Search for Mount Harvey hikers ends in tragedy
Posted Apr 8, 2017 8:48 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LIONS BAY (NEWS 1130) – A frantic search atop Mount Harvey has ended in tragedy, with the discovery of the bodies of four people.
Five hikers were believed to have been swept down the side of a mountain near Lions Bay in BC on Saturday afternoon.
Corporal Sascha Banks from the Squamish RCMP says a large-scale rescue effort resumed today.
“This morning during the search, Search and Rescue crews located four bodies believed to belong to the group of hikers. This is not the outcome which we had hoped for.”
“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the hikers and the search and rescue teams in Lions Bay who are still working tirelessly to find the fifth individual.”
The hikers were reported missing from Mount Harvey just before 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Martin Colwell from Lions Bay Search and Rescue says the search was suspended when it got dark last night.
He says a party of six hikers set out along the mountain’s ridgeline yesterday, but one of the hikers was delayed and the other five went ahead of him.
“He then went up the summit expecting to see the other five members there. When he got there all he saw were their tracks. And then a break in the cornice, which is overhanging snow over the north face. Indicating that some or all of the party of five were on that snow that broke away and went down the north face of Mount Harvey.”
Earlier, he said the likelihood of survival was possible.
“It’s not good, of course. It is possible, occasionally people do survive large falls. Sometimes they may not be in the slope. It’s possible that not everyne went over the face, someone might have gone off another part of the mountain or slid down a different side, or just not been part of the piece of snow that broke away. So there are other possibilities that are not as probable. But they are being considered.”
