A hiker who went missing in B.C.’s backwoods has been found after surviving more than five weeks in a remote park in B.C.’s northeast as snow fell and temperatures plunged.
CBC News confirmed the information through family, as well as individuals involved in the search.
Sam Benastick, 20, was first reported missing after failing to return home Oct. 17 from a 10-day camping trip in remote Redfern-Keily Provincial Park, about 250 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John.
He started his hike on Oct. 7, which means he was in the outdoors for 50 days.
As the days progressed, there were fears about Benastick’s survival as winter weather set in, with overnight lows dropping below -20 C.
Mike Reid, the general manager of the Buffalo Inn in Pink Mountain, B.C., had Benastick’s family stay at his inn for over 20 days as they searched for their son in October.
In that time, Reid says he developed an emotional connection with the family — and he was told firsthand by Benastick’s father when the hiker was found.
“Right now, I … it’s amazing. I’ve got three kids myself, and for him to find his son, it’s just amazing,” Reid told Sarah Penton, the host of CBC’s Radio West, through tears.
Reid said that he had spoken to the man who found Benastick and learned the hiker was now in Fort Nelson Hospital awaiting his parents.
He said Benastick was found by workers who were grading the area around well sites in northeast B.C., which refers to when surveyors mark the roads around natural gas wells as part of regular operations.
“They’ve been on that road for a week. And he said four-wheelers [and] snowmobiles were going up and down that road,” Reid said on Tuesday.
“This morning, they had just started driving, and they said, ‘The hell is that person doing walking on this road?’ And he had two sticks, one in each hand, and it was Sam.”
Benastick’s rescuers told Reid that the hiker had cut his sleeping bag and wrapped it around his legs, and the 20-year-old had nearly collapsed of weakness when he was put into an ambulance.
“You know, the guy says he’s in rough shape. But man, for 50 days out in that cold, he’s going to live,” Reid said.
Reid says he was always optimistic that Benastick would be found, and he is looking forward to having the Benasticks stay over when all is said and done.
CBC News has reached out to RCMP for this story.