Hiking apps prompt warnings after rescues from B.C. backcountry [Video]

The search and rescue organization for Metro Vancouver’s North Shore mountains is warning people to do their research after international visitors became stranded in two separate incidents while relying on hiking apps to plan their routes.

North Shore Rescue was called in on Nov. 28 to rescue a man from Norway who the organization said “seriously underestimated the difficulty” of a route marked in an online hiking app.

Rescuers were back on a nearby mountain three nights later for a “virtually identical” operation, the group said in a social media post.

Allan McMordie with North Shore Rescue managed the Sunday night rescue of a man at Goat Ridge, a backcountry area behind Grouse Mountain.

He said the man from France told rescuers he had not been expecting snow, despite two of the local ski hills opening with fresh powder last month.

“All you had to do was look at the …