Cliff jumper dies despite rescue attempt in Lynn Canyon

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A 21-year-old man has died in a cliff jumping accident, prompting a warning from rescue crews not to take these risks as a way to cool off as a heat wave settles over Metro Vancouver this weekend.

On Wednesday evening, North Shore Rescue crews were called out to the Twin Falls Bridge area of Lynn Canyon. According to the NSR, firefighters with the District of North Vancouver had already retrieved the patient from the water. The person was treated by paramedics before being hoisted into an NSR helicopter for transport to hospital.

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Rescue crews said the person was in critical condition, which would have made ground extraction difficult.

Dave Barnett, NSR search manager, said he was told the young man wasn’t a strong swimmer, and that he was in the water for about half an hour.

He said the pools have strong currents and steep, slippery slopes making it difficult to get out. Twin Falls is near the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge and is accessed by a bridge over a fast-moving creek.

NSR responded with two of its advanced medical program personnel (an emergency room nurse and a physician) and rescue personnel in Talon Helicopters, according to the NSR. Crew members provided care with paramedics and fire personnel and then hoisted the patient into the helicopter for transport, NSR said.

The helicopter team landed at the Helijet harbour terminal in Vancouver and transferred the person to ambulance for transport to VGH.

However, the patient died en route to hospital.

“With the coming hot weather, this call serves as a good reminder of the dangers inherent in and around the water — and cliff jumping in particular — in Lynn Canyon and the other creek/river gorges and cliff areas throughout North Vancouver and Metro Vancouver,” NSR said in a post on Facebook.

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“Yes, the water can be cool and inviting, but far too many deaths and serious injuries have resulted from even the slightest miscalculation. For your own safety, please consider an alternative method of cooling off this weekend and this summer.”

On Friday afternoon at the popular tourist attraction at Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, there were hundreds of hikers and sightseers snapping photographs and selfies from the suspension bridge and from the stationary one called the Twin Falls Bridge.

The trails were bordered by fencing to prevent access to the rocks and water below, and there were signs warning of the dangers of cliff jumping and listing the number of deaths and injuries in the park — almost two dozen deaths between 1985 and 2016, and more than three dozen injuries between 2011 and 2015.

Signs depicted skull and crossbones symbols and bandaged heads, with the warning: “Don’t cliff jump.”

Over the last decade, 355 people have been critically injured from falling or jumping from a cliff, mountain or high point outdoors. Between 2012 and 2022, there were 25 cliff jumping deaths in B.C., according to the B.C. Coroners Service.

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Two uniformed park rangers from the District of North Vancouver arrived Friday with tools to mend a hole in the fence leading to the rocks below that previously had been patched with plastic netting.

“We live just up there, we were just having dinner when we heard the helicopter,” said Deb Fayle, who was walking with her two sons over the Twin Falls Bridge where the young man went into the water. “It hit home.”

“There’s always a risk,” said Matthew Fayle, 23, who says he has — safely — jumped in the nearby 30-foot pool because it’s a shot of adrenalin. “You just want to negate the risk as much as you can.”

He said beside the obvious risks of hitting a rock or other object, even hitting the water can be dangerous.

“A lot of people don’t realize the water can hurt you because of the water pressure,” he said.

Tobin Fayle, 19, said the news of the death wouldn’t change his behaviour because he doesn’t cliff dive although he has seen others doing it.

About a 20-minute walk to the 30-foot pool, which included views of small waterfalls and swirling eddies among the rocks, there were a few people sunning themselves on the boulders in the shallow water.

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Meantime, Mounties in Agassiz also issued a water safety reminder on Friday after several swimmers needed to be rescued from Harrison Lake.

Officers were training on the lake Wednesday when they noticed a group of people on flotation devices who had been pushed away from shore by the wind. They had become exhausted from swimming and officers had to throw them a line to tow them to safety.

The RCMP urge people heading out in the water to wear personal flotation devices, especially those who aren’t strong swimmers or are children. They also ask that people also be aware of cold water risks and whether there are fast-moving currents.

Dr. Michael Schwandt, a medical health officer at Vancouver Coastal Health, told Postmedia News last summer that cliff jumping is dangerous due to underwater hazards like rocks that may not be visible from the surface. The depth of the water can also change depending on the tide or the season.

Slamming into rock or other objects from a height can lead to bone and vertebrae fractures, spinal injuries and concussions — conditions that can have serious, long-term effects, said Schwandt.

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Heavy water flow and rocky terrain can also make rescue attempts difficult. In 2018, three members of a popular YouTube travel blogging collective died after being swept into one of the pools at Shannon Falls in Squamish.

Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Megan Scraper hiked up to the pools to swim. When Scraper slipped and fell 30 metres, Lyakh and Gamble tried to save her but were all also swept away by the fast-moving water.

With files from Cheryl Chan

ticrawford@postmedia.com

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