EAGLE VALLEY
NEWS
RCMP bait sled program back in action Page 3
Customer service earning hoteliers high honours Page 10
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 PM40008236
Vol. 59 No. 46 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
With respect: Mike Olde returns windblown wreaths to their stands during a brisk yet brilliant Remembrance Day ceremony at the Sicamous Cenotaph. Photo by Lachlan Labere
Landslide turns hunting excursion into survival lesson By Barb Brouwer
Eagle Valley News
Callum Montague will hunt again – just not this year. The 18-year-old and his friend Kean Peterson, 19, are basking in the love of their families and friends, thankful to have survived a misadventure on the mountain. In the afternoon of Nov. 3, the two young men headed up Perry River Road near Malakwa in Peterson’s truck, embarking on an afternoon of fishing and hunting. At 38 kilometres, Peterson successfully navigated his truck through a washout. Their luck changed six kilometres later. “There was a landslide, but still a trail and we got about halfway through,” says Montague, noting the pair then walked two kilometres along the road to see if it was passable and if there was a good place to spend the night in case they were stuck. “We got back to the truck, went over the top of the rock and as we went… the road gave way on the other side.” Montague says the only thing holding the truck from a steep, 200-plus straight-down, gravel slide into a raging river was the rear trailer hitch.
“It was scary; if we had gone over, we wouldn’t have survived it,” says Montague, noting the time as 4:30 or 5 p.m. The men secured the truck as well as they could and, gathering their survival packs and guns, hiked back to the cave they had spotted earlier. “We were really lucky, as pack rats had been living there and there was lots of dried brush,” Montague says. “We lit a fire, laid a tarp out and our emergency foil blankets, candles and glow sticks and went out in the rain in search of dry firewood. That was at 8 p.m. By 10, they were dried out, warm and hungry. “We didn’t want to cook because it’s grizzly country,” he said, noting they were out of cell phone range and efforts to communicate with a hand-held radio were fruitless. “We knew Kean’s mom would start calling by 10.” By 10:30 the men realized they would not have enough firewood to last the night and venturing back out of the cave, discovered it was snowing. Thus began a night of planning what to do to extricate themselves from their predicament and fitful sleep in Night in the wild: Kean Peterson, left, and Callum 10-minute increments. Instead of keeping him warm, moisture condensed Montague stand by their truck after being stuck on a forestry road See Experience on page 2 overnight. Photo by Evan Buhler