Teenager falls to his death at Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver

A teenager fell to his death at Lynn Canyon Park in North Vancouver on Sunday, according to fire officials.

Dwayne Derban, the assistant chief of operations at District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, told CBC News that crews were called to the popular park around 3 p.m. PT on Sunday.

Derban says rescuers realized a youth had fallen off a cliff soon after they arrived.

The fire official says the 17-year-old had scaled a safety fence located about six metres from the cliff’s edge but slipped, and fell off the cliff.

“We knew he was unconscious, but it wasn’t until we were able to get a rescuer lowered down to him using a rope system that we determined that he, unfortunately, had passed away,” Derban said in a Monday interview.

The rescuer says the youth, originally from Windsor, Ont., fell an estimated 45 to 50 metres onto a rock slope.

Derban says the teenager was set to start school at the University of B.C. in September, and his three friends — also from Windsor — had come to support him, get him settled and were in the park seeing the sights.

“For them, this is a bit of a different topography than what they’re used to,” the assistant chief said.

“And [they] maybe just didn’t realize the danger of going into the places where they ended up going.”

Officials have been pleading with residents and visitors not to cliff jump at Lynn Canyon for years, saying there have been 40 deaths in the park over the last 50 years.

Derban said rescuers are often called to Lynn Canyon in the summertime, and there were always people pushing the envelope when it came to safety — but most of the serious issues occur when new visitors don’t realize the risks.

The assistant chief was one day away from retirement when CBC News reached him on Monday.

He said the fatality on Sunday hit particularly close, as his own uncle died after falling off a cliff in Lynn Canyon in 1944.

“It’s sort of a full circle [moment] coming back to a long time ago, and here it is kind of closing it in a very sad way to end,” he said.

“But I’m just hoping that this might help prevent, you know, future tragedy.”