Penticton Search and Rescue (PENSAR) had a busy two weeks rescuing injured and lost hikers from difficult terrain.
PENSAR responded to six calls for help over the past two weeks, three of these were to the remote Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park area where search and rescue air and ground crews were involved in the evacuation of injured hikers.
The most notable was an extensive search on Sunday, Aug. 14 when PENSAR spent 12 hours looking for a couple who had activated their personal locator beacon in the Cathedral’s area.
Fourteen SAR personnel along with an aircrew spent 12 hours looking for them. They were finally located at a high elevation several kilometres from the targeted search area.
On Aug. 9, PENSAR’s aircrew flew on a mutual aid mission after an SOS beacon was received by Vernon Search and Rescue from an area near Spectrum Lake within the Monashee Provincial Park reporting that one of two hikers had suffered a lower leg injury. Penticton aircrew located the two hikers at 4:30 p.m. in steep terrain in the Monashee Mountain range and evacuated them to the VSAR Team.
On Sunday, Aug. 21, PENSAR was tasked out mid-afternoon to help two hikers in the Max Lake road area who became disoriented on their hike. Nine members of PENSAR responded with 2 UTVs and three rescue trucks. The pair were located shortly before 5 p.m.
PENSAR was also tasked out to the Green Mountain Road area south of Penticton early on Wednesday, Aug. 17 for a lost hiker. Fortunately, the task did not require a full response as the subject was able to be located with help from others in the area.
PENSAR manager Randy Brown posted to Facebook this week that none of these rescues could have happened without the volunteers.
“To put this in perspective our volunteers have contributed 6,900 hours to attending tasks and weekly training so far this year,” said Brown.
Brown also thanked the families of the volunteers.
“When the phone rings - the volunteer heads out the door, the family stays behind and waits. They keep the dinners warm for our return and know that many times we are tired and dirty. So thank you to our families we appreciate your support,” he said.
READ MORE: Penticton search and rescue execute back-to-back rescues
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