Focus shifts from rescue to recovery of Calgarian missing on Yukon lake

The search for a 39-year-old Calgary man whose boat capsized Wednesday on a frigid lake in the southern Yukon has turned into a recovery effort, RCMP said Thursday evening.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Brad Kaeding said the man and his 24-year-old wife ran into trouble at about 10 p.m. when high winds and waves flipped their small boat, dumping them into Teslin Lake.

Teslin Lake spans the Yukon and B.C. border. The surface temperature of the lake was roughly 12 C at the time of the accident, said Kaeding.

The couple had only one lifejacket in the boat, he added.

The woman swam to shore using the sole flotation device and found a cabin two hours later, when police were called.

Search efforts of the lake and shoreline as well as an aerial flyover were conducted Thursday by RCMP and Whitehorse search and rescue teams, said Kaeding.

“At this point we are more into a recovery effort than a rescue effort,” Kaeding said. “The searchers are satisfied that they have satisfac- torily covered the lake to ensure it’s not possible he’s still floating or swimming or made it to shore somewhere.”

Kaeding said searchers will go back on the water tonight as well as tomorrow morning.

RCMP say the missing man is of Russian heritage, standing six feet tall, weighing 183 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes, and was last seen wearing black jeans and a green shirt.

The boat is described as a 16-foot, blue and sliver, fibreglass model with an outboard motor.

No names have been released.