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UPDATE: Searchers find body of missing Valhalla Park hiker

Man’s apparently fell 800 feet down off challenging trail
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A hiker missing since Sunday has been found dead. Image from Google Maps

Search and rescue crews have recovered the body of a hiker who went missing Monday in Valhalla Provincial Park in the Slocan.

About 30 searchers and two helicopters were searching Mount Gimli for the hiker, who was reported missing on Monday.

On Tuesday morning searchers found the man’s body about 820 feet down from a trail on the front face of the mountain.

“He was going up the East Face, a popular trail that takes you up the ridge to the mountain,” says Mike Hudson, the head of South Columbia Search and Rescue. “But as you go up the trail it changes into a different class for experience. The section is a Class 3 or 4, and it requires you to do a scramble to go up.

“It’s very ledgey and narrow and steep, and that’s where we figured he was when he fell.”

While the man was found early in the search — after about two hours — Hudson says it was a highly technical recovery effort on difficult terrain. It took recovery crew about two hours to locate and recover the body.

Police have yet to release details about the man.

Black Press will update this story as new information becomes available.