{"id":157640,"date":"2026-08-06T05:29:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/157640\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T05:29:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:29:25","slug":"courtenay-hiker-now-missing-for-3-days-in-strathcona-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/157640\/","title":{"rendered":"Courtenay hiker now missing for 3 days in Strathcona Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dangerous search and rescue effort is underway in Strathcona Park, as teams rappel down cliffs and scour mountainsides for a missing hiker.<\/p>\n

Searchers set out by helicopter by the dozens on Wednesday from Mount Washington, as they entered the third day of the search for missing hiker Keshav Jindal.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Courtenay man\u00a0vanished in Strathcona Park on Monday afternoon. <\/p>\n

According to search manager Paul Berry, from Comox Valley Search & Rescue it happened about four hours into Jindal\u2019s hike that began atop Mount Washington. <\/p>\n

Watch the story below:<\/p>\n

He and a friend made a fateful decision to separate near Circlet Lake after the gruelling conditions became too much for the young man, who had only hiked three to four times before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe and his partner ascended out of Circlet Lake into the ridgetop into the alpine, and KJ made a decision not to summit Albert Edward and he would wait for his partner to come back down and then they would descend together,\u201d Berry told CHEK News on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know about 3:15 on Monday he sent a message to another friend quick video with a lake below saying \u2018hey I\u2019m going to start my way down to the lake.\u2019 We\u2019re not sure if it was Moat Lake he was looking at, or Circlet Lake but we don\u2019t believe he took a trail. Every trail has been scoured by air, by ground, by search dogs, with no success.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ PREVIOUS: Helicopters help search for missing Comox Valley man on Mount Albert Edward<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Missing man Keshav Jindal is shown. (Comox Valley Search and Rescue\/Facebook)<\/p>\n

Seven search\u00a0and rescue teams from across Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, hit the ground and poured their resources into the search on Wednesday, rappelling down rock faces and tackling difficult terrain.<\/p>\n

Hiker Warren Bell told CHEK News it is easy to get lost in the area that Jindal was last seen in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrifying. I\u2019ve been lost up there. Yeah my phone died up there. Not fun,\u201d said Bell.<\/p>\n

According to Berry, Jindal has youth in his favour and is physically fit, but didn\u2019t pack enough to sustain him this long. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe he took a short cut down to the lake below and if he\u2019s done that, he\u2019s in very steep and dangerous terrain,\u201d said Berry.<\/p>\n

Berry said the search will continue into Thursday, though it can\u2019t expand, since all available helicopters are now fighting B.C.\u2019s wildfires. So searchers will rely on the aircraft and crews they have already, as they prepare to enter day four of their effort to find the missing hiker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dangerous search and rescue effort is underway in Strathcona Park, as teams rappel down cliffs and scour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50707,17,50708,50709,50710,50711,14629,50712,15719,50713,43384,50714,784],"class_list":["post-157640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-adventure-smart","tag-canada","tag-comox-valley-search-and-rescue","tag-dangerous-terrain","tag-keshav-jindal","tag-lost-hiker","tag-missing-hiker","tag-mount-washington","tag-search-and-rescue","tag-search-effort","tag-strathcona-park","tag-vancouver-island-hiking","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}