A hiker has miraculously been found alive more than a month after he vanished in the Canadian wilderness.
Sam Benastick, 20, had set off on a 10-day camping trip to Redfern-Keily Park in the Northern Rocky Mountains on October 7, reported CBC News.
He was reported missing on October 19 when he failed to return home.
At around 11.30am on Tuesday – more than a month on from when he was last seen – a pair of walkers spotted Benastick on the Redfern Lake trail while on their way to work, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
The 20-year-old was walking with the support of two walking sticks and had a cut-up sleeping bag bundled around his legs for warmth, reported CBC.
Benastick was taken to hospital where police identified him as the missing hiker.
Benastick told authorities he had set off hiking to a creek in the mountains and camped out there for 10 to 15 days.
He then trekked down the valley and assembled a camp and shelter in a “dried-out creek bed” before making his way to the Redfern Lake trail where he finally managed to wave down the two walkers.
“Finding Sam alive is the absolute best outcome,” RCMP Communications Corporal Madonna Saunderson said.
“After all the time he was missing, it was feared that this would not be the outcome.”
The RCMP praised the efforts of search and rescue teams and local volunteers who had helped in the search.
Benastick’s miraculous survival comes as temperatures can plummet to roughly -4F in November in the Canadian Rockies.
