On first read, you will find this the most improbable story. But once you tend to believe it, it sounds like a miracle. A 20-year-old hiker, who lost his way in the remote mountainous wilderness of northeast British Columbia (BC) in Canada, survived for 50 days in heavy snow and frigid temperatures plunging to as low as minus-20 degrees Celsius before being rescued with non-life-threatening snow and cold inflicted injuries.
According to CBC News and other news media outlets, Sam Benastick had set out on his supposedly 10-day hiking and fishing trip to the remote mountainous Redfern-Keily Provincial Park in his car on October 7. Not receiving any communication from him after the 10 days, by when he was expected to return home, his worried family came searching for him and lodged a missing report with the local police on October 19.
Despite a massive search operation, he could not be found until November 26 when, according to police, he flagged down two industrial workers headed to the Redfern Lake trailhead, which was also the last place he had been seen.
He was reportedly wearing a cut-up sleeping bag wrapped around his legs for warmth and supporting himself with two hiking sticks before nearly collapsing and being whisked away to a hospital in an ambulance for emergency care.
He has since reportedly been discharged from hospital, but details of Sam’s ordeal are sketchy since the Benastick family has asked for time and privacy as he recovers physically and emotionally from his trauma in the woods.
In a statement, Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) has only provided a few details of what they believe happened, saying Sam told them he stayed in his car for a couple of days, then walked to a “creek, mountainside” where he camped for 10 to 15 days.
After that, police say, he “moved down the valley and built a camp and shelter in a dried-out creek bed.” He was found when he flagged down the two men and was taken to safety.
Till Sam Benastick recovers enough to tell his story, questions remain about how he went missing, why he could not be found as search crews scoured the area, and how he survived as snow fell and temperatures plunged below -20 C in the remote mountain park.
B.C. Search and Rescue Association was quoted in the media as saying that more than 120 volunteers were involved in efforts to find Sam, amounting to more than 3,500 search hours which included ground teams, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), “multiple helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, trained search dogs, drones, and other resources,” which covered “hundreds of square kilometres of challenging terrain.”
After weeks of unsuccessful efforts, the research was officially called off.
According to the owner of an inn where Sam Benastick’s parents and brother stayed for several weeks while searching the nearby Redfern-Keily Provincial Park, where Sam was last seen before being reported missing, and whom the family briefly visited on way home after Sam was discharged from hospital, has been reported as saying: “I don’t know the full story, but he did say that he did get lost because he was getting chased by a wolf.”
Timber Bigfoot, land and environment manager and member of the Prophet River First Nation, whose territory extends to the park, was involved by search and rescue crews to help try to find Sam because of his knowledge of the area, which he reportedly described as one of the more isolated places in BC.
“There’s no society. There’s no technology. There’s no civilization,” he said.
Among the dangers are “large grizzlies” and “lots of wolves,” he said, but the biggest challenge facing someone spending an extended period in the area is the environment itself.
“One day it’s +2, +3, the next day it’s -20,” he said. “It can go from rainy to snowing within hours.”
But Bigfoot said despite the vast expanse, he had a hard time believing Sam Benastick wouldn’t have been aware of the search underway.
“No matter where he was, he would have heard all the helicopters,” he said.
But, he added, with the abundance of wolves and bears, an encounter with wildlife could have thrown him off track.
“It’s an amazing environment and climate to try to survive,” Bigfoot said, adding he’d love to speak with Sam about what he went through and how he kept going.
“I think it’s a miracle, and I congratulate him for being such a tough person.”
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