Snowboarder found after 3 nights on Mount Seymour says he wasn't alone

A young snowboarder who was found three days after going missing on Mount Seymour in North Vancouver told rescuers he saw other tracks on the mountain.

James William Martin, 21, was being treated for frostbite to the hands and feet at Vancouver General Hospital after rescuers loaded him into a helicopter basket Wednesday and flew him to safety, North Vancouver RCMP said.

The North Shore Rescue team was initiating a new search Wednesday night for fear that someone else is missing on the mountain, search manager Tim Jones said.

Jones said he interviewed Martin at the hospital, who told him he saw "another set of tracks" on the mountain Tuesday afternoon.

Fresh tracks discovered 

"We have to go back to where we found him [Martin]. There may be a second subject [missing]," Jones said.

Jones said Martin, after warming up and being treated, was certain about seeing the tracks at about "500 feet above the Seymour River," lower than where Martin was found.

'God looked after him. He made him safe and kept him safe.' — Debbie Martin, mother of James Martin

Searchers located Martin, who is from Orillia, Ont., at about  2:30 p.m. on Wednesday in an area known as Suicide Gully, North Vancouver RCMP Const. Marlene Morton told CBC News earlier Wednesday.

There is a chance that Martin was hallucinating, Jones said, but "the bottom line is I believe him. I believe what he saw.

"He was very specific with times when we were in the helicopter looking for him [on Tuesday] and the time he came across the tracks," Jones said.

The tracks Martin referred to were about 24 hours fresh, Jones said.

Martin is a 'survivor'

Ground crews, consisting of searchers from North Shore Rescue, B.C. Parks, Lion's Bay and Coquitlam, had been scouring the perimeter of Mount Seymour looking for Martin since first light Wednesday. Conditions at the top of Mount Seymour were treacherous and windy.

Martin's mother, Debbie Martin, said her faith that her son would be found never wavered. He used the outdoor skills learned from a lifetime of ice fishing and camping, she said.

"God looked after him. He made him safe and kept him safe," Martin told CBC News from her Ontario home Wednesday afternoon.

"All the survival tips that his dad taught him came to use.… He's a survivor."

Despite having strong faith in her son's safe return, the mother said learning that he had gone missing Tuesday was excruciating.

"It's the most scariest thing in the world. It's something that I always couldn't imagine how other parents were dealing with it and I thought to myself, 'I don't want to deal with it either.'"

North Vancouver RCMP found Martin's SUV parked at the top of the Mount Seymour parking lot on Tuesday. He is believed to have moved to the Vancouver area from Orillia last year.

Martin's last known activity was buying a sandwich at the base of the mountain on Sunday afternoon, according to a receipt found by police in his 1996 grey Ford Explorer. The vehicle carried Ontario plates.

In addition to the receipt, a wallet and a cellphone were found in his car. One day earlier, Martin had sent an email to a friend.

"We always have to have some hope, and it ended up coming to fruition," said Morton, adding it's a miracle Martin was found alive.

Martin is an employee with Tristar Installations Ltd, a roofing company in Langley.

"Words escape me right now. We've been hoping and praying that he would show up alive, and we all but gave him up for dead," Paul Bralovich, Martin's boss, told CBC News.

Bralovich's wife, Shelley, said it is "wonderful" news that the young man is alive.

"His poor mom phoned me this morning from Ontario. Neither of us was giving up hope," Bralovich said.

'Can't take mountains lightly'

Tim Jones of North Shore Search and Rescue told a news conference Wednesday morning that efforts were likely to shift to recovery of the man's body, as an aerial sweep of the mountain Tuesday with a helicopter sounding alarms turned up no indication of life.

"This terrain around here, it's a graveyard," Jones said. "You can't take the north shore mountains lightly."