Search crews have resumed their efforts to locate a missing Penticton, B.C., man whose wife was found alive on Friday after seven weeks stranded in the Nevada wilderness.
The hunt for Albert Chretien, 59, had to be suspended twice over the weekend because of poor weather. But on Monday a search party of 30 people on all-terrain vehicles or horseback began again to scour the area close to where Albert's wife, Rita, was found alive in the couple's van.
They were also able to search the area briefly from the air Monday morning. But a helicopter dispatched to the area had to be called back due to poor weather, said Leslie Ellis, a spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Elko Country, Nev., which is assisting in the search effort.
"We're hoping for the best," Ellis told CTV.ca by phone.
Albert disappeared three days after the Chretiens' vehicle got stuck in the mud in late March, near an old logging road along a national forest in northern Nevada.
Until Friday, searchers had been looking for the couple in the wrong area. They were searching 300 km further north, in southern Oregon, near the convenience store where the Chretiens were last seen in late March, captured on in-store video picking up snacks.
While Albert was carrying a GPS device to help him navigate back to the highway, he was not dressed for the weather in the mountains, which has seen a combination of rain and snow over the last several weeks.
He told his wife he was setting out on foot to what the couple believed was the closest place to find help, in Mountain City, Nev., 35 kilometres to the east. Albert hasn't been seen since.
Ken Tindall, a rancher in the area, said he believed the couple's GPS device could have led them astray.
"By Google or Internet or the maps, this is a through road," he said, but during this time of year it becomes unreliable, particularly "in the snow peaks and the passes."
The search crew has been using a GPS identical to the one Albert was carrying in the hopes of retracing his steps, Ellis said.
CTV's Sarah Galashan said that searchers are "holding out hope that maybe he's found a hunter's cabin in the area and sought shelter.
"Survivalists say that humans can go for weeks without food, provided they have water and shelter," Galashan said from Twin Falls, Idaho, where Rita Chretien remains in hospital. "That's what Rita Chretien had and they're holding out hope that Al was able to find the same thing."
But on Sunday, Elko County Sheriff's Sgt. Kevin McKinney sounded less optimistic.
"We've had rockslides and washouts of the roads. It's also very steep and mountainous terrain. There are also predators out there. We're not very confident we'll have a happy result in this," he said.
The terrain where the van was found is marked with some brush but no heavily dense forest. If searchers can get a plane in the air for enough time, they hope they can spot Albert.
The Chretiens left their home in Penticton, B.C., on March 19 to attend a trade show in Las Vegas. They apparently took a wrong turn at some point after they entered Nevada and ended up stranded on the logging road.
The Chretiens' son, Raymond, told reporters who had gathered Sunday at the hospital where Rita Chretien was taken that while he and his family are ecstatic to have their mother alive and well, they are still worried about their father.
"We are celebrating but we are praying for another miracle," Raymond Chretien said. "It's the biggest miracle we could ever ask for, and there's still one more to come in, so we're still praying for another one."
Raymond Chretien told CTV News he had braced for his mother to be in bad shape when he got to the hospital. Rita had subsisted for seven weeks on meager rations of hard candy, fish oil pills, trail mix and snow she melted in the sun. While his mother had lost almost 30 pounds, Raymond said she looked great.
"I wouldn't have hardly known anything had happened to her. It's just her, just the way I remember," he said. "It's amazing."
Her doctors at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho, say she has moved from a liquid diet to some solid food and is undergoing physical therapy.
When Rita was rescued "she was getting near the end," said Dr. James Westberry, but his team is very optimistic she will have a good recovery.
"To survive so long with sub-optimal nutrition, well, let's just say it's understandable to call it a miracle," he said.
With reports from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat and Sarah Galashan, and files from The Canadian Press
