On January 26 at 6:50 p.m., Castlegar RCMP received a call of an overdue snowmobiler in the Norns road area outside of Castlegar. The 21 year-old Castlegar man, who had taken a different trail than other riders, hadn’t been seen for three hours and was not at the designated meeting point. Castlegar Search and Rescue were called out and several other snowmobilers and an avalanche tech looked for the missing man. They located the sled tracks leading off on a different trail, but not the returning tracks. Due to steep hills, and several large ravines, the search was called off at 2 am, with plans to reconvene in the morning.
The following morning, at approximately 10:25 hours, the man was located, safe and unharmed. He had gotten into an area that he could not get out of. He is an experienced sledder and although he was not fully prepared to spend the night outside, he had a shovel and beacon with him.
