In May of 2006, Mark Heard—a former Canadian National Slalom Champion and veteran of many difficult and committing expeditions, including B.C.’s Homathko and Dean rivers—lost his life and narrowly got it back on Whistler’s Callaghan Creek. Steve Whittall, a member of Whistler Search and Rescue, had paddled with Heard earlier that day and got the call to evacuate him after the accident.
It was the first day of a weeklong paddling roadtrip. Kayakers from across B.C. and Alberta had travelled to Whistler and were eager to get started. With an afternoon run on the class IV Soo River under our belts, everyone was fired up for a late run on Callaghan Creek.
Timing was tight—a 6 p.m. put-in for a run that takes two to three hours. Callaghan is a class V creek in a deep basalt canyon that has undercut cliff walls and underwater caverns.
I opted out due to other commitments. The paddlers would run the river without local knowledge. A notorious underwater cave at the first rapid had trapped local paddlers before, but never with severe consequences. An easy boof at higher flows, on this low-flow day the 12-foot ledge dropped Heard, 44, onto a boil that surfed him back under the curtain and into the cave.
Unable to roll, Heard exited his boat but couldn’t swim out of the cave. After more than five minutes without air, he floated out of the cave facedown. Ian Norn was watching from an eddy immediately downstream. He clipped onto Heard with his tow system, dragged him to shore and immediately commenced CPR. Two doctors in the pad- dling group helped resuscitate Heard. They shot him with epinephrine and stabilized him as best as possible on the riverbank. The group lit a fire on the snowy ground.
Jean Bourdua hiked out to a logging road and back to his vehicle to call for help on his cell. Having difficulty describing access options to the Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) Coordination Centre and B.C. Ambulance Service, Bourdua suggested they contact me to clarify the location.
I knew that the only viable and timely evacuation from the canyon was via helicopter, but it takes time to get a mission approved by PEP and assemble the necessary manpower, helicopter and equipment. I called Search Manager Brad Sills to mobilize our response.
Within half an hour, we were in the air. In the approaching darkness, the fire proved invaluable for directing the helicopter and serving as a visual reference for the pilot. Heard was secured in an aerial rescue platform, hooked to the long-line and lifted above the tree canopy.
Scott Aitken, a local paddler and Search and Rescue volunteer, was on the end of the line. “[Heard] was thrashing, seizing. Still swimming,” he recalls. “ ‘Just lie down’ I kept saying.” Heard managed to force his arms out of the Velcro strapping of the rescue platform while in the air. “His strength…was [a large] part of his survival,” says Aitken.
Delivered to the Whistler Clinic by 9 p.m., Heard was re-warmed, intubated, stabilized and then heli-evacuated to Vancouver General Hospital.
Four years later, Heard has made a full recovery. He continues to practice as an orthopoedic surgeon in Canmore, Alberta, and still paddles whitewater.
