A Coquitlam teen died after he fell into the water at Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver Monday afternoon.
At about 4:30 p.m., Cole Marsh, 17, reportedly climbed over the safety fences and jumped off a cliff near the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.
He clung to the rocks for about 30 minutes while rescuers made their way to him but he let go and was swept into the water. Rescuers worked for an hour to try and reach him but when he still had not surfaced, their efforts turned to a recovery operation.
The RCMP dive team returned to park Tuesday morning but it was determined the water levels were too high to safely conduct a recovery. North Vancouver RCMP Sgt. Doug Brecknell said water levels would continue to be monitored and a recovery would be attempted once they were safe.
The Lower Mainland District Air 1 helicopter and North Vancouver police boat are also monitoring the creek beds and Burrard Inlet in the hopes of locating Marsh.
Police did not identify the teen but friends took to social media to offer their condolences.
"RIP Cole Marsh," wrote Ben Gallagher on Twitter. "You were a great lacrosse player, gone way too soon. Rest easy."
Marsh, who is believed to have been a student at Port Coquitlam's Terry Fox secondary school, was an accomplished lacrosse goaltender; he's listed on the 2015 roster for the PoCo B Saints in the BC Intermediate Lacrosse League, and played two seasons on the Burnaby Mountain Selects field lacrosse team.
Coach Brent Hoskins, who also coaches the SFU men's lacrosse team, said he'd been talking to Marsh about his post-secondary options and how he could continue to play locally.
"What stands out to me the most about Cole was just how genuine he was, both as a person as well as an athlete," Hoskins said. "He was always that type of player who would shake your hand at the end of every practice, he'd ask you questions about anything he could improve on or work towards."
Hoskins said Marsh was well known in the lacrosse community and any time a group of young athletes wanted to get together after school or on weekends for a friendly game, Marsh was the first goalie called if "you needed someone between the pipes."
"As an athlete, he made an impact on our program and we'll definitely be looking to continue his legacy any way we can," Hoskins added. "Right now, our focus is on the teammates and the coaches he's left behind."
The area where Marsh fell is not far from where a Pakistani exchange student, also a Coquitlam resident, drowned in September 2015. Syed Wajahat Ali, 25, was with a group of other young men when he jumped from a lower cliff into a pool; he was caught in an underwater eddy and never resurfaced.
spayne@tricitynews.com
@spayneTC
