The extra-long Easter weekend and a mountainside rescue
3 hikers got stranded on B.C.'s Mount Seymour in 1982, prompting a rescue effort
They stayed calm and things turned out all right — though they had to be patient in order to stay safe.
Thirty-eight years ago, a trio of British Columbia hikers had gone out to Mount Seymour on Good Friday, with a plan to return home on Easter Sunday.
A sudden change in weather meant their return home wasn't going to happen on the expected timetable.
"By Easter Sunday ... a spring storm had swept in from the coast and dumped enough snow to stop them in their tracks somewhere beyond the ski slopes in deep wilderness," the CBC's Jerry Thompson said, when recapping their story on The National on April 15, 1982, the day they were rescued.
"Fortunately, they were experienced and wise enough to stay put, while the search crews combed the back trails."
'Howdy, folks!'
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The situation left them stranded in a tiny tent for four days longer than they expected.
They were rescued amid another blizzard.
"Howdy, folks!" a cheerful Jeff Guthman said, when he and his friends spoke to the media the day after The National's report aired.
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He told reporters "the first couple of nights were rough because the wind was blowing," but Guthman said the trio managed to get some sleep on their last night in the outdoors.
Steve Hill was smiling, as was his mother, when he emerged from the scary situation unscathed.
"Here's the person who's most glad to see me, I think," Hill said, referring to his mother who was standing beside him.
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Thompson put their ordeal into perspective for viewers at home.
"So, the story has a happy ending," he said. "What's ironic is that you could come so close to tragedy on a mountainside that is within sight of a city of 1.5 million people."