The Jasper National Park (JNP) public safety crew continued their successful record this summer with two concurrent and successful rescues last Monday Aug. 31. “The summer on average has been a fairly busy one... it’s been a positive one though. A lot of this stuff has had serious potential but people have been relatively unscathed,” said Steve Blake, public safety crew manager for JNP.

The first rescue was an Edmontonian man who was found walking alone near Cabin Lake, just north-west of Jasper townsite.

The 36-year-old had been camping at Snaring Campground before heading off for a bike ride, alone, on the Pyramid Bench.

When the man was found by two other people, he had no sense of where he was, said Steve Blake, public safety manager for Jasper National Park (JNP).

“He came across two other people, so that’s why he was with them, but he was maybe walking around up there for a couple hours by himself,” he explained.

“He was dazed and confused,” he added noting that the rider was unable to share the details of his accident with rescuers due to his memory loss. The man sustained a concussion and facial abrasions, which led rescuers to assume he fell on his head and crashed.

“He has facial abrasions, so it’s apparent that he fell and hit his head,” said Blake, “but we have no idea what the nature of the crash was.”

Luckily for the man, the Cabin Lake fire road meant a quick and easy ambulance evacuation by the public safety crew to the hospital.

While Blake said it was not unreasonable to be riding alone in JNP, he said it was important to “be aware” of the added risks.

“Whenever you travel alone the risk of wildlife encounters or anything else will increase,” he said.

Simultaneously, Blake and his crew were also attending to a 19-year-old rock climber who had suffered an asthma attack just east of town at Hidden Valley.

The Calgarian had been climbing with a guide and had to be lowered off the climb to safer ground where she was place into a comfortable position out of the scorching sun.

Due to the canyon situation, the woman had to be moved to a safer place before a helicopter-sling rescue could be performed to get her to safety.

“Flying conditions were challenging,” Blake said, “it’s a canyon situation, the winds were awkward for flying... it’s just a smallish place.”

A medic was sent in with the public safety crew, he explained, “as breathing is an extremely high priority for people... the medic administered some asthma medication.”

The climber was taken to a waiting ambulance after the rescue.

Though the summer may be officially over on the calendar and kids might be back at school, Blake said rescues will still continue.

“The visitor demographic changes, but there is still lots of people out there,” he said, “September can still be a busy month.”