Searchers have located the body of a Toronto man who went over the lower falls at Gold Creek Monday night in Golden Ears Provincial Park.
On Monday, around 8 p.m., police received a call from B.C. Ambulance that a 21-year-old man, who was visiting from Toronto, was swept away by the current from Gold Creek in Golden Ears Provincial Park in Maple Ridge.
A second man, a 21-year-old Abbotsford resident, tried to help and both were carried over the falls.
The Abbotsford man was found downstream with non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to hospital.
Firefighters and Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue were called to the park just before 8 p.m.
“At 10 p.m., RMSAR called a halt to the search due to loss of daylight and danger of continuing in the rugged terrain,” according to Ridge Meadows RCMP.
The search resumed Tuesday morning. At around 10 a.m., a body believed to be that of the missing Toronto hiker was found and recovered from a pool of water in the park.
“No one expects this sad of an outcome when you are visiting our local parks and our sincerest condolences are offered to the Toronto man’s family and friends,” said RCMP St. Sgt. Parm Prihar.
“We thank Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue for their assistance and dedication in helping to find and recover this person.”
Many people have died in Gold Creek over the years after falling in and being swept away by the frigid, white water.
In April 2017, a man who was part of a group of jumping into a pool above Gold Creek Falls was swept away by the creek.
In 2014, a 23-year-old Surrey woman drowned after falling into a fast-moving creek near the Upper Burke Falls and plunged several metres into the rushing water below.
At the time, it was the fifth death in Golden Ears Provincial Park in the past four years.
The year before, two men drowned after being sucked under by currents while swimming in the same area.
