A missing snowboarder was rescued by search crews on Saturday evening.
Central Okanagan Search and Rescue (COSAR) requested mutual aid support from Penticton Search and Rescue (PENSAR) to help find the missing snowboarder lost in below freezing temperatures.
“He had been skiing up at Big White with his brother, he had a disagreement with his brother and then he phoned his girlfriend, who was back in town, to pick him up,” says Braun.
Braun says the man’s girlfriend arrived to pick him up and he put his jacket and gear into his girlfriend’s vehicle and asked her to meet him at the bottom of the hill.
“An hour went by and he didn’t show up so his girlfriend phoned him and he told her he was lost. She contacted ski patrol and they got involved,” explains Braun.
Six PENSAR members and one Vernon Search and Rescue member joined the COSAR search teams.
“En route up the hill, I learned that he was only wearing a shirt, and I didn’t learn about that before, that’s when I ramped it up and we got an ambulance up there,” says Braun.
Search crews followed the missing man’s tracks and ended up catching up to him 18 kilometres away, according to Braun.
“He kept going and it’s probably a good thing because he just had a long sleeve shirt, a toque on his head which is very important, no gloves and he did have ski pants.”
Braun says the man could have been missing for up to nine hours and at one point, he feel asleep near some trees.
“The sound of wolves howling is what woke him up. Our team found wolf tracks on top of his tracks. He’s very lucky that he woke up,” says Braun.
Braun says when search crews found the missing man he thought it was 7:30 p.m. but it was actually around midnight. The man was found in good condition.
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