A middle-aged couple from Richmond spent a cold night on Mount Seymour Tuesday after taking a wrong turn on the way back down the trail.
The 51-year-old woman and 55-year-old man had planned to go for a day hike, but didn’t tell anyone where they were going, said North Shore Rescue team leader Mike Danks.
That turned into an overnight ordeal after they became disoriented on the trail.
“Instead of coming back to North Vancouver, they were going to Squamish,” said Danks.
North Shore Rescue was called out around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday after a friend the hikers were supposed to meet for dinner that night called RCMP. Sleuthing on the couple’s home computer showed they were likely heading up to Third Pump. Ground search crews spent much of the night scouring on the eastern side of the mountain, said Danks, but failed to make contact with the couple.
On Wednesday morning, the search resumed by helicopter at first light.
That’s when the couple turned their cellphone back on and sent a text to a search manager who had tried to reach them, allowing searchers to pinpoint their location in a completely different area of the mountain.
“They’d gone down a route that leads to Indian Arm,” said Danks.
The search was further delayed after the couple ignored instructions to stay put and actually moved away from rescue teams sent to reach them.
They were walked out of the bush about 3:30 p.m., mildly hypothermic but otherwise unharmed.
Danks said the couple weren’t prepared to spend the night outside, having left their jackets in their car.
“If the conditions were different, they might not have been so lucky.”
