After more than a week in the B.C. wilderness, a man has been rescued thanks to the efforts of Quesnel Search and Rescue and the Williams Lake RCMP.
The man was found in the bush, near a shelter he had created out of mud and sticks, about 50 kilometres northwest of Williams Lake, B.C., said Bob Zimmerman, Quesnel Search and Rescue (SAR) president and manager.
The man was reported missing to RCMP July 31 after he was last seen July 28. Zimmerman said his team first received word of the incident on Aug. 3.
Quesnel SAR first looked for the man by air with P.E.P. Air (Provincial Emergency Program Air), a volunteer aviation society. But they had no luck during the first few days of the search.
Zimmerman said the initial information around a possible location was quite vague, but rescuers knew he’d been travelling in a pickup truck.
“We had to cover a large area to try and sweep around that centre spot,” Zimmerman said, “which is why we used P.E.P. Air, because to drive on the ground and check roads with ATVs, UTVs, or vehicles, there’s hundreds of kilometres of drivable trails in that area.”
The search team also tried using electronic surveillance to try to connect with any cellphones in the area. That too, was unsuccessful.
Finally, a SAR observer went out with an RCMP helicopter crew on Friday.
“The observer spotted a glint of sunshine off the windshield from the truck,” Zimmerman said.
Rescuers found the truck, but not the lost man.
Then, about five kilometres away from the truck, crews say they spotted a man standing by a lake and a big rock with the word “HELP” written on it.
“He had built a little mud shelter with moss and mud up against the big rock,” Zimmerman said.
The man, however, was in poor health.
“He was having a hard time standing. I don’t know that he would have made it another 24 hours without us recovering him,” Zimmerman said.
He did not have food on him, and Zimmerman said he had been drinking pond water. He’d also stuffed grass into his clothing to try to get more insulation from the elements, according to Zimmerman.
Zimmerman recommended others to always have a charged cellphone on them — or, better yet, a satellite connector.
“If people are going out, really the best thing to do is have something that will have a satellite connection for you. So you can always get a message out on a satellite by text as to where you are and what the problem is.”
The man was rescued in the RCMP helicopter and then connected with the ambulance service, Zimmerman said.
“He’s a lucky man.”
