A snowmobile rider near Revelstoke was saved from what could have been a fatal incident after being buried on Monday evening when a local guide came to his rescue.
“Our team is super proud of our guide on scene,” said Great Canadian Tours in a Facebook post on Monday night about the incident.
After a day of riding, snowmobile guide Olivier Meilleur’s crew was heading back to the Boulder Mountain Cabin to start the ride down the mountain when they spotted a group who had their probes out.
The group was searching the snow in the Sugar Bowl region of the Boulder Mountain Snowmobile Trails that run throughout Boulder Mountain, west of Revelstoke.
The post said that immediately when Meilleur saw the other riders off their sleds with probes in hand, he jumped into action and quickly traversed over to help assess the situation and lend a hand in the search.
The group said that a rider was buried beneath the snow and they could not get a signal from his beacon and couldn’t find him.
“Our guide (Meilleur) quickly takes over the scene, locates the subjects signal and get his buddies to start digging to find him,” said the post.
The group found the rider 1.5 meters under the snow. He was unconscious and cyanotic, which is a medical term for when skin turns blue from a lack of oxygen in the blood.
Once the rider was extracted from the snow and laid down, he began to breath again, to the relief of the riders.
Using hot water in bottles and the seats of the machines, the group was able to insulate the rider until Revelstoke Search and Rescue arrived, which took less than half an hour.
“Your legend status is on hold atm [at the moment] you’ll just have to settle for hero tonight,” said Kirk Murray in the comments.
“No hero just the right place at the right time bud,” replied Meilleur.
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