A hang glider was brought to safety after crashing into a tree on Salt Spring Island’s Mount Bruce and getting stuck upside down about 20 metres off the ground.
Salt Spring Island Search and Rescue’s Jason Grindler, who manged the Monday rescue effort for the group, said Mount Bruce is one of the tallest peaks on the south side of the Salt Spring and is a popular spot for hang gliding and paragliding.
The mishap happened about 1:30 p.m. when the hang glider operator lost control after take off for unknown reasons. The complex rope rescue that followed took about four-and-a-half hours.
“Given the quite-challenging nature of the rescue and the remote area, it was relatively as quick as we could have made it,” Grindler said.
He said the search-and-rescue team responded along Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue and paramedics after the friends the man was hang gliding with called 911.
“Because a tree rescue is quite a hazardous and very specialized skill, we were able to get authorization to bring in an arborist,” he said.
The arborist, who happened to be a former volunteer for both search-and-rescue and the fire department, climbed the tree to get to the man and prepare him to be brought down.
Grindler said an important step for the arborist was to secure the hang glider to the tree, which helped reduce the possibility of “suspension trauma” — a condition brought on by the buildup of toxins while suspended.
When the restriction of blood circulation from being suspended is released “then it can all rush to your heart and cause all sorts of cardiac issues, cardiac arrest even,” he said.
A rope-based lowering system that included a harness was sent up to the arborist and the hang glider was eventually able to be lowered.
“He was able to be assessed by paramedics and ultimately was able to be discharged to his friends, some of whom happened to be off-duty nurses,” Grindler said.
He was directed to call 911 or go to hospital if he began to feel ill from suspension trauma’s effects. He also had some upper-body injuries from the time spent hanging from the tree.
“It was a fantastic team effort,” Grindler said. “It shows how well we train and work together. Great end result.”
