Cold, bruised and tired, but otherwise alright, Annette Poitras and her three canine companions emerged from the backcountry thanks to the efforts of Coquitlam Search and Rescue after spending two nights lost in the woods in November.
The 56-year-old had been walking three dogs —Roxy, Chloe and Bubba — on Westwood Plateau before she slipped and fell, losing her cellphone and knocking herself unconscious. When she awoke, one of the pets was gone, so she went searching for the animal, getting even more turned around in the process.
More than 48-hours later, search crews came upon Poitras in the watershed area between Cypress and Burke Mountain. Search and rescue launched a long-line rescue to extract her and the three dogs and she was immediately taken to Royal Columbian Hospital upon landing, where she spent four nights recovering.
“If I had to spend one more night, I didn’t think I was going to make it,” she told reporters after being discharged from the hospital a week after the incident began.
She added that she did not want to leave the mountain without the animals, who kept her company — and warm — for the two rainy nights she spent outside.
Her husband, Marcel, said he was going to get her a GPS tracker for his wife, who routinely walks dogs on Eagle and Burke mountains, and said “he would lock it to [her] ankle if I have to.”
Poitras said she was grateful to the rescuers and said she was looking forward to spending a lot of time with family and friends over the holidays.
“I am just glad to be alive,” she said. “I am just so happy. “I am just glad to be alive,” she said. “I am just so happy. It is hard to describe. I don’t know what to say. I am just overwhelmed… It’s like I won the lottery.”
