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Lucky' rescue saves mountain biker

Kevan Shaler and John Barber had just sat down at the Longhorn on Saturday to watch the hockey came, when a young woman burst into the bar, covered in blood.
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Kevan Shaler and John Barber had just sat down at the Longhorn on Saturday to watch the hockey came, when a young woman burst into the bar, covered in blood. She ran up to the bartender, Sean "Chavez" Holmes, and said her boyfriend had crashed on his mountain bike in the park and was dying.

They called 911, and Joey Gibbons, the Longhorn general manager grabbed the first aid kit. The girl then hurried back outside, got on her bike and rode off.

Shaler caught the words "Dirt Merchant" before she ran out, and knew that the biker was in serious trouble – it’s a new run that’s not on any trail maps, and it sits higher than midway station on the outer perimeter of the bike park. It was also starting to get dark and the temperature was dropping.

"Kevan said ‘if he’s up there, we’ve got to go and help.’ We saw all the blood and since she didn’t look injured we guessed that she was trying to resuscitate the guy," said Barber.

They went to follow the girl, who rode towards the Westin, but she was gone.

Armed with their cell phones, and the Longhorn first aid kit, they turned back and started to run up the mountain access road into the bike park.

What followed was what Barber calls "a magical combination of circumstances" that led to a successful rescue.

On the way up the mountain, they were picked up by Gibbons, who had gotten his 4x4 truck. Shaler was the only member of the party who knew where the run was, and was giving directions.

Around the midstation area, they ran into a pair of Whistler-Blackcomb snowmakers on ATVs. After flagging them down and explaining the situation, Shaler went with them to find the mountain biker.

Immediately afterwards, Gibbons and Barber received a call back from 911 dispatch that the paramedics and members of Whistler Fire Rescue service were at the bottom of the mountain.

They were instructed to drive back down the mountain to pick up the rescuers, and bring them back to the site. All of the parties kept in touch using cellular phones, and all members of the search party were kept in the loop.

They reached the bottom of the mountain, where they were joined by Brian Finestone, the mountain safety manager, who was driving one of the bike park ambulances.

Three trucks were heading back up the mountain to continue the search when they got a call from Shaler on Gibbons’ phone that they had found the mountain biker.

"At this point it was pitch black out, and the temperature was dropping," said Barber. "It was just dipping below zero, and it was really hard to see. We were getting pretty anxious. There was so much relief when we got the call from Kevan."

According to Shaler, they came across the bike on the trail, and discovered that the forks had snapped. Instead of continuing along the trail on their ATVs, they took a look around and found the mountain biker about 10 metres off the trail, hugging a tree.

One of the ATVs went back to the service road to meet the tucks, while two of the rescuers stayed with the mountain biker.

The trucks met one of the ATVs that came back to the road, and the paramedics and Whistler Fire Rescue members headed into the woods.

They tried to get the mountain biker to lie down, at which point he became combatative, which is a sign of a serious concussion. He was also very bloody around his face and mouth.

They managed to get him back to the trail, and he fell unconscious as he was being attached to the spinal board.

Barber estimates that it took less than 20 minutes to find the mountain biker, and that he was incubated in the Whistler Health Care Centre less than 45 minutes later.

After seeing the extent of the injuries, Finestone had also contacted the Whistler Health Care Centre to arrange for a helicopter for transport the biker to the city.

Once they were back down the mountain, they found out that the woman in the Longhorn had gone to the health care centre, and because of the communication between all of the parties, she knew to wait there for the mountain biker to be brought back.

After an hour and a half, Shaler and Barber were back in the Longhorn.

"It was a bizarre thing. One minute we were at the Longhorn, the Leafs were tied 0-0, then we came back and people were grumbling because the game was 5-3. In the amount of time to score eight goals… we had found somebody on the side of the mountain in the dark and got him down to safety," said Barber.

The mountain biker was still on life support and in critical condition on Sunday, but as of Monday he was off life support. In addition to the concussion, he suffered a fractured vertebrae, a broken nose, a broken jaw, broken teeth, and numerous cuts and scrapes to the face.

Barber said he still can’t believe how lucky they were in the search.

"Kevan was the only guy in the bar who knew where to find Dirt Merchant. He had ridden it once, but he remembered it was his last ride on the last day the park was open," he said.

"If he didn’t know where the trail was, if Joey didn’t have a 4X4 and first aid kit, if we didn’t run into those ATVs…if the guy hadn’t been standing up and holding the tree… we have heard from medical (staff) things could have ended very differently. We heard that he might not have made it."

In addition to the luck, Barber also praised the work of Chavez, who kept the various parties in contact with each other, the participants in the rescue and the health care centre for their energy and professionalism.

"We really have a first class team in Whistler, I’ve always felt that," he said.

The rider is a Whistler resident, and at press time was still in Vancouver General Hospital.