A search operation continues Tuesday in Coquitlam for three stranded hikers near Pitt Lake.
The hikers, all men in their 20s, began their trek in Squamish on Friday intending on completing the seven-day hike in five days.
But yesterday morning they set off a personal locator beacon from a “very remote” location, sending a distress signal to an emergency co-ordination centre in Victoria, says Dwight Yochim from Coquitlam Search and Rescue.
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Inclement weather on Monday stalled a rescue effort from the air.
“The weather was just not co-operating. We tried to get in with a helicopter, the ceiling of the clouds was just a few hundred feet off the lake,” said Yochim.
“We couldn’t get up there and the Coast Guard couldn’t get up there,” he said.
Two small rescue crews have been dropped by helicopter as close as they can get to the hikers, but it will take them a full day to reach them.
“If the clouds lift, we have a helicopter on standby and we’ll get in and try to find the subjects,” said Yochim.
“If we do locate them, we’ll drop off some spare clothes, some food and water to them.”
Yochim says the hikers have a route map and were fairly well prepared for up to five days.
This is the first major incident for Coquitlam Search and Rescue in what Yochim described as a “fairly quiet summer.”
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