A simple item like a whistle can save your life in the backcountry, a search-and-rescue member said, as many outdoor enthusiasts geared up for their first trips of the year over the long weekend. Juan de Fuca search-and-rescue crews had recently had a call after an injured hiker near China Beach used his whistle to get the attention of a person nearby, said Victoria Clarke, co-ordinator of Juan de Fuca Search and Rescue. "He was basically unable to move and tucked away behind rocks," she said.
Written from the article text only. Where the scan is hard to read, the summary was taken from the page image rather than the OCR.
Details
Headline
“Prepare properly for outdoors, rescuers warn” Not recorded in the catalogue — derived from the page OCR. Check it against the clipping below before quoting it.
A public-education piece rather than an incident report, and the article that gives Clarke's title as co-ordinator - matching the Sooke News Mirror's statement that she took the helm in 2022. The whistle example is a rare instance of the archive recording a call that succeeded because of a piece of basic equipment.
The clipping
The article as printed.
Read the original online
ProQuest — the scanned page in the Times Colonist digital archive ↗subscription or library card Recorded exactly as captured, including the Greater Victoria Public Library proxy address — it needs a GVPL card or a ProQuest subscription. Without one, search ProQuest for the document ID in the address. This link opens through the Greater Victoria Public Library and asks for a library card number before showing the page. Cards are free for Greater Victoria residents — sign up on the GVPL site; an online temporary card is enough for the digital databases. Outside Greater Victoria, ask your own library whether it offers the ProQuest Times Colonist archive. http://search.proquest.com.proxy.gvpl.ca/pdntimescolonist/newspapers/may-16-2025page-a3/docview/3207106138/sem-2?accountid=6051
These links leave this archive and point at the publisher. They may change or disappear — the scan held here is the archival copy.
Shared page: the scan is a full newspaper page whose other content is unrelated. The summary describes only this article. OCR quality 0.94. Matched to ProQuest bulk page ocr_bulk-018.txt with 0.83 body overlap.
Record id 2025-05-16-times-colonist-pa3-clarke-prepare-outdoors. Original file in the project archive: 02_articles/2025-05-16_times_colonist_pA3_clarke_prepare_outdoors.pdf.
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16 May 2025A simple item like a whistle can save your life in the backcountry, a search-and-rescue member said, as many o
