A 38-year-old Canmore man remains in hospital after crashing his paraglider in the backcountry on Thursday.
Emergency crews responded to Mount Lady MacDonald, west of Canmore, at about 2:00 p.m. after receiving a 911 call from the area.
A paraglider crashed into steep terrain and a helicopter was sent in to pluck him from the mountain. It was a friend of the paraglider who used a cell phone to call for help.
“Ya where he was, it was just below tree line and you can’t see from here, but there’s like a gully and he was maybe ten metres from the side of the gully, “said Matt Mueller with Public Safety Alberta Parks.
The man has been identified as Andrew Wexler.
Alberta Parks sent two rescuers in by helicopter to assess Wexler and then Mueller and another crew member went in to assist with strapping him into a sling for transport.
Rescue crews say he was conscious and alert when they took him off the mountain but that he had significant injuries.
Wexler was taken to hospital in Canmore where STARS was waiting to airlift him to Calgary.
He is now recovering in Foothills Medical Centre.
Stewart Midwinter was an expert hang glider and paraglider who set five world records.
In August of 2011 he careened into Mount Lady MacDonald and the impact of the crash dislodged vertebrae which left him unable to move his arms or legs.
Midwinter describes what it was like waiting for rescue crews.
“I had to wait three hours for a rescue because Parks Canada was busy rescuing some mountain climbers off the side of a mountain, They’re doing that quite frequently," said Midwinter.
Midwinter says the area where the crash happened is not for beginners.
There is no word on what caused Wexler to crash on Thursday.
