A 65-year old woman spent three nights on the side of Mount Prevost in April before being rescued by the RCMP, according local police.
As part of his quarterly report to North Cowichan council on Sept. 3 covering from April to June, 2025, Staff Sergeant Ken Beard, head of the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment, said the police received a report of a missing woman on April 23.
He said police checks locally of areas the woman was known to frequent came up empty, and pings of her phone were conducted but proved unsuccessful in locating her.
“A check of her banking records showed the rental of a truck from Nanaimo,” Beard said.
“After obtaining GPS coordinates for the vehicle, members were able to locate the truck at the top of Mount Prevost, but there was no sign of the missing [woman]."
Beard said an emergency helicopter, called Air 8, was dispatched to conduct aerial grid searches of the area, and a police-dog unit was also sent in to try to find the woman.
He said after several passes over various locations between Mount Prevost and Mount Sicker, the Air 8 crew saw the reflection of something on the ground at the base of a heavily treed cliff area.
“The [woman] was seen laying in the fetal position in a small opening in the trees,” Beard said.
“The reflection noted by the tactical flight officer determined it to be the reflection of the sun off the belt buckle of a bag.”
Beard said the Air 8 crew guided the dog team down the cliff face where they located the missing woman alive.
He said a second helicopter with extraction capabilities was dispatched to retrieve the woman and the dog team.
“The missing [woman] recovered from her three-night ordeal on the mountain side,” Beard said.
