An Edmonton hiker and his dog are safe after the man stomped out an “SOS” signal into the snow near the B.C.-Alberta border, which was picked up by a remote wildlife camera.
The company that owns the camera, Nupoint Systems, said in a news release this week that the man and his his dog left the staging area of Pinto Lake on what he expected to be a four-day hike on March 28.
When he realized he was in trouble, the hiker wrote a massive distress in front of a remote viewer satellite camera in the hope it would transmit his message to rescuers.
Nupoint, which runs out of a home office in North Delta, specializes in camera technology that allows clients to monitor harsh and remote environments around the clock by taking pictures and sending them back via satellite. The company said hundreds of these cameras have been set up in areas without cellular coverage “to monitor wildfires, snow and ice conditions, wildlife, natural resource infrastructures and more.”
The image of his SOS was transmitted to Alberta’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, who passed it on to the RCMP.
Rocky Mountain House Search and Rescue and RCMP K Division air services were deployed to Pinto Lake, where they found the man and his dog in good health and airlifted them back to the staging area.
“We’re delighted that our technology was instrumental in saving the life of this Edmonton hiker and his dog,” Nupoint’s president and CEO, Wayne Carlson said.
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