RCMP admit they should have searched sooner for skiers

RCMP admit they should have searched sooner for skiers
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Last Updated: 26th February 2009, 1:44pm
GOLDEN, B.C. — The RCMP say a search should have been called as soon as they were informed that an SOS had been spotted on a B.C. mountainside where two skiers were lost.

A couple from Quebec were out of bounds on a mountain at a Revelstoke resort for nine days before they were found, but the wife had died.

The two had managed to stamp the rescue symbol out in the snow, and its discovery was reported to police, but a search wasn’t called until three days later.

Cpl. Dan Moskaluk told a news conference in Golden that an independent review will be called into why it took so long.

Gilles Blackburn, 51, has been released from hospital after being treated for frostbite and is on his way back to Quebec.

An autopsy on his wife, Marie Josee Fortin, 44, is to be done in the coming days.