ICE OF NORTH AMO WEST

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March 11,

1988

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News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222

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HE WENT out on a nice day, intending to ‘‘vo for a stroll”
in the mountains. Ten days later David Wayne Deveau, 32,
crawled from the bush in the darkness, delirious and more

dead than alive.

A self-described loner, he had
been missed by no one and nobody
was aware he had even gone up the
mountain Feb. 27.

That he survived 10 days in the
wintry Mount Seymour wilderness
without food, clad only in a jogg-
ing suit, runners and socks has
been termed amazing. His survival
is the longest on record for any
such ordeal on the local moun-
tains.

When he was found crumpled
and wasted at the doorstep of
Deep Cove resident Jim
Drumheller early Tuesday morn-

By MICHAEL BECKER
News Reporter

ing, Deveau was a dehydrated,
emaciated, frostbitten wreck of a
man.

“1 figured I was pretty gone,”’
Deveau remembered from his
LGH hospital bed Wednesday.
“By that time I was on the verge
of death and absolutely, totally
exhausted.””

Inspired by the good weather on
that Saturday in February, and the
desire to do something different,
Deveau, an unemployed former

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naval reserves man from Halifax,
Nova Scotia, now living in Van-
couver, packed a bag of oranges,
bread and bananas and watked
from Vancouver to Deep Cove and
up into the wilderness.

He built a lean-to somewhere
below the snow line, went for a
hike with his food left behind and
quickly got lost.

“T knew | had eight days before
('d die of starvation. [ kept trying
to find my kit, | kept counting the
days. By the cighth day I began to
crawl out,’’ he said.

Deveau, who says he's been a ci-
ty boy all his fife, said he drank
water from streams to keep his
stomach from collapsing and tried
to eat ferns. He followed streams
downhill in his desperate bid to
scramble back to civilization.

But he said, ‘'There were more
than T thought there were. bustead
of going in a straight line, 1 kept
going in mad circles.”

Deveau said he stopped feeling
hungry by the sixth day. He began
tricking himself into believing he

vas eating. “I'd be sitting under a
log and my mouth would be mov-
ing and I'd be thinking about piz-
za, bacon and eggs — everything.
It's a good way to survive actual-
ly."

His first meal at the hospital was
soup end tea. Deveau’s doctor, fan
Strang, treated his patient to a
much-appreciated smoked oyster
and back-bacon pizza Wednesday.

Said Strang: ‘“lt’s amazing he
survived 10 days. His core body

See Lost
Page 3

HIKER David Deveau...‘‘l knew 1
had eight days before Vd die of
starvation."'