Alanna Kelly

Two young Kelowna men are lucky to be alive after fighting for their lives when they got lost and had to spend the night on Boulder Mountain in Revelstoke.

It was the perfect day for snowmobiling, but one wrong turn quickly changed everything.

Andrew Macleod and TJ Dumonceaux, both 23, rented the snowmobiles on Saturday as they were hoping to buy sleds themselves.

“We were running out of gas and we were making our way down when we took a trail into some really gnarly stuff,” said Macleod. “We turned the sleds around and we tried to get out of that area and we ended up in this gully with a river in it.”

The two tried to get the sleds out over and over, but kept getting stuck.

“It started getting dark, and we realized to ourselves that we weren’t going to make it out at all that night,” he said.

An alarm was set to go off every 15 minutes so the two wouldn’t fall asleep and get hypothermia. When they would wake up, they would wiggle their toes, which would crack the ice off the inside of their boots.

“We were soaking wet. We were freezing cold. We just huddled for warmth in this shelter all night,” said Macleod.

On Sunday morning, the two ate the rest of their food and tried to dig the sleds out again, but their hands were frozen. They decided to walk and try to find a trail.

“We just walked and walked and walked until about 2 p.m. in waist-deep powder trying to find a trail or any snowmobiles,” he said. “We couldn’t walk anymore, so we found this tree and it really wasn’t looking good.

“We really thought we were going to die."

Dumonceaux said they tried to stay positive throughout most of the day, but they started to lose hope.

“You lose a lot of hope when you are out there and you don’t know where you are, you are cold, tired, hungry,” he said.

A helicopter flew over the boys for a few minutes, but disappeared. It was a short while after when they heard the noise of the helicopter again.

"We just started yelling and screaming and setting off two flares when the helicopter came close. Finally, we heard snowmobiles come close and heard someone yell “hey” and it was the best moment of my life,” said Macleod.

“It went from hell to heaven within two seconds.”

The men said they were so dehydrated they couldn’t even cry when the crews scooped them up.

“Everything they did was just spectacular, they are very professional and finally got us home,” said Macleod.

The two are putting together a gift to give to the Revelstoke Search and Rescue crews to thank them.