A sigh of relief for rescuers on Cypress Mountain north of Vancouver on the coldest night of the year.
Three young people between the ages of 18-20 visiting from Mexico were snowshoeing on Howe Sound Crest Trail when they became separated late Monday afternoon, and faced the shuddering prospect of spending a night in frigid sub-zero temperatures.
Mike Danks of North Shore Rescue tells Global the group had been taking pictures at St. Mark’s Summit, when the female apparently left ahead of the others.
Coverage of North Shore Rescue on Globalnews.ca:
Danks says they’d received a call at about 5 p.m. from the female explaining that she was lost and separated from the group, but it was difficult pinning down her location due to the call being received on her Mexican cellphone.
By the time some 20 searchers located the males of the group on Cypress, the female had already made her way out of the mountain trail on her own, and contacted searchers from home.
All three were apparently ill-equipped and underdressed for the hike, with snow and temperatures dropping as low as -8.