Close call for out of bounds skier

KAMLOOPS — It was a close call for one skier that ventured out of bounds at Sun Peaks Tuesday.

It was the second rescue of the year for local search and rescue and the eighth out of bounds skier of the season but search manager Alan Hobler says wet clothes and -15 Celsius temperatures made it one of the closest calls they have had yet this winter.

A 19-year-old seasonal employee at Sun Peaks ventured out of bounds yesterday and around 4 p.m. friends let officials know he was missing. With only a small window of daylight hours left an RCMP helicopter was called in from Hope to assist 15 search and rescue team members.

Hobler says the helicopter was instrumental in finding the emotional young man, who had waded through a creek and was soaking wet.

“This one was a close call for him, he was lucky,” Hobler says of the young German. “RCMP were instrumental in this rescue.”

They had him out of the west bowl area and on safe ground by 8 p.m. Team member Mike Ritcey was in the area when the call came in and made arrangements with a local landowner to go up the hill on his sled to start the search while they waited for the helicopter to come in.

To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca, call (250)819-3723 or tweet @JennStahn.