute to assist the Oliver and Osoyoos search and rescue’s request for mutual aid on a rope rescue of stranded hikers only to be called out around 2 p.m. to help an injured female biker.
Hall said the mountain biker was on the Bronco trail in the south east corner of the Three Blind Mice trail when the incident occurred.
“The quick response to the rescue was aided by injured parties companions utilizing a mobile application called TrailForks – Mountain Bike to alert emergency officials and send rescuers the injured parties exact location,” said Hall.
Due to the injuries sustained and the the terrain, Hall determined that in the best interest of the patient that a ground stretcher team extraction would not be appropriate and deployed PENSAR’s helicopter long line extraction to lift the subject out of the area to an awaiting ambulance.
READ MORE: Two people injured on local trails
Hall reinforced that anyone going into the backcountry to to load the free app TrailForks – MountainBike whether you are riding a mountain bike, hiking or four-wheeling.
“Over the past few years rescuers have been aided locating injured parties who have been able to deploy the emergency alert tab on the TrailForks application which pinpoints the exact location of the injured subject to rescuers,” he said.
According to the Oliver and Osoyoos Search and Rescue team, the fire department members were able to walk the stranded hikers out of the situation they were in on the initial call for a rope rescue. The fire department said there were no injuries and reminded that hikers need to be prepared when they venture out and know their limits.
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