Kamloops Search and Rescue team members prepare to leave Kamloops to help search for a missing hiker in Comox Valley Wednesday morning.
Image Credit: Mike Ritcey
July 16, 2014 - 2:20 PM
KAMLOOPS - Search and rescue crews from around the province are helping to search for a hiker not seen since July 8 in the Comox Valley area of Vancouver Island and as of Wednesday six Kamloops members are among the searchers.
Kamloops Search and Rescue Search Manager Alan Hobler says six team members, along with search dog Juno, made their way to the Island early this morning and will return late Thursday night.
“Things have been really busy on Vancouver Island and the teams are getting burned out,” he says of the call out. “They’re having to cast their net further (for help.) I’ve never been called to the Island before.”
All staff helping search for Sylvia Apps are seasoned. Apps was due to return from her hike July 13. In a release RCMP said Apps is an experienced hiker and was equipped with navigation and safety equipment.
The Comox Valley search team says her backpack was found Monday, which has helped crews concentrate their search in an area with ‘very technical terrain.’ The group requested assistance from other Island teams along with North Shore Rescue and other teams from the Interior and Northern B.C.
Hobler says because of availability during the middle of the work week it is all seasoned staff making the trek but several core members are staying back in Kamloops ‘just in case.’
Kamloops crews have not been very busy of late, according to Hobler. He says they have only had a few calls over the past month and he attributes that to the hot weather.
“Because it’s hot here people just aren’t going out,” he says. “(Parks) staff say no one was even out (in Lac du Bois) this weekend.”
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
Sylvia Apps.
Image Credit: RCMP handout
News from © iNFOnews, 2014