Missing hiker found after five weeks in wilderness

A hiker who was lost in the backwoods of British Columbia for more than five weeks has been found alive.

Sam Benastick, 20, was reported missing on 19 October after he failed to return from a 10-day fishing and hiking trip in Redfern-Keily Park in the northern Rocky Mountains.

Authorities had called off search and rescue efforts for the avid hiker in late October. Temperatures in the region had at times dropped to around -20C (-4F).

Mr Benastick was found on Tuesday by two people headed to the Redfern Lake trail for work, who recognised him as the missing hiker as he walked towards them.

Given all the time he was missing, a different outcome had been feared, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl Madonna Saunderson told the BBC on Wednesday.

“We’re very grateful. The family is thrilled,” she said, adding that he had simply gotten lost.

Mr Benastick told police that he stayed in his car for a couple of days and then walked to a creek where he camped for 10 to15 days. At the time he went missing, he was equipped with a tarp, a backpack and some camping supplies.

He then moved down the valley and built a camp and shelter in a dried-out creek bed. Winter conditions ramped up, with some snowfall.

Eventually, Mr Benastick made his way to the area where he flagged down his rescuers.

“Those are very difficult conditions for really anyone to survive in, especially [with] limited supplies and equipment and food,” Prince George Search and Rescue search manager Adam Smith told the BBC.

“Even someone with quite a bit of experience would find that challenging.”

Multiple rescue teams, the Canadian Rangers, the RCMP, and family and friends, had all conducted a ground and air search over “a pretty huge amount of terrain”, Mr Smith said.

The rugged, remote region was hours from any towns, and featured low-lying hills, steep alpine cliffsides, and “even glaciated terrain”, he said.

Little is known about Mr Benastick’s condition or how he survived in the backwoods. He is currently in hospital.

Local inn owner Mike Reid, who got to know Mr Benastick’s family while they stayed at his establishment during search efforts, told broadcaster CBC that the hiker had cut his sleeping bag and wrapped it around his legs to stay warm.

He said he was told the young man nearly collapsed as he was placed into the ambulance and was in “rough shape”.

Before he was found, Mr Benastick’s last known location was at a trailhead in the region of Redfern Lake – the park’s largest lake – where he was seen using his red dirt bike, according to the RCMP.

Mr Smith, the search manager, said he is “intensely curious” to learn more about the area where Mr Benastick was found and what he was doing while missing to help inform future search and rescue operations.