Visiting hikers rescued from West Vancouver trail

Two visiting hikers were rescued early Saturday morning after getting stuck on a West Vancouver trail.

According to North Shore Rescue, a man and woman in their early twenties were hiking the Eagle Bluffs trail on route to Cypress Bowl on Friday when they got caught by nightfall and decided they weren't comfortable carrying on with the hike.

"They weren't really prepared to stay out overnight if they had to, and obviously weren't prepared for the darkness [and] didn't anticipate that the hike was going to take them so long,"said North Shore Rescue search manager Simon Jackson.

He said the pair called 911 around 10 p.m. and West Vancouver police patched the call through to the rescue team.

A search crew found the hikers along the trail, warmed them up and escorted them to the Cypress Mountain Resort nearly five hours later.

"It would have been a long, cold night for them if we hadn't been able to get there,"said Jackson of the hikers who had minimal gear, no food and no water.

He said the hikers made the right decision to call for help when they did though, instead of carrying on and losing the trail completely, which could have made the search more difficult.

The male hiker, 20-year-old Yuhan Li from London, Ontario, said he and his hiking partner, a 20-year-old student from the United States encountered steep terrain that set their schedule back.

"It was getting foggy and pretty cold, and we ran out of water, it was pretty frustrating,"said Li.

"I must thank them for maybe saving our lives, we weren't feeling good on the mountain."

Besides being cold, tired and hungry, Jackson said the hikers were in good condition.

He said the key takeaway for hikers is to plan appropriately, carry the 10 essentials recommended on the North Shore Rescue website, know when it will be dark, and be prepared to stay out overnight.