Missing hiker found alive after 50 days in Canadian wilderness

On Oct. 7, Sam Benastick headed into British Columbia’s Redfern-Keily Provincial Park, a remote slice of wilderness deep in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, for 10 days of solo camping, hiking and fishing.

The 20-year-old ended up spending 50 days in the Canadian backcountry, surviving below-freezing temperatures and rough mountainous terrain while search crews, helicopter teams and local volunteers took to the air and ground in a vast effort to find him. Police suspended its search and rescue operation for Benastick in late October, though efforts to find him continued on social media.

On Tuesday, two men heading into work near the Redfern Lake trail stumbled upon Benastick and recognized him as the missing hiker for whom people were searching, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement Wednesday. The two men alerted the authorities and Benastick was taken to a hospital.

“Finding Sam alive is the absolute best outcome. After all the time he was missing, it was feared that this was would not be the outcome,” Cpl. Madonna Saunderson said in the statement.

Benastick said he stayed in his car for “a couple of days,” according to police, before walking to a creek on the mountainside, where he camped for about 10 to 15 days. He later built a shelter in a dried-out creek bed, police said.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported, citing the manager of a nearby inn who spoke to rescuers, that Benastick had cut up his sleeping bag to wrap around his legs for warmth and was supporting himself with two walking sticks when he approached the two workers who found him.

Benastick nearly collapsed of weakness when he was taken to an ambulance, the CBC added, citing the inn manager, Mike Reid. Authorities did not release many details about his condition, but the CBC aired a photo of Benastick recovering in a hospital bed.

Benastick’s family reported him missing on Oct. 19, police said. Aerial photos from the Kamloops Search and Rescue showed search helicopters flying over snow-covered terrain and icy lakes in the shadow of towering mountains.

On its website, Redfern-Keily Provincial Park warns visitors to be prepared for rapidly changing weather as well as possible grizzly and black bear encounters. The park also warns that there is no potable water and very little shelter at the park. It was not immediately clear what weather and elements Benastick encountered during his time in the wilderness.

Other search and rescue teams joined in the search efforts, including the Canadian Rangers - a subset of the Canadian Armed Forces reserves that work out of the country’s remote and isolated regions - and “many local volunteers with extensive backcountry knowledge of the area,” the RCMP said.

“The time, effort and resources put in to locate Sam from the time of notification he was missing was beyond measure,” the RCMP said in the statement. “We are thankful for the great outcome.”