A 19-year-old has Penticton and District Area Search and Rescue to thank for a late night rescue in steep terrain early Wednesday.

Around 9 p.m. Penticton Rescue (PENSAR) responded to a call from RCMP about a lost 19-year-old man in the Mahoney Lake Ecological reserve.

PENSAR responded to the area with 11 members and three rescue trucks.

The teen鈥檚 location was able to be identified through a Search and Rescue management app Connect Rocket that can pinpoint the subjects location using the person鈥檚 cellphone. Connect Rocket will let the lost person know through their phone that search and rescue is coming to them. Once the location was confirmed, two teams set out on foot and found him in steep terrain but in good health, said PENSAR manager Randy Brown.

By 1:45 a.m. Wednesday, the teen was escorted out of the area and reunited with family members.

鈥淧ENSAR wishes to reinforce that if your heading out on a hike, tell someone where you鈥檙e heading. Plan for the unexpected, take some extra clothing, food and water and an extra cell phone battery. A little planning and preparation will help when the unexpected happens,鈥� said Brown.

This is the third rescue in less than a week for PENSAR.

On the weekend, search and rescue helped bring an injured cyclist on the KVR Trail in Naramata to Chute Lake where an ambulance was waiting.

That same day, they also did a rescue of a man in Kaleden. The weekend before that PENSAR used its helicopter to rescue an injured climber at Skaha Bluffs.

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