Family resumes search for missing hikers from 2010

In September of 2010 I participated in a search for two missing hikers in the Cassiope-Saxifrage area near Pemberton and wrote about it as part of my SARDay series.

This week, the family of the missing people are revisiting the area in their ongoing search for their missing loved ones, just as they have every year since they were last seen.

I remember this search fairly well since it was right on the tail of another huge search that year, one that ultimately lasted 16 days. It was a very busy year with searchers being flown in from all over the province for both searches. As I recall, SAR experts from Parks Canada were brought in to consult as well.

Some people might think it unusual that two incidents could happen in a single summer where the missing people vanish without a trace and never be found. Having been on both of these and many other large searches I do not find it unusual or mysterious.

In 2005 a hiker went missing on Grouse Mountain and SAR was unable to find him. A member of the public, acquainted with the SAR team, and his dog found him a few hundred feet from the main trail a few days after the search ended. That’s on one of the busiest trails in North America.

For hikers who go on multi-day expeditions in the BC Backcountry, a fall from a log can mean your body gets pinned in a creek for 6 months, and then buried in gravel, sediment and logs. A slip on a glacier can pull two climbers into a crevasse hundreds of feet deep. In an area the size of BC there’s always the possibility you will never be found.