Missing hiker found alive after surviving more than 6 weeks in remote Canada wilderness

A hiker was found alive this week in the remote wilderness of northwestern Canada, where he had been lost for more than six weeks, authorities said.

Sam Benastick was initially reported missing on Oct. 19 after failing to return from a backcountry trip in Redfern-Kiely Provincial Park, an isolated landscape known for its alpine tundra and stark mountainscape in the northern Rockies of British Columbia. Two men spotted Benastick Tuesday on their way to the park's Redfern Lake trail for work, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Recognizing him as the missing hiker, they took Benastick to a hospital.

Benastick told police he had stayed in his car for a couple of days at the start of his backcountry trip, before walking to a mountainside creek and camping there for 10 or 15 days, the RCMP said. At that point, the hiker said he moved to a different location farther down into the valley and a built a camp and shelter in a dried-out creek bed. Eventually, Benastick found his way to the road where he encountered the Redfern Lake trail employees, well over six weeks after he first set out on his journey.