From: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/spent+nine+days+mountain+survival+mode/1334725/story.html

Leaves and creek water helped keep a Quebec man going for nine torturous days in the mountains of eastern British Columbia, his brother said Thursday.

Even after seeing his wife, Marie-Josee Fortin, die in the wilderness near Golden, Gilles Blackburn never gave up hope, Yvon Blackburn said.

"He was in survival mode. He didn't have a choice," Yvon told Radio-Canada in Chicoutimi, Que.

"She [Marie-Josee] felt she could no longer go on. He had to stay with her. He knew they would eventually be found."

It was supposed to be a romantic Valentine's ski holiday for the two outdoor enthusiasts, but that quickly changed when Blackburn and his wife became lost in an out-of-bounds area near the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort on Feb. 15.

The two did everything they could to stay alive until help came. But by the time it arrived Tuesday morning, it was too late for Blackburn's wife.

The couple, who had come to B.C. from the Montreal suburb of LaSalle, had gathered plants and leaves to eat, and quenched their thirst with water from a nearby creek and melted snow.

An avid outdoorsman, the 51-year-old Blackburn was able to build a makeshift shelter, which may have saved his life as wind chills dropped to -25 some nights.

"Whenever he had enough strength, he cut out a few extra branches [to reinforce the shelter] to conserve their heat," Yvon said. "They never froze. The snow never bothered them."

At night, the two would sleep in the shelter, afraid wolves would find them.

"What was more dangerous were the wolves at night. That bothered them a lot more," Yvon told the French-language TV station.

Blackburn told his brother that at night, he was always prepared to defend himself and his wife with the only weapon he had: his skis.

But on Sunday -- a week after the pair became lost -- 44-year-old Fortin died. Some reports say she had been vomiting and got weaker as the days progressed.

An autopsy scheduled today will determine the cause of death.

Following his wife's death, Blackburn continued on. He followed a riverbed for several kilometres and tried to cross it, sinking knee-deep in icy water.

Each day, he would carve another SOS in the snow in open areas, hoping a helicopter would see the markings. As his energy waned, he would still try to climb back up and redraw the signs.

Blackburn told his brother about the relief he felt when a helicopter pilot finally spotted him on Tuesday -- the ninth day after he became stranded.

"He made a pass much lower and my brother, Gilles, who had gone back up the mountain to clean his SOS, had a flag in his hands and flagged him.

"The man saw him, made another pass to show he saw him, and that's how they got him," the brother said.

The search-and-rescue crews found him approximately 16 km away from the ski resort.

The RCMP admitted Thursday at a news conference that the search for the couple started at least three days too late. It didn't begin until Tuesday, despite two different helicopter pilots reporting they had spotted Blackburn's SOS signs.

But each time the emergency markings were reported, officials decided against starting a search-and-rescue operation because they couldn't confirm anyone was actually missing.

"Given the blatant, glaring, signs of an SOS stamp in the snow, we should have called and initiated a search and rescue," said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dan Moskaluk. "Maybe it wouldn't have been a full grounds search, but we could've taken an aerial flyby. We should've looked at the reports a little closer, a little more in depth of where the information was coming from."

Moskaluk said the RCMP has launched an internal review into the response times of all the groups involved.

"It's quite a traumatic event, midway through their ski vacation, and things went terribly wrong and he lost his spouse," he said. "This is a very tragic incident. It doesn't happen often, but there was such a lapse."

Police initially said it was believed Fortin died of exposure, but Moskaluk backed away from that statement Thursday.

"I am confident to say that we do not know what she died from. We won't know until the autopsy is completed Friday."

An officer from another detachment has arrived in Golden to conduct interviews and review documentation to determine if there was an error on the part of the RCMP.

The review will be a joint effort among the RCMP, the coroner, and search and rescue.

The first SOS sign was seen by an off-duty guide with a heli-skiing company two days after the couple were missing. He contacted resort staff, who said there were no outstanding ski rentals or missing-person reports.