North Shore Rescue says if the man hadn't stopped and called for help when he did, he risked deadly injury

The snowboarder was not injured but had gone out of bounds into a treacherous section of terrain

NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — A snowboarder had to be rescued by helicopter after straying out of bounds on Grouse Mountain Monday.

North Shore Rescue says the man, who was alone, was able to use his cell phone to call for help.

“He realized he was out of bounds and in a really bad area,” says Mike Danks, team leader. “He was not injured, he was just in terrain that he was not comfortable in at all.”

NSR completed a long line extraction of a lost snowboarded off of Grouse Mountain this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/VRQ4vImYyp — North Shore Rescue (@NSRescue) January 21, 2020

Danks says the crew took advantage of a break in the clouds to complete the rescue by helicopter.

A Facebook post says if the man hadn’t stopped where he was, he would have risked deadly injury.

“The subject was found within a few feet of a waterfall and a snow bridge,” it reads. “The snow is extremely soft right now and likely the snow bridge would not have supported his weight had he continued, which could have been fatal.”

The snowboard was, however, a casualty of the incident. It could not be retrieved.

North Shore Rescue urges anyone similarly stranded to use their phone to make a 911 call, and to preserve the battery so a location can be pinged.