Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Vernon Search and Rescue
September 12, 2021 - 12:25 PM
Two "wet, cold and exhausted" hikers have been found this afternoon after multiple search and rescue groups were deployed from across the Interior after they became lost last night.
Trevor Honigman, search manager with Vernon Search and Rescue, said crews were called in around 11 p.m. last night, Sept. 11 when the RCMP received a call about the lost hikers.
Rescue crews from the Central Okanagan, Shuswap, Kamloops and Penticton were also called to assist with search efforts. There is 23 personnel in total conducting the search, he said.
The young couple was found roughly 1.5 kilometres south of the SilverStar village in the forest. The pair were well prepared but had used their phones to navigate and had run out of batteries, he said.
"They were uninjured, didn't need medical treatment. They're just a bit shaken up and glad to be back home," he said, adding they were evacuated by helicopter. "They got all turned around out in the forest."
The search and rescue team was able to get a rough estimate of their location when they called 9-1-1 before their phones died, he said.
Crews were concerned due to the weather and terrain but the hikers had done the right thing by hunkering down to wait for rescue crews, he said.
- This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. as the couple has been found.
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