Members of Arrowsmith Search and Rescue scrambled to help their colleagues in Comox search for a missing woman on Mount Washington last week.
Local ASAR volunteer Joe Kinch led a team of two horse-searchers, a water rescue team and one ground searcher in a two-day effort to find 75-year-old Shirley Burstall.
The Saanich resident was last seen at a Ladysmith gas station on April 5. Her vehicle was found Monday was found on a logging road at the base of the mountain, parking an intensive search.
Kinch said conditions were difficult for the searchers, with rough terrain and pouring rain.
“We got soaked out there,” he said. “We covered just over 19 kilometres. The woman was found within a kilometre of the car, but we were on the other side of the highway.”
The identity of the elderly woman’s body was later confirmed to be the subject of the search.