Five people — three men and two women — were rescued from a broken down pick-up truck by Arrowsmith Search and Rescue after a four-and-a-half hour ordeal the morning of Dec. 31.
ASAR manager Gordon Yelland said the five people who were in their 20s got stuck in a single vehicle in an obscure location south of Errington.
“The biggest issue was figuring out how to get to them,” said Yelland.
Yelland said 11 search and rescue personnel responded to the incident and used two quads to finally reach the subjects at 7:30 a.m.
Yelland said the search and rescue team used the access point at Northwest Bay Road.
He said members followed the main logging road, went up Englishmen River, crossed the river, made their way up a few switchbacks and went up the back side of the valley. They found the vehicle of people approximately 3.5 kilometres east of Rowbotham Lake.
He said the search and rescue team used quads to ferry the subjects from their truck, which was left at the scene, back to safety.
Yelland said no major injuries were sustained but the subjects were “cold, thirsty and probably wished we had got there a little sooner.”
He said one of the subjects used a cell phone to call search and rescue but the phone’s battery was dying by the time they got to them. He also noted they had fuel left in the truck as they used it to intermittently heat up the vehicle to stay warm.
While everybody is now safe and sound, Yelland said this serves as a good reminder for people to be prepared with food and water in the vehicle, and to know where they are going especially when venturing into the backcountry.
