nsnrescue Members of North Shore Rescue make their way to Black Mountain in West Vancouver. photo supplied instagram.com/northshorerescue/
By land, by air and by sea, rescue volunteers from North Shore Rescue and Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue had their work cut out for them over the Canada Day long weekend, including saving one woman suffering a bad acid trip on a mountaintop.
A group of young women from Seattle dropped LSD early Sunday afternoon and decided to hike to Eagle Bluff on Black Mountain. But by 8 p.m., other hikers on the trail noticed things were going badly for them and called 911.
“One of them was having a very bad trip and a very bad day,” said search manager Doug Pope. “(She) was screaming, yelling incoherently and was quite violent as well…This girl was in real difficulty. She was going in and out of consciousness and needed to be evacuated.”
Pope dispatched a team with an ER nurse, a physician, and two West Vancouver police officers. By the time they arrived, the woman had “come down” from her psychedelic crisis but she and her companions still needed an escort out to a waiting helicopter. Even if they had their heads straight, they were not prepared for the hike, especially with rain and temperatures just above freezing on Sunday night, Pope noted.
“I explained to them that hiking and drugs don’t mix. They were putting themselves in a life and death situation,” Pope said.
