Half a dozen Yukon search and rescue volunteers are headed to B.C. today to help find missing hockey hall of famer Ernie "Punch" McLean.

The 77-year-old coach-turned-miner was last seen on Sunday afternoon.

He and two other prospectors were out on their claim near Turnagain Lake, about 80 kilometres east of Dease Lake in northern B.C., when McLean went off on his own to flag a new access road. When he didn't return by nightfall, his friends called the RCMP to report McLean missing.

Searchers initially went out on ATVs but called in air support when they realized the difficult terrain would slow them down considerably, Const. Dave Combden of the Dease Lake detachment said today.

The RCMP began an aerial search in a fixed-wing plane Monday morning, then added a helicopter to the effort later in the day.

"It's pretty nasty country up there," Whitehorse's Sgt. Don Rogers said of the area.

"It's a heavily mountainous region - lots of creeks and canyons, low-lying, very thick brush that makes it difficult to see people from the air."

Rogers moved up to the territory from the Dease Lake detachment earlier this summer.

A ground search team consisting of two RCMP officers, a police dog and 12 volunteers began working the area Tuesday morning, but with no luck yet, six volunteers were called in from the Yukon Wednesday afternoon.

There have been some delays with the plane to get the Yukoners down to B.C., Combden said, but they were expected to arrive this afternoon.

"The search is ongoing," Combden said. "We're optimistic; we've got a lot of resources out there."

McLean was inducted into the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006 in recognition for his leadership of the New Westminister Bruins.

He started coaching the Bruins in 1970, when the Western Hockey League team was still in Saskatchewan.

He moved the team to B.C. at the end of the 1970/71 season and led the Bruins to four consecutive WHL championship victories. In 1977 and 1978, his team won the Memorial Cup, the crown of junior Canadian hockey.

After his coaching career, McLean turned to mining. He was very active in the Atlin, B.C. area before moving his focus to Turnagain Lake.