A pair of ill-equipped day tripping hikers ran out of sunlight last week on Elkhorn Mountain, but they didn’t run out of luck.
Campbell River Search and Rescue (CRSAR) manager Grant Cromer says the pair had no tent, no overnight clothing and no food, but very mild weather allowed them to safely wait for sunlight to make their descent.
Cromer says the happy ending to this event should serve as a warning to other hikers: “This is a turning point in the year for weather, the season is changing and the weather is becoming less predictable, colder nights and more precipitation can be expected.”
CRSAR was paged Sept. 7 by the Nootka Sound RCMP to look for two overdue hikers on Elkhorn in Strathcona Park. The “day trippers” left for a hike Thursday morning to climb Elkhorn 16 kilometres east of Gold River. They missed their return time and the RCMP was contacted. Cromer says SAR crews set up a base camp at the Elk River trail head and dispatched a team to retrace the hikers’ route. Another SAR team boarded the RCMP helicopter for an air search. An hour later the ground team located the men coming down the trail. They were uninjured and travelled back to the base camp with the ground team.
“Basically they had run into a shortage of daylight. They made it to the peak but ran into snow. With diminishing light conditions on the descent they ran out of time. They tried to make an alternate descent off the trail but the terrain was inaccessible, so they camped out for the night and started walking again at daylight,” Cromer says.
“They were lucky with the weather being very mild. They had experience so they didn’t panic and just waited until the sun came up and then started back down the trail when they met up with the search team.”
Cromer says in the coming weeks being lost overnight can be serious if hikers are not prepared for cold overnight conditions.
“We always recommend people travel with a basic day pack which can contain a rain jacket, signal device, basic food and water, a small first aid kit and something to stay dry with if they are forced to stay out overnight such as a small tarp or emergency shelter. You can last for several days without food and water but hypothermia can kill in hours…Think 12 to 24 hours down the road when you head out.”
