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Night-vision goggles and equipment are typically reserved for military and police use.
“This pilot project is the first of its kind in Canada for volunteer search and rescue groups, and I look forward to being able to provide search and rescue experts another tool to make their job safer and easier,” Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said in a release earlier this month.
For the group, it’s been a three-year odyssey to get to the training lesson turned rescue mission, Danks said.
The experience of finding the hikers an hour before they were reported missing validates the project, he added.
“That was the first time we’ve ever found two people before they were reported missing,” Danks said.
The search and rescue group has had a record-breaking year for the number of calls they’ve assisted on, 146 to the previous record of 144 in 2018.
On average, the group responds to 90 to 100 calls a year.
The two snowshoers, both men in their 30s, had inadvertently followed a wrong trail, ending up at what Danks described as a “pretty significant” waterfall.
The rescue team was able to deposit some supplies to help the hikers while a ground crew was sent in to lead them back out to safety.
The long-term goal for the group is to be able to hoist stranded people at night, using the night-vision equipment to locate them.
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