Bodies of 3 climbers found near Squamish over a month after they disappeared

The lengthy search for three missing climbers has come to a tragic, but expected end.

More than a month after they disappeared in the Atwell Peak area of Garibaldi Provincial Park, police said three bodies were found in the area earlier today.

“Members of Squamish Search and Rescue (SSAR) worked with the RCMP this morning to recover the bodies of three individuals in the Atwell Peak area,” explained SSAR manager BJ Chute.

The investigation is now in the hands of the BC Coroners Service and neither the RCMP or SSAR will be releasing any further information.

The victims’ families have been notified and are requesting privacy at this difficult time. As a result, the names of the deceased will not be released by police.

The three experienced mountaineers were last seen on Atwell Peak, on the southern edge of Mount Garibaldi, on Friday, May 31.

SSAR spokesperson Christy Allan described the terrain in the area as “really complex and remote.”

Early search efforts were hampered by adverse weather conditions and high avalanche risk, and it took several days before SSAR could get helicopters in the air.

Even once the weather took a positive turn, efforts to locate the missing climbers from both the ground and air were unsuccessful.

And the window of good weather did not last long, leading to a temporary suspension of the search on Thursday, June 4.

At the time, Mounties said efforts to find the missing mountaineers would resume after an analysis of two days of video footage captured by drones.