Search efforts escalate for two missing hikers in South Okanagan

PENTICTON – The search for two Ontario hikers missing since Monday in the Similkameen is escalating as the search enters its third full day.

Keremeos RCMP first received a report about two hikers overdue to return to the Cathedral Lakes Lodge in the Similkameen Mountains southwest of Keremeos at 8:36 p.m. Monday, June 22. Lynne Carmody and Rick Moynan, both believed to be in their 50s, left on a hike around 10 a.m. that morning but failed to return by supper time.

“We’ve had a police chopper in the air every day,” RCMP media spokesperson Dave Tyreman says. “It’s like they’ve vanished. We’re sitting on pins and needles- there has been no trace of them.”

Tyreman says the pair are experienced hikers.

Search crews have been scouring the area since Tuesday morning and crews from around the Interior are now pitching in. South Okanagan search crews began the search with police on Tuesday and other Southern Interior teams have since joined in the search.

Kamloops Search Manager Alan Hobbler, who is acting as one of four search managers for this task, says they are definitely working with an 'elevated sense of concern' with the hikers completely unaccounted for after three nights. He says two helicopters, search dogs, trackers and dozens of search and rescue teams are combing the mountainous, high alpine terrain.

The Cathedral Lakes Lodge sits amid high alpine terrain 6,800 feet above sea level, in a remote portion of the Similkameen Valley. The lodge is a popular destination for hikers, fishermen, photographers and nature lovers.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.