North Shore Rescue to be featured in new documentary series

Sep 20 2020, 7:50 pm

One of British Columbia’s search and rescue organizations is being featured in an upcoming documentary series.

Knowledge Network has announced that Search and Rescue: North Shore will premier in November. The docu-series “follows the highly skilled volunteer members of North Shore Rescue (NSR) as they find and rescue people in distress in the rugged mountains, canyons, and forests in North Vancouver.”

Rudy Buttignol, President and CEO of Knowledge Network, says in a release that he never fully understood how close Vancouver was to the wilderness and its perils until he moved to the city.

“What I found truly surprising was that NSR was made up of all volunteers — highly skilled individuals putting their own lives at risk to help others,” he says. “That’s when we decided their stores needed to be told.”

Knowledge Network says that they worked with Peg Leg Films, an independent production company, to provide unprecedented footage for the docu-series.

Over the course of a year, director Grant Baldwin and the production team followed NSR, capturing events such as helicopter mountain rescues and retrieving lost hikers.

One escapade saw Baldwin and his filming partner follow rescue crews to North Vancouver’s Crown Mountain at 3 am.

“The NSR team and my filming partner Ian were rappelling down below me to secure a fallen climber,” he explains. “I was just clinging to the rock trying to get a stable shot.”

“I kept thinking, what the hell am I doing up here? Then I remembered that the team doesn’t need to be here either; they volunteered for this. It makes capturing this story more meaningful.”


NSR currently has more than 40 active members and is one of 79 volunteer-based search-and-rescue organizations in BC.

The five-episode series will air on Knowledge Network on Tuesdays from November 10 to December 8 and will be free to stream online.

Vincent PlanaVincent Plana

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