From an article about a snowboarder who was lost for a couple days:

Boucher said he survived the freezing nights in the hazardous North Shore wilderness, in part, by using his own urine in a Ziploc bag as a kind of hot water bottle.

Seems pretty clever to me.

A $10,000 bill for rescue... bet he was p*ssed about that!

How does that old saying go? "Don't give me a p*ss bottle and tell me it's hot water!"



But seriously, not a bad move on his part. If you're going to give up that heat anyway, might as well get some of it back.

Based on the title, I assumed the post was going to involve a Ton-Ton.

-john

That's another aspect of this story altogether. That the hill is going against the recommendations of the SAR group doesn't sit too well with me. I also wonder if such a bill would be enforceable.

I wasn't able to find much yet about Boucher's response to the bill, other than this (from the same article): "... he is aware he might get a bill from Cypress Mountain to help pay for his rescue, but committed only to raising money for the North Shore Search and Rescue Society."

Oh ... and I did get & enjoy the pun despite my first, humourless response

Glad he is OK and Kudos to all.

What could he have carried?

handwarmers 2/$5

signal mirror and whistle $15

Spare food/ water $10

walkie talkie $40

Emergency "space" blanket $10

GPS $120

or

Cost for rescue $10,000

Don't forget a PLB for $240.

After watching the video at the top of the article, I'm willing to cut him some slack. He says that he was notified of his best friend's death on the way to the mountain and left his backpack behind even though he brought it to the mountain with him. As he said, he probably should have just turned around and gone home instead of continuing with his day given his emotional state.

That said, you are absolutely correct, some simple, relatively inexpensive gear would have gone a long way to improving his situation.

As always, the story presented is not always what it seems. Yes this man lost a friend and yes he may of left his backpack behind. However the claim that he was distracted and simply took a wrong turn is far from the truth...

I know the area he was in and there is are plenty of warning signs etc posted.

A rep from the ski resort stated this also: Koeman (of Cypress Mountain) said that in order to end up where he did, Boucher, 33, of West Vancouver, had to have ignored and disobeyed a series of warning signs and then either climbed over or crawled under a boundary rope.""

Also on another local forum, much the same:

"There are signs, gates, notices. Cypress can't do more other then close sky chair." (the lift.)

Luckily for this man, the local SAR rescued him and with all SAR teams, The risk is very high, but they do it anyway.