Two children are lucky to be alive after getting lost in the woods for more than two hours in -18 C temperatures near Vernon on New Year’s Eve.
Vernon Search and Rescue manager Leigh Pearson said they received a call from the emergency co-ordination centre in Victoria around 5:30 p.m. to assist Vernon RCMP in locating the missing children, ages five and seven.
WATCH: Two boys rescued near Vernon
Pearson said the family attended a bonfire at a residence in the upper portion of Westshore Estates on the west side of Okanagan Lake when the two children wandered off to find marshmallow roasting sticks.
Searchers said the children spotted and followed a deer, but became lost in the wilderness.
Watch below: Vernon Search and Rescue footage of rescue operation
Pearson described the terrain surrounding the residence as densely-forested with steep embankments and deep gulleys.
Vernon Search and Rescue responded with 22 members and swept the area on foot and on snowmobiles.
The search started around 45 minutes after the boys were reported missing and the pair were found one-and-a-half hours after the search commenced.
The children were located 1.5 kilometres from the residence and “covered a remarkable amount of distance in deep snow,” according to Pearson.
The pair were found “shivering violently” down a gulley about 100 ft. off the trail, Pearson added.
“They were pretty lucky. They warmed them for half an hour then carried them up the bank, which was a huge effort, and then brought them out one at a time on the snowmobile. The driver of the machine had them inside his jacket.”
Pearson said the youngest child was located without footwear.
He said the outcome could have been much worse.
“It could have been tragic. I’m thinking if we hadn’t found them… if we did an hour later… my personal thought is we would have been too late. They were very cold.”
The children were taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia, but are said to be doing well.
“It was a pretty awesome way to end 2017,” Pearson said.
PHOTOS: The intense search on New Year’s Eve (credit: Vernon Search and Rescue):
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