Crews scour mountains for missing hiker who took Sea-to

Crews scour mountains for missing hiker who took Sea-to-Sky gondola

Stanislav Volo never returned to the gondola as planned on Sunday afternoon

Search-and-rescue crews are scouring the mountains near Squamish, B.C., for a man who was reported overdue from a hike over the weekend.

RCMP say Stanislav Volo disembarked at the top of the Sea-to-Sky Gondola around 11:30 a.m. PT on Sunday, with plans to hike the Mount Habrich Loop.

Police say the 43-year-old father failed to go back down on the gondola Sunday afternoon.

"We are distraught, but we are hopeful," Volo's cousin Yana Geng said.

"We are really focusing on staying positive and only playing positive scenarios in our heads."

Geng described her cousin as an avid outdoorsperson who loves trail running and cycling, and who moved his family to Squamish about two years ago.

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Tyler Duncan, a search manager with Squamish Search and Rescue, said the last known contact with Volo was a missed call to his wife around 4:30 p.m. PT.

Search teams deployed around 8:30 p.m. Sunday and were on the mountain until about 2:30 a.m., before logging a full but fruitless day on Monday.

Duncan said a group of hikers saw Volo at a trail junction about a third of the way through his planned route, and that the current theory is he is somewhere in the Habrich Ridge area.

"Habrich Ridge represents quite technical, engaged and exposed alpine terrain," Duncan said.

"It basically represents a series of fairly complicated cliff bands that stack on top of each other, there are some hiking trails that go up there but it is ... not [a] beginner hiking zone, for sure."

On Tuesday, search-and-rescue crews from Pemberton to Chilliwack joined in the effort, supported by drones and helicopters.

Volo is described as five feet 11 inches tall, with a medium build, blue eyes and blonde hair worn in a ponytail.

He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, black shorts, white socks, black runners and a smaller blue-and-grey backpack. He had a red long-sleeve shirt with him.

People are being urged to stay out of the area during the search operation.

Geng urged anyone who may have seen something unusual or suspicious in the area to call police.

"If your spidey senses are tingling, then report it," she said.

"We love him and we miss him and we adore him. He's an enormous part of our world."