KIMBERLEY (NEWS 1130) – A happy ending to a massive search and rescue in the Kootenays.

Kimberley RCMP say searchers have found two-year-old Isaac Leuenberger alive and healthy near Yankee Lake in Premier Lake Provincial campground. The boy wandered away from his mom and two siblings while on a hike last night around 7 p.m.

Corporal Chris Newel says everyone involved can’t believe their good fortune. “[He was found] in excellent good health. Mum is just giving him something to eat and cleaning him up. He has a got a few scratches on him. We are just so grateful of the outcome, everybody here is just ecstatic.”

“There is a network of trails all around the campground and through the campground…Yankee Lake would be about 2 km from the campground. It is a well-used, fairly well marked trail. As a two year old you can certainly see the exploratory nature of what that leads, so maybe he got separated from mum and up and trail and off he went. He seemed to survive quite nicely.”

About 70 volunteers and Mounties were involved in a frantic search from the ground and the air through the morning.