No one really knows what happened to Prabh Srawn.
The 25-year-old Canadian university student has been missing since May, 2013, when he went out on a solo hike in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, Australia.
A military reservist, Srawn trained others in winter survival, and was not an inexperienced hiker.
Srawn wanted to summit the two highest mountains on the continent and possibly the third, which are all within a long day’s hike of each other.
At 2 p.m., a severe storm blew in, dumping 50 to 80 cms of snow onto the park. He hasn’t been seen since.
The search hasn’t stopped for the last nine months.
In December, Srawn’s parents said they would pay all expenses for a team of professionals to come from B.C. to Australia to search for their son.
Rescue teams from B.C. were singled out because they have experience in steep and rocky terrain. Every group in the province was asked if they had any members willing to go and Bulkley Valley Search and Rescue member Fred Oliemans put his name forward.
Oliemans was one of 18 Canadians who spent 10 days looking for Srawn over difficult, mountainous terrain. His main responsibility was methodically searching small areas with his other team members.
“It was big country with a lot of big granite boulder fields,” he said. “We covered the ground in a systematic and organized way. This was the first time it had been searched when there was no snow on the ground.”
Searchers were given a taste of how quickly the conditions can change in mountainous terrain. On the second day, Oliemans and his team also got caught in a fast-moving storm and were pinned down for a couple of days.
“Clouds came up and it just got worse and worse and it whited out. We woke up to snow the next morning. It was hard to find the path. Then we began to realize, that was probably what he got caught in. He must have got caught out in something like that and got disoriented.
“We were hunkered down in our tents, waiting for a break.”
Unfortunately, they were unable to find any trace of the young man.
“We considered it a recovery mission and I think the family accepted that at this point,” Oliemans said. “We were trying to find out what happened.”
Oliemans has been a member of the BVSAR team for the last 15 years. He’s a ground search team leader and a member of the tracking team.
It’s hard work, but very rewarding, he said.
He has seen similar situations many times, often on Hudson Bay Mountain’s Prairie, where people get disoriented on familiar trails when weather conditions change.
“We go up [to the Prairie] on a fairly regular basis to get people out of trouble,” Oliemans said.
The smartest thing to do in a situation like that, is to stay in one place and wait for help.
“The best way to prepare against situations like this is, for one, you don’t go alone, you go with someone. Also you need to have enough gear with you that if you get lost, you can stop somewhere and be reasonably OK.”
Right now, BVSAR has about 40 active members, in numerous roles.
The positions, responsibility and time commitment vary.BVSAR have monthly meetings and conduct regular training exercises.
On Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 and 2, BVSAR is holding training sessions for new members. This is the first in a series of training nights taking place throughout the winter. Areas that will be covered include basic orienteering, first aid, tracking, swift water rescue, radio communications and search techniques.
Upon completion of the training, individuals will be certified as ground search team members.
Anyone interested in finding out more can come to BVSAR’s regular training session Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m.
The SAR hall is in the basement of Ranger Park Hall on 17th Ave. and Princess Street.