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August 29, 2020 - 2:00 PM
The parents of two teenage boys are breathing a sigh of relief after a rescue that highlights the risk that comes with local waterfalls.
Central Okanagan Search and Rescue was tasked out at around 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28, to rescue two teens who had climbed down into a canyon next to a waterfall along Canyon Rim Trail on Westside Road.
The boys, 17 and 18, were hiking the trail when they decided to climb down the canyon rim to one of the waterfalls to get a drink of water and go for a swim.
"Once they got in the water and swam around, they were carried a few metres downstream and put them in a position that they could not climb back up. An emergency call was made and the RCMP requested (search and rescue) to attend and remove them from the canyon," reads a Central Okanagan Search and Rescue press release.
The teens were located about 300 feet down in the canyon sitting on a ledge just above the water. Search and rescue attempted to remove the boys by helicopter using a rescue winch system but due to the fading daylight that was not possible.
Search and rescue then requested the assistance of the West Kelowna Fire Department technical rescue team and together we worked on removing the males from the ledge and brought them up the 300 foot cliff.
“This was a very technical rescue which took over five hours to complete and needed the combine teams to work together for this very successful outcome," search manager Duane Tresnich said in the release.
The teens were uninjured and turned over to their parents at 1 a.m.
Search and rescue responded with 14 members, the West Kelowna fire department responded with nine members, the RCMP with one member and B.C. Emergency Health Services with two members.
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