Snow biker hopes to retrieve abandoned bike after mountain rescue

Jordan Edgelow has recruited three friends to hike with him up Mara Mountain, about 100 kilometers northeast of Vernon.

They hope to find the snow bike Edgelow abandoned on January 16 and rig it up so it can be helicoptered off the mountain.

"It's still just dangling on the edge of a cliff," the 27-year-old toldDaybreak South host, Chris Walker.

Earlier that afternoon, Edgelow and a group of friends were snow biking on the mountain when Edgelow became separated from the group. A snow bike is basically a cross between a motorbike and a snowmobile.

"I thought I could find my own way back up instead of going the way back up I came," he said.

"It was too steep.I couldn't really get back up."

Eventually, Edgelow's snow bike got hung up on a tree stump.

With daylight dwindling, he decided to leave the bike and hiked to the closest clearing where he set up a shelter using pine branches and got a fire going.

Edgelow spent the night huddled around his fire, trying to keep warm. Luckily, the temperature only dipped to about -7C.

"I was really fortunate about that. It wasn't as cold as it was a week earlier," he said.

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Early the next morning, Edgelow heard the sounds of a rescue helicopter that was sent out to find him. He threw pine branches and gasoline from a jerry can on his fire to throw up a plume of smoke and make his location easy to find.

"They saw it no problem," he said.

Edgelow has never taken any formal rescue training.

"But I had an avalanche backpack with a shovel with a saw built into it. I had a water bottle and a sandwich and I just had to make do with what I had."

What he had was just enough to get him through the night, so he could return, safe and soundto his home in Lavington.

Now all he has to do is retrieve his snow bike.

With files from CBC Radio'sDaybreak South

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To listen to to the full interview, click on the audio labeled:Snow biker spends night trapped on Mara Mountain