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Rescuers battle blizzard
to search for lost skiers

NEWS phcto Neil Lucente

| Connell helps Canada advance

# GRANT CONNELL hits a backhand in his first match of the near-Canadian sweep of the Davis Cup tie against

4 Brazil held at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre over the weekend. The North Vancouver native sunk

gq Danilo Marcelino 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 on Friday and then went on to win in doubles on Saturday with long-time partner
Glenn Michibata against Luiz Mattar and Fernando Roese. Canada cane away from the Davis Cup weekend 4-1, the
only Joss being the match between Mattar, Brazil’s No.1, and Connell on Sunday. The Canadian team advances to the
semi-finals of the American Zone in Paraguay which will be heid this spring. Sce story page 13; editorial page 6.

DOZENS OF local search
and rescue volunteers were
called to action this week
when seven skiers went miss-
ing Sunday in blizzard con-
ditions on the North Shore’s
Grouse and Seymour moun-
tains.

By MICHAEL BECKER
News Reporter

The last of the lost skiers, 15-
year-old Eric Fossum of North
Vancouver, was located and
brought to safety Monday after-
noon,

The North Shore Rescue Team
(NSRT) was first dispatched to
Grouse at approximately 5:30 p.m.
Sunday after two teen skiers were
reported missing.

Searchers combing the mountain
for two Langley residents, 16-
year-old Michael Ware and 15-
year-old Tara Kerr, received unex-
pected assistance 7:30 p.m. when
four other lost skiers walked off
the mountain at Grouse's gondola
parking lot. The four had hiked
downhill for four hours after los-
ing their way white skiing.

They had not been reported as
missing.

The group told officials that
they had met the two Langley teens
on their way down.

Search master Allan McMordie
sent two teams of men toa gully in
which Ware and Kerr were last
seen and the pair walked out by 5
a.m. Monday.

“‘The two teams were getting
close to each other and started fir-
ing off flares,** McMordie said.
**The sound of the Mares drew the
attention of Tara and Mike and
they came out of their little hole.
They were cold and wet but in
good shape. We just bundled them
off to their parents.”’

Said Grouse general manager
Gary Kiefer, who spent a sleepless
night Sunday, ‘‘It was very rugged
out there and we were very con-
cerned about these kids.”’

And he was quick to praise the
efforts of the rescue team:
“You've got to take your hat off
to those guys. They put up with
this kind of stuff week after week.
They are an amazing bunch. Just
thank God for their efforts."”

While all of the fost skiers had
ventured into an out-of-bounds
area, Kiefer said he has decided
not to charge them for services
provided by Grouse staff in the
rescue.

“Under normal circumstances

See Lost
Page 3