live
feature
Community grants child’s wish Page 11
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Registration guide Page 17
32 pages
sports Year in review Page 24
Voted Canada’s Best Community Newspaper
your source for local sports, news, weather and entertainment! www.nsnews.com
0¢
Out-of-bounds snowboarders require rescue Jane Seyd
jseyd@nsnews.com
TWO snowboarders who went out of bounds on Cypress Mountain and ended up lost in treacherous terrain and bone-chilling temperatures were pulled to safety Wednesday night by rescuers on snowshoes.
NEWS photo Mike Wakefield
Holy roller! CROWDS gathered to watch as the West Vancouver Seawalk was battered with the combination of a high tide and big waves Wednesday morning. Municipal work crews were left cleaning up the damage, which temporarily closed a section of the Seawalk Thursday morning. See more photos at www.nsnews.com.
The two Burnaby men, age 22 and 25, emerged from their ordeal shortly before 9 p.m. “cold and scared out of their wits,” said Tim Jones of North Shore Rescue, but otherwise unharmed. “They were very cold but in good condition,” said Jones, adding the pair was “very contrite” about going out of bounds. They were also extremely lucky, said Jones, noting the GPS co-ordinates from their cellphone allowed rescuers to home in on their position before darkness set in. That allowed rescuers to reach the pair relatively quickly. “Normally our rescues in this area take hours and hours and hours,” he said. The two men, who are both experienced snowboarders, followed temptation into trouble after coming off the Sky Chair on Mount Strachan earlier in the afternoon and spotting several other people in an out-ofbounds area. The pair ended up boarding past several warning signs, crossing the Howe Sound Crest Trail and riding into a gulley near Montizambert Creek, where they were See GPS page 5
Homes evacuated in NV bomb scare Suspicious package had wires, number pad, computer parts
James Weldon
jweldon@nsnews.com
POLICE cordoned off roads and evacuated homes along a four-block stretch of North Vancouver’s Grand Boulevard Thursday morning after a passerby found what turned out to be part of a Halloween costume.
have your say at nsnews.com
North Vancouver RCMP rushed to the 500-block of East 17th Street at about 8:30 a.m. when someone walking a dog spotted a suspicious package on a resident’s front lawn and called 9-1-1. The first responders deemed the object worrisome enough to call for backup. Minutes later, police descended on the neighbourhood in force, blocking off access to an area two blocks wide from East 19th Street to East 15th Street, and going door to door, asking residents to leave their homes. Fire and ambulance crews were put on standby.
“We’re exercising an abundance of caution,” said spokesman Cpl. Peter DeVries, speaking to media at the scene. “It’s not uncommon to see hoax-type devices, but right now, we’re treating it as serious.” Just after 10 a.m., an RCMP bomb disposal unit arrived and sent in a remote-controlled robot to examine the package. As the machine pulled it apart, operators watching a video monitor soon determined it was fake. The object was comprised of several tubes roughly the size and shape of dynamite sticks, bound together with a nylon belt and connected to some wires, a number pad, a computer component and a light. See Bomb page 5
Best bodyshop 9 years in a row (blush). We’vve done it everyy year from m 2002 to 2010 – won the prestigious Consumer Chooice Awarrd for best bodyysh s op in Vancouver. We’re also the only shop that o errs Aiir Milles® rew off ward Milees. That’s 10 great reasons to bring your next repair to us. AIR R MIL LES® @> @>9 5F"" "7# D?FA7! ! 4 <#@$G!?@><;AAF!F;>-<;? 4 1*+ =- *!G DG-2 '6+:& . 1+/++..,, *)*8 3;GG;> > E9--2 ';%% %%- 0@#C C ( BFA$; ;#9 9 & '6 6 +: : & . 1 +/:8 81*