Search for missing snowshoers temporarily suspended
Posted December 28, 2016 10:18 am.
Last Updated December 28, 2016 9:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WEST VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The odds are against two men who’ve been missing in the area of the Cypress Bowl since Christmas Day.
Weather and avalanche conditions deteriorated throughout the day Wednesday, causing the search to be temporarily suspended.
About 20 members of North Shore Rescue were in the area around Strachan Meadows, and a helicopter with a flare device was looking for heat signatures from those two snowshoers.
Team Leader Mike Danks says the lack of information provided about what route these men were planning to take is making things exceptionally difficult. “We’re doing our best to get in there and ensuring our crews’ safety and our big thing is we don’t want our guys out overnight. We want to make sure people are taking all the safety precautions necessary.”
Danks holds out hope the men are still alive, suggesting the fact the pair have each other increases the chances they’ll be able to make it through. “We’ve had a number of people who’ve gotten lost on their own and they’ve survived three days or more.”
Forty-three-year-old Roy Lee and 64-year-old Chun Lam set out on Christmas Day. An abandoned car was found in the parking lot of Cypress Mountain. The other issue is a lot of snow has fallen since then which could cover any of their tracks.
Last year, North Shore Rescue set a record for the number of calls-out it handled at 139, so far this year the team is at 130.
