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Aug 6, 2003, 6:53 PM
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SOURCE: http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=BCD3B471-B3BE-47E1-ADE3-0A24CB44C9CB
Three men, including two Quebecers were missing after being thrown into the water while attempting to kayak down a river described as a "devil's club" by one local.
A fourth man was located by B.C. national park wardens and rescued.
Team leader Michel Bastien and Yves Laforest of Quebec, who made headlines last week when they climbed British Columbia's Mount Hope for a children's cancer charity haven't been heard from since July 29. That's when they planned to hike, along with an unidentified French national, in the vicinity of B.C.'s Glacier National park. The group was going to then kayak down the Incomappleux River to Beaton.
"It's the jungle, it's devil's club, it's not nice at all. It's not easy walking lets put it that way," said Doug Seaton, an environmental consultant who works in the area.
"Holy smokes," he said, shocked that anybody would try to kayak in such a rugged and uncharted area.
He said there's one waterfall on the route and no road access.
"That's uncharted territory, there's no roads, no access, no history. It's absolutely wild."
The RCMP in Nakusp and Revelstoke and the National Park Warden Service were called in to investigate when they didn't arrive as scheduled on Aug. 3.
The cancer charity Leucan, which runs a two-week summer camp in Quebec City, received regular satellite telephone calls during the expedition.
The last call came when the climbers reached the mountain's peak and indicated they would be taking the kayak down the river as planned.
"We began to seriously worry on Sunday when they told us they hadn't arrived and the search with the RCMP would start Monday," said Ginette Charest, general manager of Leucan.
The unidentified French climber is believed to have joined the expedition along the way, she said in an interview.
Park wardens searching in a helicopter spotted two empty kayaks along with outdoor equipment, RCMP said in a statement Tuesday.
They found a note from film producer Martin Champagneur, 27, of France, who was accompanying the expedition, indicating he went for a walk along the river. The wardens later located him and extracted him by air.
He said the group had been thrown into the water about four hours into their kayaking trip which followed their successful climb.
The river is glacier fed and cold, Seaton said. "It's certainly not nice swimming. I'd imagine it's about 10 degrees right now," he said.
"They must be pretty experienced guys to take on that route."
Bernard Voyer said he remained hopeful that his friend, Laforest, would be found alive.
"He is in love with nature and adventure . . . it's why I believe he is still alive," he told CTV News. "I don't want to imagine the worst."
Laforest became the first Quebecer to reach the summit of Everest in 1991. Bastien is the head of customer service for Air Canada's Aeroplan rewards program.
Bastien, 38, climbed nearly 3,000 metres up the remote Mount Hope in the Selkirk Mountains. It was his third climb for Leucan, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.
His first ascent was the 7,000-metre Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. He also reached the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.
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