Today they played it forward by making a $15,000 donation to Central Okanagan Search and Rescue.

In 2018, the two were test riding rental snowmobiles near Revelstoke when they ran low on gas and decided to head back to the trailhead. However, fog had enveloped the mountain and somewhere in the whiteout they missed a turn, dropped into a ravine, and got stuck.

As darkness fell and with all of their spare clothes soaked because of a ruptured water bottle, they dug a shelter in a treewell and lined it with branches.

However, the sweat from digging in the snow, combined with condensation from their breath made everything they were wearing damp, so Dumonceaux set his alarm for every 15 minutes so they wouldn’t doze off into hypothermia

“I’ve never been so cold in my life,” said MacLeod.

When the sun rose at around 7 a.m, it was still foggy so the pair started walking. It was slow going in the waist deep snow and they would walk for less than a minute before they needed to stop for a rest.

“It was so cold I couldn’t use my hands,” said Dumonceaux.

Dehydrated and severely hypothermic, the two were starting to look for another place to spend the night when they heard snow bikes.

Dumonceaux set off a flare and a few minutes later members of the Revelstoke SAR snowbike team arrived.

Hot soup, dry clothes and a heated UTV got the two safely back to the trailhead.

And today, through their companies, TJ & Steph Real Estate Group and The Co-Operators: Solve Insurance Service Inc., the two are thanking search and rescue.

They gave the money to their local volunteer organization because of the increased numbers of riders enjoying the local Greystokes snowmobiling area and the huge increase in callouts COSAR has had to deal with this year.

“We are extremely grateful for the donation,” said COSAR president Brad Trites.

“This money will go towards snowmobile and avalanche training for the team. We do mutual aid with all the regional search and rescue groups, including Vernon, Shuswap, and Revelstoke, and this donation will benefit them as much as it will benefit us.”

 

If you want to donate to COSAR, click the Donate button above.

 

All donations over $20 will get a tax-deductible receipt.

So far in 2021 COSAR has had 103 callouts.

 

· For more on the initial search, go to: