Missing hiker rescued after extensive search near Quesnel

QUESNEL —A missing person was safely rescued Monday morning following a large-scale search operation in the Cottonwood and Victoria Creek Forest Service Road area east of Quesnel.

Quesnel Search and Rescue was called in by RCMP on the afternoon of October 4 after the individual failed to return to a designated meeting location the night before. Friends had launched their own overnight search before requesting assistance.

Search crews worked to establish the subject’s direction of travel and narrow the search area while RCMP Air Services conducted an aerial search of the heavily forested terrain. Additional support arrived from Prince George Search and Rescue and Central Cariboo Search and Rescue, along with a drone team from Civil Air Search and Rescue Association using thermal imaging technology.

The subject was ultimately located shortly before midnight by a ground search team in a creek bed upstream from their last known location.