'Still have more work to do'
Eras Tour comes to an end
Hwy 3 now cleared
Wide-scale death of trees
Holiday travel stays local
'A little place in paradise'
National monuments added
Threats in lobster industry
Celebrating Assad's fall
Telus in court fighting order
Cuts won't cause recession
TikTok ban upheld
Olynyk returns to court
Rockets bounce back
Crusaders upend Warriors
Princess returns to public
Amber Heard is expecting
Body problems started at 10
Penticton emergency rescue crews' busy last two weeks has them reminding anyone visiting the backcountry or out for a quick walk or hike to plan their trip carefully and be prepared.
Penticton Search and Rescue (PenSAR) crews responded to six tasks in the span of those two weeks, with three of the tasks heading out to the remote Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park area where SAR air and ground crews were involved in the evacuation of injured hikers from the area.
PenSAR said in their Facebook post that the most notable event was an extensive search conducted on Sunday, Aug. 14 when the team spent 12 hours looking for a couple who had activated their personal locator beacon in the Cathedral area.
Fourteen PenSAR personnel along with an aircrew spent 12 hours looking for the subjects who were finally located at a high elevation later in the afternoon 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.
A report came in that one of two hikers had suffered a lower leg injury. PenSAR aircrew managed to locate the two hikers at late afternoon in steep terrain in the Monashee Mountain range and evacuated them to VSAR Team.
On Wednesday, Aug. 17, PenSAR headed out early for a report of 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 said.
Two hikers in the Max Lake road area who became disoriented reached out on Sunday, Aug. 21 for help from PenSAR. Nine members responded with two UTV’s and three rescue trucks. The subjects were located and brought back to the incident staging area.
PenSAR encourages hikers to refer to Adventure Smart for tips on trip planning and taking the essentials.
"Just when you think it won’t happen – it does," they said.
"Also a note on personal locater beacons: do you know how they work? Has the software been updated and how old is the device? Knowing your equipment is key especially if you need assistance. We can’t help you if your device isn’t working properly."
