Injured teen airlifted off Yamnuska

A teenaged hiker is in Canmore General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries after falling approximately 20 to 30 feet off an iconic Kananaskis mountain Thursday (July 14).

Emergency crews responded to the injured 17-year-old male at Mount Yamnuska, 20 kilometres east of Canmore, around 1:30 p.m. and he was heli-slung to a waiting ground EMS team.

“(He) was doing the traverse and on the front side there he took a fall and basically fell down the scree,” said Andy Rees, district conservation officer for the Bow Valley.

“He may have fell 20 or 30 feet, maybe even less."

“He had head lacerations and some other lacerations to the body, nothing too serious, but he definitely needed to be (evacuated) out of the area."

It’ s suspected the teen didn’ t break any bones, but he will be assessed at the hospital.

The teen was in a group of seven or eight hikers at approximately 6,000 feet when the incident occurred. The group was able to get cellphone reception and make a distress call.

An Alpine Helicopter, Kananaskis Public Safety specialists, conservation officers, EMS and Exshaw Fire and Rescue responded.

Rees says the low wind speed made for a much smoother air rescue for the specialists.

As a general reminder, emergency crews would like to tell people going into the backcountry to be prepared with items such as food, proper clothing and being equipped to make a fire and to build a shelter.

“Make sure they have proper footwear and proper clothing,” said Rees. “If they get in trouble, they need to be able to look after themselves for 24 hours because there’ s times where we can’ t get to someone for up to 24 hours because of weather and distance from the front country.”