1. The Toronto Adventurer has a very interesting article on Robert Faber’s near-death experience in Alaska’s Denali National Park.
2. Some sad new from Vancouver Island, where a 45-year-old scuba diver passed away this week after failing to surface.
3. A Mountain Top High has a hiking trip report for hidden jem: Rohr Lake
4. It was announced that Mt Seymour will be host to the World Snowshoe Invitational, which will take place during the Olympics in a bid to get the sport recognized by the IOC.
5. NSR was called to Grouse Mountain earlier this week with a report of a hiker on the BCMC trail suffering a heart-attack.
6. Metro Vancouver has big plans for Port Coquitlam’s Colony Farm Regional Park.
7. The Daily Telegraph has  a great article on blind mountaineer Justin Grant.
8. This isn’t ‘outdoorsy’ but still a pretty cool opportunity. There is a Lotto MAX Live Your Dream video contest open to BC residents where you can win a trip for 8 people to Jamaica.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Categories: Sunday Links
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Some terrible news regarding last week’s scuba accident at Whytecliff park. An article in the Surrey Leader reports that the man, Rick Musgrave, passed away at Vancouver General Hospital after apparently suffering a heart attack at a depth of 100ft while instructing a group of students.

His son, Stephen Musgrave, has made this posting on ScubaBoard:

Sad to announce the Passing of my father Rick Musgrave at the age of 61. He passed away doing what he loved, apparantly due to a heart attack suffered while instructing a deep dive PADI specialty at 100ft (investigation ongoing). Thank you to all who helped out on scene and offered support to the family at the hospital. Rick started diving in Southern BC during the sixties, casting his own weights and making his own suits (due to the lack of recreational dive shops back then). He spent the last ten years working and instructing out of several dive shops around Vancouver and did recreational diving in: Honduras, Mexico, Dominican and other locations in the Caribbean. He will be Sadly missed.

My condolences go to Rick’s friends and family.

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Last weekend a 20 year old man had a diving accident at Whytecliff Park, and just yesterday there was yet another diving accident at the park. This time the accident involved a diving instructor who was about 100ft down when he experienced a medical problem and had to surface. Like the accident last week, the diver was forced to surface too fast which can cause serious problems.

A scuba diving instructor almost drowned Sunday in the waters off Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver.

The man was apparently under water with his students when he went into medical distress, about 100 feet below the surface.

By the time he resurfaced, he was in full cardiac arrest.

For nearly 30 minutes, police and paramedics performed CPR on the man, who is believed to be in his 50s.

His condition is unknown, but hopefully he will make a full recovery at the hospital. CTV has a video you can view here.

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Categories: News, Scuba Diving
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On Monday I posted about a cryptic news story about a diving accident at Whytecliff Park. Yesterday the North Shore News had a write up about the accident with some more info.

Apparently the diver, a 20 year old man from California, was diving at about 40ft when water started seeping into his mask. He then surfaced too quickly trying to ‘reach safety’, but in the process became unconscious because of the rapid decompression (aka the bends). Luckily other people from his group were able to bring him to shore and get him treated promptly, and he was later put in a hyperbaric chamber, and released the same day.

I’m trying not to judge, but there must be more to the story. Water seeping into a diver’s mask is very common, and a problem you are taught to fix on your first day of training. I have a hard imagining someone scrambling to surface simply because water filled their mask. Perhaps while clearing his mask he lost control of his buoyancy and surfaced like a rocket as the air in his suit expanded? Weird stuff, but thankfully the guy is ok.

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In 1993 the waters around Whytecliff Park became Canada’s first Salt Water Marine Park Protected Area, ensuring a great marine environment for Vancouver’s scuba divers. Divers can see a variety of marine life including, harbour seals, sea pens, ling cod, nudibranches, sea cucumbers, and occasionally octopus. Whytecliff Park is a very popular dive site, and in the summer months very busy, because it has something to offer to divers of all skill levels. You’ll often see dive classes practicing out in the cove, and advanced divers descending down the steep walls of “the Cut”.

The park is also a great spot for some hiking, a picnic, bird watching, or walking your dog (allowed off-leash in the park east of Marine Drive).

Directions: To get the Whytecliff, take the Upper Levels Highway West towards Horseshoe Bay. At Horseshoe Bay take exit #1 North towards Whistler. After about 400 meters, take a left on the overpass for Marine Dr., and from there you can simply follow the signs on the round-about for Whytecliff park.

Top photo by icathing on flickr. Pictured right is a harbour seal I saw during one of my dives at Whytecliff. You can check out this website I stumbled upon for lots of other great shots of the marine life, and scenery of the park.

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