North Shore Rescue documentary goes behind the scenes to show team's 'most trying times'

North Shore Rescue volunteers are known for their harrowing search-and-rescue operations as well as their skilland determination insaving wayward or injured backcountry usersin the North Shore mountains.

Now the public is able to geta glimpse of what happens behind the scenes oftheorganization thanks to a new documentary on theKnowledge Network called Search and Rescue: North Shore.

"I think it's really exciting for us to introduce our community to the members ofNorth Shore Rescue," NSRteam leader Mike Danks said. "You get to see what happens behind the scenes when we go through our most trying times conducting these rescues."

To make thefive-part series, the production company embedded with the NSR team for an entire year and remained on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week during filming.

"It was certainly a different dynamic because you are bringing additional people with you," Danks said, "but the team was fantastic. It was almost like they weren't there."

"In fact, two of the members of the crew arenow members of the team, officially."

NSRhas over 40 volunteers and is one of the 79 volunteer ground search-and-rescue organizations in British Columbia.

During the year of production, Danks said the film crewcaptured the team on a variety of calls, ranging from complex helicopter rescues to elderly walkaways and searches for children.

"There's a lot of emotions that you are going to see," Danks said. "I think this is a great way for people to have a better understanding about what motivates our volunteers to do what they do."

Luckily, filming was completed before the spread of COVID-19 began. Aside from adding safety protocols like masks and physical distancing,Danks said the pandemic also led toa "rush of people getting out to the backcountry," some of them unprepared for the conditions or a potential emergency.

"A lot of those people were really naive to how quickly you can get into trouble," Danks added.

"So we've been doing ourbest on the education front, but it's hard to keep up with the amount of people that are getting out there."

Search and Rescue: North Shore airs on the Knowledge Network every Tuesday at 9 p.m.