Written by Chris Ludwig

Created: 08 May 2016

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May 8, 2016

Victim crossing creek in Lynn Headwaters dies after striking head on rock - BC Coroner

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/norvan-falls-hiker-cardiac-arrest-north-shore-rescue-1.3573000

2020 Commentary

In summer of 2015, BCMC volunteer trail maintainers restored access to the heritage Darling Lake Trail. As a safety requirement, a steel handline was rigged above a log spanning the east fork of Skookum Creek (the so-called Paranoid Creek). In August, park rangers enjoined Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations to stop people entering the park from using the safety line. The BCMC was threatened by Compliance and Enforcement officers with jail and imprisonment if they did not remove the safety cable. Reluctantly, the BCMC was forced to comply.

The unfortunate accident in Lynn Headwaters at Norvan Creek is exactly what the BCMC was trying to avoid. But for BC Parks and Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations it is a warning to keep out of Garibaldi Park using Darling Lake Trail. The threat of death and personal injury is a blunt tool to enforce their management direction, which is to coerce people to use one of the five "sanctioned" trailheads in Garibaldi Park. The closest one to Darling Lake is Diamond Head, two or three days march away.