The Current - How to survive in the wilderness

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Hiker Sam Benastick survived 50 days in the B.C. wilderness, after he got lost while being chased by a wolf. Matt Galloway talks to a search-and-rescue operator who had his own violent encounter with a grizzly bear; and gets some expert advice on surviving in the backcountry.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast. The Buffalo Inn in remote northeastern British Columbia is the kind of place that treats its guests like family. Mike Reid is the inn's general manager. We have a saying that we ask everybody, you know, what are you doing, where are you coming, and tell them about the meals that night.

And he just came out and said that he's here to find his son Sam. 20-year-old Sam Benesik set out on a hiking trip on the 7th of October in Redfern Cayley Park, about 250 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John. The trip was meant to last 10 days, but Sam didn't return and was reported missing. The Buffalo Inn became a home base for the search team and for Sam's parents. But weeks went by and still no sign of Sam. Hope waned as temperatures plummeted at night.

October 28th, police called off an official search effort. Government rescue team left because they did all they can do. The family members and a couple friends still stayed for another couple weeks. But by then, I mean, the last day that they stayed, November 11th, the mother and father both gave me a hug and we all had tears. And then, incredibly, last week, two workers on a service road spotted a figure. They seen a guy walking with two sticks, incredibly, last week, two workers on a service road spotted a figure. It was indeed Sam, 50 days after he set out, in rough shape, but alive. Soon after, Sam's dad called Mike at the Buffalo Inn to give him the news.

I got three kids and five grandkids, and I know what he went through. So, sorry. Just emotional. Sam was taken to the hospital and reunited with his family. He's since been released from hospital. But his incredible story has made headlines around the world. Not many people know what it's like to survive the unthinkable in the Canadian North. Alex Messinger does. He is the author of The 29th Day, which he wrote after his experience in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. And Alex is in Duluth, Minnesota. Alex, good morning.

Good morning, Matt. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. When you were 17 years old, you went on a wilderness adventure in the Northwest Territories in Nunavut. Tell me a bit about what this trip was supposed to be. Yeah, I mean, this was, you know, really an adventure of a lifetime. It was the pinnacle trip of YMCA Camp Minoja. And so I'd worked on longer and longer, more and more remote trips working up to this, along with my trip mates had kind of gone along the same process. And, you know,

it was supposed to be 42 days of whitewater canoeing through some of the most unique and remote wilderness of North America. We were going to be paddling 600 miles from Northwest Territories into Nunavut, ending at Baker Lake, which is a very small, small town up there near Rankin Inlet. So very remote territory. Um, and you know, just a really awesome opportunity to learn more about ourselves and, and just, uh, be in this very remote wilderness area. Um, likely not seeing anybody else the entire time we were out there. What sort of stuff did you do to prepare to be out in the wild for 42 days? You know, I mean, preparation is a huge part of going out into the wild,

whether it's a short trip or a long trip. We prepared by practicing. You know, in the years prior, we did some really specific training on how to paddle whitewater, because this was going to be a fair amount of traveling down swift water sections of river big water on lakes so we had specific uh training on that you know we got individual training on all the different tools that we brought with us from cooking to emergency uh stuff like our satellite phone and you know bear spray and things like that stuff that you hope not to have to use

and then some of us on the trip like like our guide Dan, had more specific training. He was a wilderness first responder, so he was really our medical person as well as our guide for if anything did go wrong in the backcountry. And so when you're down to the last couple of weeks, on the 29th day of that trip, things do go wrong. What happened? Yeah, I mean, it started out like a regular day. We were on a layover day, which means that we were not traveling, not moving that day. So we were just kind of hanging out and partway through the day, the rest of the group decided to go up to the highest point on the

island that we were camped on. And I was really tired, so I decided to take a nap and ended up waking up from that nap feeling like I was late and I had to go meet the group. Most of them were down from there. I climbed up by myself talking to Dan on the way. As I was walking at the top of this ridge, I didn't realize that I was walking in the same direction, right towards a 600-pound barren ground grizzly bear that was walking up the other side of this ridge. And we met at the top 30 feet apart, which is just not the way that you want to start an encounter with an apex predator like that. That just really forces that animal's hand.

