Hope (Hope Volunteer Search and Rescue) – Hope SAR was tasked out Sunday afternoon (January 4) to rescue a pair of stranded snowmobilers near Murphy Lakes. The pair became stranded when their machine slid over an embankment 22 km down the service road.
Members deployed on snowmobiles and in our heated UTV to retrieve the duo. Despite some rerouting due to a slide on one of the service roads, the team was successfully able to bring the sledders back to their vehicle.
We would like to acknowledge that the pair was well equipped with warm clothing and a Garmin inReach. There is no cell service in this area, and there were no other sledders nearby when this happened, so tools to communicate in the backcountry are essential for these types of emergencies. We are also thankful for the team effort of getting our own cargo-hauling vehicle unstuck after it sat for 7 hours in soft snow in freezing temperatures which made for an unexpected hour of troubleshooting at the end of a task.
