Kananaskis Public Safety preforming rescues from the office
The upside of our conected lives.
If you recreate the Rockies back country you have heard of Kananaskis Public safety. These folks might be one of the busiest search and rescue organizations in our mountain parks. Kananaskis country being a short drive from the large population base of Calgary and Edmonton gets a large amount of weekend warriors visiting all year round. This leads to a large call volume for KPS. While long line helicopter rescues or search parties for overdue hikers are the bulk of their business they have been getting creative with their efforts as of late. Sometimes the most efficient and cost effective way o execute a rescue is skip dispatching the crew and helicopter in the first place.With advances in technology and better cellphone coverage KPS has been able to help stranded hikers via text and photo messenging.
On Friday a group of two hikers were lost on their decent for the popular Heart mountain scramble. A Kananaskis Public Safety specialist, through an exchange of texts and photos was able to coach the lost party from their perch and back to the correct descent ridge. Never having had to dispatch anyone the hikers continued on to safety while KPS were able to save man hours and operating costs. Just another way KPS continues to do a fantastic job keeping us safe and recreating the back country.
Stranded. KPS Facebook photo.
Ridge to safety. KPS Facebook photo.
Kananaskis Public Safety keeps all their facebook followers in the know with consistent updates of the goings on in K-Country. They provide weekly back country condition videos during the winter months and post a number of other tips and information all season long. So if you haven't already like them on Facebook here.
https://www.facebook.com/KCPublicSafety?fref=ts
* Update *
From the KPS Facebook feed this morning, a second text rescue.
"Another successful "Text" Rescue last night on the third sister. Two hikers strayed away from the trail and were again, coached back onto the trail and down to their car without incident!"