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Amazing Rene, absolutey amazing! Another story about snowmobilers helping those in need.
The story is from the Eagle Valley News and can be followed at
I have copied and pasted.....Helper applauded: Local man credited with successful search.
A Quebec man is doing well after plunging about 3,500 feet and spending a cold night on Eagle Pass.
Last Thursday, about 4 p.m., the snowmobile 28-year-old Jean-Francois Caron was riding went over a ridge on the Sicamous-area mountain and just kept on going down. He wound up spending the night on the mountain and was rescued sometime the following morning by helicopter.
Shuswap Search and Rescue received the call for help Thursday evening, and spokesperson Don Reed credits Eagle Valley Storage Marine and Lodge owner René St. Onge for easing the search effort and getting Caron to safety, and without injury, as quickly as possible.
“I would like to say that, in talking with René, he had a good handle on where he thought this person was, and he took the time and the care to figure it out and get GPS co-ordinates from Google Earth,” says Reed. “So, when we did manage to get a helicopter, we were able to basically fly right to him, and a lot of that was due to the work René did.”
Reed says that given the steepness of the terrain, it’s remarkable Caron suffered no injuries whatsoever. Although, according to St. Onge, the presence of wolves did make for an uncomfortable night.
“He’s in bed right now, he just got out of hospital,” St. Onge said Friday afternoon.
St. Onge says Caron had a radio and was able to keep in contact during the incident. Because of his knowledge of the area, St. Onge was able to pinpoint Caron’s location and, with the help of Arrow Helicopters from Revelstoke, and their chief pilot Matt Callaghan, St. Onge and the rescue crew were able to fly to a nearby location, land and pick Caron up.
“They flew in with search and rescue… And he was standing right there, right through the fog, it was wild,” said St. Onge. “He looked like a wet, beaten dog.”
While Caron had the radio, his avalanche gear was on a snow machine about a third of the way down the slope, said Reed, leaving the man without even matches.
“Luckily he had the radio so we were able to talk to him because we couldn’t go down to him and he couldn’t come up,” said St. Onge. “We told him that we were trying to get a helicopter to him this morning so he just spent the night there with lots of wolves around, lots of wolf tracks… But I said he was too skinny, he’s the skinniest French guy here and there’s not enough meat on him.”
Reed says it was good Caron was rescued when he was. He said it was snowing when search and rescue arrived and that it wouldn’t have taken much longer before the team wouldn’t have been able to get to him.
The story is from the Eagle Valley News and can be followed at
I have copied and pasted.....Helper applauded: Local man credited with successful search.
A Quebec man is doing well after plunging about 3,500 feet and spending a cold night on Eagle Pass.
Last Thursday, about 4 p.m., the snowmobile 28-year-old Jean-Francois Caron was riding went over a ridge on the Sicamous-area mountain and just kept on going down. He wound up spending the night on the mountain and was rescued sometime the following morning by helicopter.
Shuswap Search and Rescue received the call for help Thursday evening, and spokesperson Don Reed credits Eagle Valley Storage Marine and Lodge owner René St. Onge for easing the search effort and getting Caron to safety, and without injury, as quickly as possible.
“I would like to say that, in talking with René, he had a good handle on where he thought this person was, and he took the time and the care to figure it out and get GPS co-ordinates from Google Earth,” says Reed. “So, when we did manage to get a helicopter, we were able to basically fly right to him, and a lot of that was due to the work René did.”
Reed says that given the steepness of the terrain, it’s remarkable Caron suffered no injuries whatsoever. Although, according to St. Onge, the presence of wolves did make for an uncomfortable night.
“He’s in bed right now, he just got out of hospital,” St. Onge said Friday afternoon.
St. Onge says Caron had a radio and was able to keep in contact during the incident. Because of his knowledge of the area, St. Onge was able to pinpoint Caron’s location and, with the help of Arrow Helicopters from Revelstoke, and their chief pilot Matt Callaghan, St. Onge and the rescue crew were able to fly to a nearby location, land and pick Caron up.
“They flew in with search and rescue… And he was standing right there, right through the fog, it was wild,” said St. Onge. “He looked like a wet, beaten dog.”
While Caron had the radio, his avalanche gear was on a snow machine about a third of the way down the slope, said Reed, leaving the man without even matches.
“Luckily he had the radio so we were able to talk to him because we couldn’t go down to him and he couldn’t come up,” said St. Onge. “We told him that we were trying to get a helicopter to him this morning so he just spent the night there with lots of wolves around, lots of wolf tracks… But I said he was too skinny, he’s the skinniest French guy here and there’s not enough meat on him.”
Reed says it was good Caron was rescued when he was. He said it was snowing when search and rescue arrived and that it wouldn’t have taken much longer before the team wouldn’t have been able to get to him.
