A pair of hikers missing for nearly a week in B.C.’s southern interior has been found alive.
Cathedral Lakes Lodge confirmed on its Facebook page Sunday that Lynne Carmody and Rick Moynan -- who left the lodge at 10 a.m. on June 22 and were expected back by dinner -- have been found.
The pair, an Ontario couple believed to be in their 50s, were missing for seven days near Keremeos, about 100 km south of Kelowna.
“We are extremely happy and incredibly relieved that Rick and Lynne are safe and relatively happy after six days in the wilderness at 7000 feet,” said Glenda Patterson, who works at the lodge.
“The search and rescue were in shock,” she said. “We’re all kind of in shock that they’re alive and it’s a happy ending.”
Jeff Smedley of Prince George Search and Rescue said the pair were located within three kilometres of base camp.
Crews from all over the province -- including as far away as the Comox Valley, Squamish, and Nelson -- were called in to assist with the rescue effort. Nearly 100 people were involved in the operation at the time the hikers were found, Smedley said.
“Seven days of searching and we find them on the seventh day,” he said. “They had been stumbling around in the search area here for the last seven days and we were able to pick them up and hike them out into the lodge.”
The pair was transported by helicopter to Penticton Regional Hospital, Smedley said.
He said they were able to survive in the wilderness for nearly a week because they had ample access to water and were able to construct a shelter to protect themselves from the elements.
Other details of their survival are not yet known, but Smedley said he’s looking forward to asking them about it.
“I’d kind of like to know where exactly they were and some of the things that they did to help themselves survive,” he said.
