The search for an 84-year-old man, missing from trails near Grouse Mountain, will enter its third day Wednesday.
North Shore Rescue (NSR) and other search and rescue teams began looking for Won Kil Kim of Surrey after he was last seen around midday Sunday on the Dam or Little Goat Alpine Trail.
NSR says Kim is familiar with the trail, and he’s been in the area many times, but he may have fallen or become disoriented.
Search Manager Allan McMordie tells CityNews that the search expanded on its second day.
“Is he just off the trail, or is there some sign? And we also have a search dog team up, seeing if we can pick up any scent on the major trails,” McMordie explained Tuesday.
North Shore Rescue says there have been challenges, including heavy cloud, which has hampered efforts to use a drone and a helicopter.
Crews have also used a device called Lifeseeker, which sends a signal to locate cellphones out of the range of towers — though it requires phones to have battery power, and it appears Kim’s phone is powered off.
“We’ve had it up — we had it up all day [Monday]. Even with the cloud, they were able to get in some of the gullies but have not been able to pick up anything,” said McMordie.
On Wednesday, NSR says the search will include thermal drones.
Surrey police have described Kim as a 5’5″, 140-pound man.
“It is believed he was wearing a grey rain jacket, purple gloves, and was using hiking poles,” said an NSR post to social media, including an image of Kim on a trail.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the Surrey Police Service at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, quoting file number 2025-63477 (SU).
—With files from Monika Gul