At first, these two women checked Google Maps for an alternate route as an accident closed the highway. Then they decided to take a detour through the Holmes Forest Service Road. This road was partially plowed since last week, and the pair made it to the point where the grader had stopped.
Dwight Yochim, a senior manager with BC Search and Rescue team explained that after reaching that point, they faced a “wall of snow” and the pair got stuck when they tried to get through it. Yochim also mentioned that these women were nearly 20 kilometres down the road and had no cell service. The pair remained stuck in the snow with no one knowing where they were.
Yochim also explained that once the iPhone user activated the SOS, it sent a message to an Apple call centre which then contacted Northern 911 which is a call centre in Canada. Northern 911 then activated a call to emergency services in British Columbia and provided them with multiple information including the subject’s GPS location.
RCMP and Robson Valley Search and Rescue were then able to use the GPS location which helped them to strategise and understand the possibilities of what might have happened. The GPS location also helped them to speculate how the women may have gone up the logging road.
After that, the pair were found by the rescue party that helped pull their vehicle out and sent them back on their way. Yochim also said that without this technology the process to find them would have been a major search operation that could have lasted over a week.