Oh, that stings.
North Shore Rescue rescued a man in his 20s last week after he was stung nearly 30 times while hiking in the Mount Seymour backcountry.
The team received the call just before 7 p.m. on July 30 from a group on the Old Elsay Lake access trail.
They had antihistamines on hand, which helped, but the man was unable to move.
“The stings were causing significant pain. There was swelling,” said search manager Paul Markey. “That’s why we responded by helicopter, just because of the potential urgency of the situation.”
Markey said the group originally started hiking the day before, aiming to trek to Elsay Lake and return back to Mount Seymour. It was about one kilometre from the lake when they ran into trouble.
Moving in single file, the first hiker accidentally walked through a wasp nest on the ground. The angry insects swarmed the second hiker, stinging his arm, shoulder and leg.
North Shore Rescue flew their advanced medical team, including two doctors, to give the stung hiker more antihistamines and check on the group. The team brought them all back to the Bone Creek SAR Station. Not seeing any signs of breathing distress, the volunteer MD said it was safe for them to head home.
The Lions Bay Search and Rescue team posted to Facebook last week warning that wasp season had arrived and the stinging insects are “fierce” this year.
“According to B.C. pest experts, a relatively mild winter followed by an early, warm spring allowed more queen yellowjackets to survive hibernation and establish new colonies. With a longer growing season, those colonies have had more time to expand, resulting in larger, more defensive nests by late summer,” the post stated.
Most stings cause pain, redness, warmth, swelling, itching, but sometimes more serious reactions can occur like difficulty breathing, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, widespread hives, and dizziness or fainting, the post said.
Markey urges hikers to wear pants and long-sleeved shirts to protect against wasps and the sun, bring a first aid kit that has an antihistamine like Benadryl, and an EpiPen if you or someone in the group is allergic.
To help hikers look out for one another, Wasp Watch has launched an online map where trail users can plot nests in the backcountry.
“These nests can be in the ground as well as hanging on trees and buildings,” Markey said.
Summer busy with calls, North Shore Rescue search manager says
Markey said North Shore Rescue has seen quite a few calls come in over the last few weeks, but it’s average to what they see in the summer. In July, many of those calls were mutual aid missions for other teams ranging from Squamish and Lions Bay to Vancouver Island and Agassiz.
Over the August long weekend, North Shore Rescue were called to assist five stranded hikers on Mount Seymour and an elderly hiker in the Grouse Mountain, a hiker with a broken ankle on Dog Mountain and a lost hiker in Cypress Provincial Park
Markey is also reminding people who are camping in the backcountry to not have open fires to prevent wildfires.
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
By Abby Luciano, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Aug 05, 2026 at 17:10
Recent Comments