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Solo hiker Alastair Ferries knew the situation was grim when he reached the summit of Mount Harvey, north of Vancouver, Saturday afternoon.

The tracks belonging to a group of snowshoers he’d been following had simply vanished “over the side.”

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“There was nobody there,” he told the National Post.

Sunday afternoon, search and rescue personnel confirmed everyone’s worst fears: They had found the bodies of five missing hikers. It was believed they had plummeted 500 metres when a cornice — an overhanging mass of snow — at the summit had given way.

“This is not the outcome which we had hoped for,” Squamish RCMP Cpl. Sascha Banks said in statement after the first four bodies had been found. “Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the hikers and the search and rescue teams in Lions Bay who are still working tirelessly to find the fifth individual.”

Ferries said he was trudging up the steep trail Saturday afternoon — the weather had changed from rain to sleet to intermittent light snow with limited visibility, he said — when he came upon a lone hiker who told him he was with a group of five snowshoers who were up ahead.