A new development has come to light in the search for a missing Squamish man who vanished while hiking by himself in B.C.’s Sea-to-Sky region.
Stanislav Volo got off at the top of the Sea-to-Sky Gondola, in Squamish, around 11:30 a.m. PT on Sunday, with plans to hike the Mount Habrich Loop, according to RCMP.
Dozens of volunteers from multiple search and rescue crews around the Lower Mainland have converged on the mountain above the gondola since to search for the missing 43-year-old.
Drones, helicopters, ground crews and police dogs have all been involved in the effort.
Crews scour mountains for missing hiker who took Sea-to-Sky gondola
Volo’s sister, Ola Volo, said they received a new clue on Tuesday during the search.
“We recently got informed that he did make a phone call to 911,” Ola said. “He did say on the call that he was stuck on the mountain, but the call was very short.”
Search teams looking for missing hiker in Sea-to-Sky region
The call to 911 came through at around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, search and rescue confirmed.
Ola said the family listened to the phone call.
“It was definitely his phone number and his voice,” she said. “It was so brief that I just hold on to those seconds as much as I can.”
Mount Habrich Loop has limited cell service, which the family believes is the reason for the short phone call.
“We know he’s out there and we know he’s alive and he’s doing everything he can to fight this weather and to stay warm and to stay with us,” Ola said.
Volo’s cousin Yana Geng said there is a huge community of people who care about him.
“He is an amazing, hands-on, dedicated father to two beautiful children. He’s a loving husband. He’s a wonderful son, he’s an awesome brother and an awesome cousin as well,” Geng said.
Tyler Duncan, a search manager with Squamish Search and Rescue, said they believe Volo is still in the Habrich loop area.
“Due to the technical aspect of it, due to the countless number of gullies, little canyons, big boulder fields, there’s literally an infinite number of places he could be,” Duncan said.
The area, while not geographically large, is challenging to search.
“When you actually get up there, and you look at pictures of the zone, you realize just how technical the terrain is and how varied and ledgy and stepped that terrain is,” Duncan said.
Weather complicated search efforts on Wednesday, and the search is resuming on Thursday morning for the fifth day.
On the day Volo went missing, other hikers believe they saw him on the Shannon Basin Loop, which leads to the hike he was expected to be on.
A section of the Mount Habrich Loop includes a series of fairly complicated cliff bands that stack on top of each other.
“Which is a very popular climbing area,” Duncan said. “There are some hiking trails that go up there, but it is technical, exposed alpine terrain, so not [a] beginner hiking zone.”
Duncan said there was also a missed call from Volo to his wife around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“Our best theory is that he’s down off the ridgeline somewhere and has lost service,” Duncan said.
Surveillance footage from Sunday shows Volo getting off the Sea-to-Sky Gondola at the top wearing a black T-shirt, black shorts and a black backpack.
Squamish RCMP are asking anyone who may have spotted Volo to contact them at 604-892-6100.
