{"id":17209,"date":"2026-09-11T22:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=17209"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:15:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:15:52","slug":"drones-deliver-rope-to-stranded-climber-on-stawamus-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=17209","title":{"rendered":"Drones Deliver Rope to Stranded Climber on Stawamus Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"justify-start\">\n<nav class=\"align-left col-span-full mb-base\" data-pom-e2e-test-id=\"breadcrumbs\"\/>\n<p>When a climber was stranded 250 feet up British Columbia\u2019s Stawamus Chief in darkness, rescuers bypassed traditional rope ops and used two drones\u2014one to light the wall and another to deliver a lifeline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/p>\n<p class=\"fp-leadCaption py-tight text-left font-utility text-utility3-size leading-utility3-line-height text-secondary\">After 10 P.M. on September 10, Squamish Search and Rescue arrived at the Stawamus Chief, specifically on a climbing route known as the Alaska Highway<!-- --> (Photo: Courtesy of Squamish Search and Rescue)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<p>Published September 11, 2026 04:01PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A highly specialized search-and-rescue drone team pulled off a bold late-night rescue in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, after a climber found himself stranded on a cliff. The man was stuck standing on a ten-inch ledge 250 feet above the ground, secured to an anchor but without enough rope to descend.<\/p>\n<p>Squamish Search and Rescue sent in two aerial drones\u00a0to ferry clothing, lights, and a climbing rope to the stricken climber. The rescue played out on\u00a0Stawamus Chief, one of the world\u2019s largest granite monoliths that is a hotbed for trad and face climbers.<\/p>\n<p>Dustin Wales, 36, is the drone program coordinator for the responding agency, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" rel=\"noopener\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/v\/19DFTzBhnJ\/\">Squamish Search and Rescue<\/a>. He told <em>Outside<\/em> that his team spent the last two years preparing for a situation like this, training drone pilots and establishing protocols to ferry gear to a backcountry user while navigating\u00a0rugged terrain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just hadn\u2019t had the opportunity to put this in action,\u201d Wales said.<\/p>\n<p>After 10 P.M. on September 10, Squamish Search and Rescue arrived at the Stawamus Chief, where the stuck climber had been attempting a multi-pitch route called\u00a0Alaska Highway. Between the darkness, rockfall exposure, and scale of the terrain, Wales told <em>Outside<\/em> that a traditional rope rescue or helicopter evacuation would have been especially difficult.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth of those options being dangerous and challenging, the managers called up my drone team with a bit of an idea,\u201d Wales said. \u201cWe theorized that we could deliver a pilot line to the person stranded on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"fp-remove\" style=\"border:none;overflow-y:hidden;background-color:white;min-width:320px;max-width:420px;width:100%;height:420px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaiagps.com\/public\/RClX8igqdFKVmYJMxNiDtFud\/?embed=True\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>A Rescue by Two Drones<\/h2>\n<p>The stranded person had been climbing with two other people, who were able to safely scale down the wall. Wales and five other rescuers met them and established communication with the cliffed-out climber, putting a plan in place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re doing a drone operation, it\u2019s really important to discuss the risks when you have the opportunity to do so,\u201d Wales said. \u201cThrough our communication, we were able to ask the climber if he was confident to come down, and also what he needed to come down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the first flight, rescuers tied a jacket and a headlamp to the aerial drone and flew it up to the climber. He used the gear to stay warm and light the rock.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the climber\u2019s information, Wales and his team then used the drone to measure the distance to the ground with lasers and a rangefinder. They then brought in a larger drone with a light, which hovered to spotlight the cliffed-out climber. Rescuers tied a 300-foot pilot line from the smaller drone to a climbing rope, and flew the device to the climber. The rope was a thin-gauge but high-strength Dyneema line, which the team spooled out between a ground operator and the drone.<\/p>\n<p>According to Wales, the climber \u201ccaptured the rope out of the air.\u201d He then tied the line to his climbing harness and an anchor, and rappelled down to safety.<\/p>\n<p>Flying drones are becoming common in search and rescue teams worldwide. In recent years, lifesaving officials have used them to <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-06-27\/lost-hikers-found-by-ai-drone-in-kosciuszko-national-park\/106846712\">spot lost hikers<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com\/article\/news\/drone-delivers-supplies-lost-hikers\/73-3bb516f5-85df-4707-9f0b-7d3b7dead379\">drop food and water<\/a>, and take aerial images of huge swaths of backcountry.<\/p>\n<p>The Squamish incident shows that drones can also deliver climbing gear to someone in a highly precarious position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis rescue is a great representation of flight skills, training, management, and practice,\u201d Wales said. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty big win for us. There was a lot of cheering from the ground crew. It was an awesome demonstration of what a lot of effort, training, and facilitation can culminate in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><span hidden=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/outdoor-adventure\/exploration-survival\/climber-drone-rescue-stawamus-chief\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When a climber was stranded 250 feet up British Columbia\u2019s Stawamus Chief in darkness, rescuers bypassed traditional rope ops and used two drones\u2014one to light the wall and another to deliver a lifeline. After 10 P.M. on September 10, Squamish Search and Rescue arrived at the Stawamus Chief, specifically on a climbing route known as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wild-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}