This strikes me as such an odd story. Hard to even put a proper title on the thread.

Two friends went out picking mushrooms in an area where it should have been pretty difficult to get lost. Things went wrong; SAR was called out and found neither, and finally called off the search.

Then, two weeks later, one of them is found alive. The search is restarted for the second person; most likely a recovery but you never know.

Note that there is a big seasonal business where people go out and pick wild, rare, culinary, gourmand mushrooms in mighty rough country. A good picker can make big bucks, legally. (This to forestall any "magic" notions.)

The current story with SAR leader quotes and links to previous stories:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/brit...rticle14748187/

very odd..two weeks of wandering around and the guy dead,how,what?
i'll be keeping track of this.

I'd be pissed if they called off a search that fast.

"You weren't even looking for me??? WTH, guys? You suck!"

Well, it's hard to say without being on the ground. A full-scale search cannot go on indefinitely.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/brit...rticle14598428/
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Rescue+...7596/story.html

There was an intensive search for a full week that "included multiple search and rescue crews, a helicopter, the RCMP, the Canadian Rangers and around 150 people combing the Lorne Creek area" including "shoulder to shoulder sweeps" without any physical clue that the men had ever been in the area.

As the RCMP spokesperson put it, "The bush up in this country is extremely rugged .... It's some steep terrain, very dense thick bush. The scenarios of what could have happened to these men are numerous. There are a lot of things that can happen to people in the bush in this country."

There's some obvious frustration in the SAR leader's comments. It's reported that these guys had fire at some point and heard helicopters but didn't seem to help SAR crews locate them.

“Let Search and Rescue come and find you,”

Often people are found long after they Stop the Search. We can survive for 40 days many be more depending on conditions if we can find water, build a shelter and fire. If want to get saved; make a route card, then ask whoever you give it to not to stop looking for you for a few Weeks!

Agreed, "stay put" is the best advice for being found quickly. Naturally, this goes against every manly man's first instinct. But if you get turned around and keep moving aimlessly, you might go around the SAR crews and end up in an area that has already been searched. That makes you invisible.

EDIT: But as we discuss often, there are ways to help SAR find you even as you stay put. The smell of a smokey fire in dense bush still travels for miles and can give SAR a vector to focus the search. And if you get to a natural boundary, stay there!

Finally got to the article.

I guess a week seems reasonable. I mean, didn't the Navy just call off a search for sailors after something like 24 hours?

Still, I would hope my family would be out doing something. I hope my wife (and parents) would say something like "he's done a week before in the wilderness. He should still be OK." They know I don't go on a dayhike even w/o 10 E's and water filter or pills.

I have been following this story close as a couple of local SAR were involved in the search at one point.

Today, the second person was found deceased.

Really unfortunate. It sounds like they did stay put for a week -- but they were some distance outside the search area, which I gather has some pretty distinct boundaries (mountain, river, creek, railway line). Pretty spiky country, though, if the maps are any indication.

At the great risk of being an indelicate boor, I have to wonder why the deceased lost his life so quickly. They had fire for the first week, and water (I suspect) is not hard to come by. All sorts of things can gang up: exhaustion, changing weather, hypothermia, perhaps underlying medical conditions. Again I don't mean to be ghoulish, but if there are lessons I can learn I would like to better understand what happened.