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By Tom Mark

Vernon Search & Rescue Gearing Up for Winter

Nov 27, 2017 | 7:46 AM

Vernon Search and Rescue is gearing up for what could be a busy winter if forecasts of a heavy snow season are true.

Already, the search and rescue team is having a record year.

Search Manager Leigh Pearson says they’ve been out 82 times already this year, which is an all-time record.

“Last year we had 77 total which we were just astonished at. This year, it’s just blown that one out of the water. I don’t know what it is, if it’s just more people using the back country.”

He adds they’re also seeing more people not properly equipped for anything uneventful that might happen.

“People are going out relying more on cellphones and stuff like that thinking that’s going to save them and it doesn’t it. I don’t know. I don’t know what it is and it’s not just us, it’s almost every group in the province has seen an upswing.”
Pearson says some people just get the feeling they’re invincible, and that’s when things can go really wrong.
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“We like to see people go out prepared to spend the night if they have to. It’s really not difficult to do.
It just means taking some extra food, some extra water, some warm clothes, things like that. Tell people where you’re going and stick to your game plan.”
Even better, he says, is write it down so rescuers have a better idea where you were expected to be.
Pearson says just be careful, enjoy the back country but just go prepared for it to bite you because it will.
by Tom Mark

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What Matters

Commonage Crash
Motorcyclist hospitalized in crash near Vernon
14m ago
Two Deaths in May
Fatal drug poisonings recorded locally in May, yearly totals still down
2h ago
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Jul 08, 2026