Canadian hiker Sam Benastick found alive after 50 days in icy wilderness

Sam Benastick was frostbitten and close to collapse after temperatures plunged as low as -20C but was able to joke by the time he was reunited with his mother.

The search for Sam Benastick, 20, began on October 19 when his family reported him missing. Picture: The Times

It was early October when 20-year-old Sam Benastick set off on what was meant to be a ten-day “hiking and fishing adventure” in the remote wilderness of Canada’s northern Rocky Mountains.

Fifty days later – long after an official search had been called off and temperatures plunged as low as -20C – he was spotted by two park workers on a forest trail.

Frostbitten and propped up by two walking sticks, Benastick had wrapped a sleeping bag around his legs in an attempt to keep warm.

Benastick’s mother has visited him in hospital, and said that he would make a recovery. Picture: The Times

He was close to collapse as he was helped into an ambulance, according to his rescuers. But by the time he was reunited with his mother Benastick was able to joke about his ordeal.

“Complained that he hasn’t caught one fish,” Sandra Crocker wrote next to a photo of her son giving the thumbs up from his hospital bed with bandages over his eyes. “He will make recovery just needs some time.”

His survival was described by one search volunteer as “nothing short of miraculous” given the treacherous conditions in the Redfern-Keily Park area. Visitors to the park are warned of rapidly changing weather, avalanches and encounters with grizzly and black bears.

“It is incredibly remote, you are several hours drive from the nearest communities,” the rescue search manager Adam Hawkins told CBC.

“When Sam started his trip that area had relatively mild weather but by the time search and rescue was called you are getting down to freezing temperatures. While we were on site searching we had snowfall of 10 to 15cm of new snow … so incredibly challenging winter conditions.”

The search for Benastick began on October 19 when his family reported him missing. In a string of updates on Facebook, his mother said that her son had headed to the Redfern Lake trail on October 7 but had failed to return home as planned. His car was found empty at the head of the trail, leading his family to believe he had set off but had “run into trouble” with his dirt bike.

Visitors to the Redfern-Keily Park area face rapidly changing weather, avalanches and encounters with grizzly and black bears. Picture: Andrew Terrill/Rex/Shutterstock

Family members moved in to the Buffalo Inn Pink Mountain hotel near the park to join the search, which involved police officers, dogs and more than 100 volunteers. A crowdfunding campaign raised more than $C42,000 ($46,000).

After days “scouring” the areas around the trail with no result, the official search and rescue operation was called off on October 29.

Crocker remained hopeful, however, and told CBC News that her son was well equipped for the trip with warm clothing, a hatchet and “a lot of peanut butter”.

In another update on November 7, Crocker wrote: “Still Lost. It has been one month since my son set out on his fishing hiking adventure. We have no further information where he may have ended up … We are hoping to figure out if he may have stashed his gear and gone for a hike up the mountain.”

Another two weeks passed before the family finally received the news that Benastick had been found on the morning of November 26 and taken to hospital.

In his initial account to police, Benastick said he had camped out for 10 to 15 days after leaving his car, before moving further down the valley to build another camp and shelter in a dried-out creek bed. At one point he suffered smoke inhalation after his makeshift shelter caught fire.

“Finding Sam alive is the absolute best outcome,” Corporal Madonna Saunderson, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said. “After all the time he was missing, it was feared that this was would not be the outcome.”

The Times