It has to decide what to do. And it ended up charging at me and attacking me and leaving me for dead there on the top of this ridge. You know, I was able to dodge it a number of times. And that first moment when I saw it, I just flashed back to all that training that we had. And I flashed back to using the bear spray. We kept it in our tents, which, you know, in hindsight, that's something that I always recommend to people is always carry it with you. But, you know, I didn't have it with me. So I had to default back to that other training that we had, you know, speaking calmly to it, backing away slowly. But it ended up, you know, deciding that I was a threat

and charging and attacking and bit me in the thigh. And I blacked out and just, you know, deciding that I was a threat and charging and attacking and bit me in the thigh. And I blacked out and just, you know, thought that that was the end. What do you remember about when the bear was running towards you? There's a lot of details that really stick with me. You know, one is just this incredible fear that is just kind of at your very core. You know, I remember thinking just the worst case scenario. And like I said, I remember thinking of the bear spray. And then as it was coming at me, I just, it just was escalating in a way that was really overpowering. And as it got closer I started to feel the ground shake under its paws with its gallop and when it would come at me I was able to throw my pelican case at it and I hit it in

the face when it was five or ten feet away and I was able to jump out of the way and dodge it on that first pass and then it was just moving so quickly. And I remember it, you know, seeming just enormous and so much more powerful than I was. And when it finally got up really close to me, I also remember the smell. It was just like a dog that had never bathed. And just this apex predator, 600 pounds, against this 150-pound, 17-year-old kid. It felt like this was about to be the end of my life, and that was not how I wanted it to end. How badly were you wounded? Grief and terror. I was really fortunate. I had scrapes and bruises all over, but the worst wound was at the top of my thigh where it bit me. I had a puncture wound a quarter inch from my femoral artery, which if it had hit that, I would have probably not made it more than a few minutes.

I had compression wounds from the rest of the teeth where it wrapped around my leg. So it could have been much worse, but it was definitely serious. And I couldn't move my leg after a couple minutes after I regained consciousness and had a lot of, a lot of things to deal with after, after that, you know, in terms of, of like containing the issue right there. And then also kind of ongoing care and, you know, how we're going to deal with the situation in the back country. I mean, dealing with it is a huge issue. You were about 150 kilometers out in the bush. You survived, but you spent what, you spent a week in the backcountry before you were able to get back out? Right. Yeah, I was able to self-rescue back to the group after the bear left.

And then, you know, we triaged and stabilized me and got on the phone. And what we found out was that a helicopter wasn't available. And so the next option at that point is to basically have people parachute in, which is a high risk rescue. And I was stable at that point. And that wasn't really indicated. So the next option at that point is to basically self-rescue towards Baker Lake, which, you know, in good conditions would be just a few days away. And we ended up not having good conditions. We got stuck during a storm. And while we were stuck there, my condition started to deteriorate. And we started treating

that with some medicine that we had with us in our med kit. And then it became, I had an infection that became resistant to those antibiotics. And that's when things changed. And we had to up the ante again at that point. And a helicopter was available at that point and was able to pick me up. So yeah, it was about a week in between that attack and when I was flown out. So it was challenging to say the least. To say the least. I mean, it's an unbelievable story. The wild thing about it, I said earlier that these are stories of people who perhaps shouldn't have survived, but did. You made it out and now you're part of a search and rescue team in your area for the last

10 years, you've been doing this kind of search and rescue. So when you hear the story of this young man, Sam Benistick, who's found after, again, being out in the bush, people had stopped searching, they may have given up, and then he appears. What is that like when someone who has been lost in the wild is found? I mean, you've lived through that. Yeah, I mean, I'm very fortunate to be able to be a part of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad here in northern Minnesota. And you're absolutely right. It's an incredible experience to make a find in the woods. You know, there's really nothing that can compare to that. I mean, you know, whatever the circumstances are that kind of kick that off, you know, when you find that person, they're either lost, they're lost and injured. You know, there's so many different

situations that they might be in. But when you're able to connect with them and be that, that lifeline and help to get them out, it's, it's a really singular experience. It's an incredible, incredibly good feeling. And, you know, when looking for them for so long, you know, as that time elapses, the hope kind of long, you know, as that time elapses, the hope kind of dwindles and, you know, a miraculous survival event like Sam had, I mean, that's absolutely incredible. And especially with the conditions that he was dealing with, you know, negative 20 overnight for some of those things, you know, just the time that's elapsed. I mean, that's incredible. There aren't many people who know what that's like. You do.

