According to authorities, a hiker who had been missing for over six weeks was discovered alive this week in the isolated wilderness of northwest Canada.
When Sam Benastick failed to return from a backcountry excursion in Redfern-Kiely Provincial Park, a remote area in the northern Rockies of British Columbia renowned for its alpine tundra and bleak mountainscape, he was first reported missing on October 19.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said two men saw Benastick Tuesday while they were their route to the park’s Redfern Lake path for business.
They transported Benastick to a hospital after identifying him as the hiker who had gone missing.
According to the RCMP, Benastick informed officers that he had begun his backcountry journey by spending a few days in his automobile before traveling to a hillside brook and camped there for ten or fifteen days.
The hiker claimed that at that time, he relocated to a new spot further down the valley and established a camp and shelter in a bed of dried-out creek.
More than six weeks after he started his adventure, Benastick finally found his way to the road where he met the Redfern Lake trail staff.
Passing Through Difficult Circumstances
Twenty-year-old Benastick made it through extremely difficult circumstances.
Twenty-year-old Benastick made it through extremely difficult circumstances. According to Canadian broadcaster CBC News, the hiker had cut his sleeping back to wrap the fabric around his legs for warmth and was using two walking poles to support himself when he was discovered.
BBC News, a CBS News partner, reported that temperatures in the park were extremely cold during his absence, occasionally falling as low as -20 degrees Celsius, or -4 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to Mike Reid, general manager of the hotel close to Redfern-Kiely Provincial Park, where Benastick’s family remained when search operations began in October, Benastick was in “rough shape” on Tuesday, CBC News said.
However, his recovery is anticipated.
When the missing person report for Benastick was made, authorities launched a large search for him, but at the end of October, the search was canceled, according to BBC News.
Once Benastick’s condition has improved, police said they plan to learn more about the hiker’s whereabouts and the reasons he was missing for so long.