If it’s raining in Jasper, it’s snowing on the mountains.

So when it rained in Jasper last Wednesday, a pair of unsuspecting climbers found themselves in about 30 centimetres of snow on the east ridge of Mount Edith Cavell.

The female, 26, and male, 23, had began climbing the popular route about 5 a.m. in the morning in hopes of reaching the summit the 3,363 metre tall mountain.

According to Max Darrah, public safety specialist for Jasper National Park, the route can be a little deceiving and is often much longer than expected.

“The east ridge is a long route that often catches people off guard,” he said noting that these climbers were about half way up the ridge at around three-thousand metres.

However, due to the bleak weather conditions that rolled in, “they couldn’t go up and they couldn’t go down,” he said.

After calling friends in Fort McMurray, the climbers activated their spot beacon which automatically alerts the public safety team to their exact co-ordinates.

“It’s good that they realized that ‘okay we’re in a bit over our heads here and the safest thing is to get help’,” he said.

Although they activated their beacon, the public safety crew had already been alerted to their situation by their friends.

“We already had the helicopter pilot getting his cover-alls on,” said Darrah who explained that there was a few options for rescuing the pair.

“The wrinkle of the whole situation was that there was quite a bit of cloud cover, so visibility was pretty poor,” he said.

Given the less than ideal conditions, Darrah said their options included dropping a duffle bag full with overnight gear so they could stay on the mountain, dropping a member onto the mountain to descend with them, or have a rescuer sling in there and sling out with them together.

The latter was the preferred option, he said as they still had a couple of daylight hours left.

“So, we located them first, flew by the east ridge and they did a really good job at making themselves visible,” he explained noting that public safety manager, Steve Blake, had been speaking to them - telling them not to move and found out what equipment they had so that the rescuer knew exactly what to expect.

After spotting the stranded climbers, Darrah said the skilled helicopter pilot actually tried to land on the ridge but there just wasn’t a flat enough spot.

“Steve made a decision that the best technique was to send one rescuer in and with the plan to stay attached to the helicopter, clip into them and fly out as one group,” explained Darrah.

So, they headed back the Cavell Meadows where they set up for a heli-sling rescue.

“I swung into them and had to climb up a short ways to check their harnesses and that they weren’t attached to the mountain. Then we flew out as one group,” he said.

With the climbers attached, Darrah flew off the mountain and eventually returned them to the parking lot where they’d begun their 14-hour journey earlier that day.

“They were cold... they’d been sitting there for quite awhile,” he said, “during the whole operation they were very co-operative and just let us do our work and that attributed to the success of the operation.”

“They were happy to get to the parking lot,” he added.

For Darrah, who’s been working in the field for three years, the whole operation felt calculated and rehearsed. “It feels like we’re prepared for that,” he said noting that “after shaking their hands and we’re flying back to town – that for me is when that good feeling is allowed to creep in.”

“We focus a lot of energy on these rescues and it feels good to do it efficiently and safely,” he added.

According to the rescuer, the climbers were well prepared and had taken the right equipment – especially the personal locator beacon which he believes is “quite an asset to climbers and people in the back country, because we get their actual co-ordinates.”

However, he did stipulate that being prepared to spend at least one night in the mountains is always a good rule of thumb and would have meant this rescue wouldn’t have had the same urgency.