VANCOUVER -- A search is underway east of Pemberton for two Indigenous men who went looking for mushrooms Thursday morning and have not returned.
A release from Whistler RCMP says the two men have been identified as 48 year-old Peter Oleski and his 21 year-old son, River Leo from the Líl̓wat Nation.
The nation posted on Facebook Friday to say the pair planned to go mushrooming in the Upper Mackenzie Basin on Thursday, but failed to return.
Members of the Líl̓wat community searched through the night, and eventually located the red Dodge pickup truck the men had been travelling in near the upper paragliding launch, the nation said.
On Sunday, the search involved search and rescue crews from Pemberton, Lions Bay, Squamish and Whistler. CTV News crews also saw a truck belonging to Comox Valley Search and Rescue.
Two base camps have been set up for the operation. One is at Pemberton Airport, where crews are leaving by helicopter, and the second is set up along the Mackenzie Basin Forest Service Road, where volunteers are joining members of the Líl̓wat Nation to search the area on foot.
One of the big concerns is the weather conditions. Early Sunday morning, temperatures in Pemberton dropped to minus 5 and there was the chance of snow in the forecast.
A post on the Sea to Sky Road Conditions Facebook group Saturday indicates that the two missing men are father and son, and also that food and water were found in their truck, suggesting they didn't intend to be gone for long.
