North Shore Rescue pauses search for missing Surrey senior

North Shore Rescue has put the search for an 84-year-old man, missing from trails near Grouse Mountain, on temporary hold.

Crews began looking for Won Kil Kim of Surrey after he was last seen around midday Sunday, Nov. 16, on the Dam or Little Goat Alpine Trail.

NSR says Kim is familiar with the trail, and he’s been in the area many times, but he may have fallen or become disoriented.

Search Manager Allan McMordie tells 1130 NewsRadio that NSR volunteers spent hours Thursday night brainstorming ideas to expand and continue the search, but their efforts will have to wait until forecasted rain passes.

“If we can do any of these things in our list, it looks like we’ll have to wait for Sunday to get out into the field,” said McMordie.

He says rescue crews did not search Thursday and will not search Friday or Saturday either, but are continuously monitoring the area, and some volunteers will complete low-risk tasks related to the search.

Earlier in the week, challenges, including heavy cloud, hampered efforts to use a drone and a helicopter.

Crews have also used a device called Lifeseeker, which sends a signal to locate cellphones out of the range of towers — though it requires phones to have battery power, and it appears Kim’s phone is powered off.

McMordie says NSR has been able to track Kim’s movements — riding the bus to Grouse Mountain and taking the gondola up — but no further than an image of him on the trail.

“We did intensive searching Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Wednesday was clearer, so we were able to get better air coverage with both helicopter and drones, but we’ve not had any sign or clue since that image of him at 12:20 p.m. on Sunday.”

(Courtesy Surrey Police Service)

(Courtesy North Shore Rescue via Facebook)

Surrey police have described Kim as a 5’5″, 140-pound man.

“It is believed he was wearing a grey rain jacket, purple gloves, and was using hiking poles,” said an NSR post to social media, including the image of Kim on the trail.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the Surrey Police Service at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, quoting file number 2025-63477 (SU).

—With files from David Nadalini and Monika Gul