North Shore Rescue: If You Get Lost Today, Will Anyone Know?

by Allen Billy

The North Shore Rescue Team has existed since 1965 and has performed thousands of search and rescue operations on the North Shore Mountains and other locations throughout British Columbia and Washington State. Team activities have assisted at least 4,500 lost or injured individuals in mountain and wilderness settings. While these operations have been featured in numerous media reports throughout Canada and other countries, there is an additional element to these operations to which few people have been exposed.

This book presents the oral history of the North Shore Rescue team. Team members, their spouses, and subjects provide unique insights, recollections and perspectives on search and rescue operations. Some stories reflect life and death struggles, others are humorous, some generate disturbing thoughts and some are politically incorrect. Nevertheless, these are the memories and stories from people involved with the most experienced, best trained, best equipped volunteer search and rescue team in Canada.

This is a book about selfless volunteers performing complex rescue operations, camaraderie under stressful conditions, lives saved, lives lost, as told by people who were involved.

These stories will be of interest to those who climb, snowshoe, ski, hike, kayak, explore or engage in any other form of outdoor recreational activity. None of these stories have ever been revealed to the general public.

Each operational story contains a lesson associated with personal safety and provides insights into what to do, or not do, when lost or injured in the wilds.

348 pages, Paperback

Published September 22, 2020

About the author

Allen served as a North Shore Rescue team member for twelve years and participated in over 700 search and rescue operations in mountain, wilderness, and urban environments. He shared a Canada 125 medal presented to the team for volunteer activities. In addition to enjoying hiking, nature studies, geocaching and metal detecting, Allen has rafted the length of the Fraser River and worked as a fire suppression crewman in central British Columbia.

Allen has 30 years of experience in post-secondary education, primarily in Allied Health and Biology education programs teaching a variety of Human Anatomy and Physiology and basic Biology courses. He served on the governance boards of the Canadian Association of Allied Health Programs and the North Shore Rescue Team Society. He has a doctorate in Zoology, the University of Texas at Austin and M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees (Zoology) from the University of British Columbia.
Currently, Allen is on-call with Alberta Education to conduct professional misconduct hearings involving teachers and superintendents.

Reviews

[Rand Ayres · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book; it brought back so many mountain memories. I live close to the Canadian Rockies, and I've scrambled over a hundred peaks. Anyone who aspires to explore mountainous areas should read this book and make it part of your training — what to do (don't go alone, learn the ropes from experienced people, be prepared because anything can and will happen, get some training, get good gear, be noisy, ...) and what not to do (wear flip flops, forget food and water, don't worry about rain, snow or darkness, go off-trail without a map or compass, don't tell anyone where you are going ... no kidding, I've seen them all and so have the North Shore Rescue folks). This book tells you mostly stories of people who screwed up and had to be rescued. Be thankful that people like Allen Billy, the North Shore Team, and all the rescue squads are around and willing to put themselves out for you. Make this book part of your mountaineering training!

[Kelsey McDonell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing! Hit really close to home. Makes me want to joint the SAR team.