I'm really glad to talk to you about it. It is some story. Alex, thank you. Yeah, thank you, Matt. Alex Messinger is a wilderness survivor and the author of a book called The 29th Day about that story of the bear and all the things he went through

after that encounter with the bear. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is.

I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Bruce Zawalski is the chief instructor at the Boreal Wilderness Institute. He teaches modern wilderness survival. He's also the author of the Canadian Wilderness Survival Guide.

He's been listening in from Edmonton. Bruce, good morning to you. Oh, good morning, Matt. Thank you for having me. When you hear stories like what we just heard from Alex Messenger or the story of Sam Benistix surviving in the woods for weeks and weeks on end, what goes through your mind? through your mind well i think the biggest thing that goes through my mind is that you know was in sam's case especially he came out like with gear and he still but he had to survive 50 days and 50 days is a huge problem because he certainly didn't have the food that went with that and you know it made a it made a it made a difference in terms of how he survived, but he still had that mental push, the wherewithal, the drive to get right through that 50 days.

He hasn't spoken to the media, but the general manager of that Buffalo Inn that we heard from earlier said that Sam and his family stopped by to see him after getting out of the hospital and that Sam had said he initially got lost because he was being chased by a wolf. How easy is it to get, as I say, turned around in the kind of terrain that Sam was in? Oh, it's gone. And it would be very, very hard for someone to re-establish that sense of direction without a GPS, without map and compass, and everything else that you'd require to be able to reorientate yourself. So what would he need to do to survive out there? His mom told CBC News that he'd packed gloves, a toque, rain gear, a hatchet, and all sorts of peanut butter. But as Alex was saying, I mean, it was below 20, 20 below when he's out there in the woods. So

what would he have to do to survive? Well, build a good shelter. And I mean, to be, you know, rescued is a different thing, but that didn't happen since he stayed out there. So he, you know, building a shelter that would keep you a bit warmer, have a little bit of thermal mass, you know, like you probably would in that case, eventually he might have had a little bit of snow out there as well that would have helped out and survived through that, which, you know, was tough on him because he obviously did have some problems building that as he was complaining about some smoke problems in his shelter. Does it matter where you build the shelter? Oh, yeah. That's a huge part of survival training would be, you know, building a shelter that, you know,

the smoke would clear if you had a small fire inside or onto the side of it. If it's set up in the right aspect to get a little bit of extra sun, because of course, you know, it might be 10, 15, 20 below at night, but during the day, you know, it'll warm up a little bit and you get some sun that would warm that shelter up and you'd be a little bit better off for that. So, yes. You also want to hope that if you're missing and there is a rescue that's underway or a search that's underway and people are flying over top of you that they can see you, right? Right. And that seems to be one of the biggest problems.

He was talking about setting up in a dry riverbed. So he would have been in a low ground so that search and rescue teams would have had a very extreme problem finding him. And we obviously didn't see him, right? You're a little speck in a huge wilderness. What about food? I mean, a lot of peanut butter is one thing, but it's just peanut butter. And eventually the lot of peanut butter runs out after several days.

What do you do about food? Well, I mean, yeah, he took a good choice in peanut butter. It's high in fat, that's high in calories. But after that, your body, it's going to be starvation. And, you know, one of the big problems with that is you see, well, why did it take so long? How it was out there was with that starvation, he's going to suffer a lack of energy.

He's going to have a drop in his actual body mass. The body fat will be burnt off as his muscle mass gets reduced. He's going to suffer a lot. And more importantly, eventually, he'll even have trouble heating his own body and a little bit of cognitive function impairment. So now you're looking at a person who who slowed down, not doing as much. And in some cases, and he was very smart, like he turned around and walked out eventually, which is good because many people have sat there waiting or done nothing because they just weren't thinking that way. I mean, you're fighting against the elements, but you're also fighting against your mind, right? And you're terrified because you may not have a clock,

but you know that the days are passing and nobody's coming to get you. How important is it to keep some control over your fear? I think that the psychological aspects of survival is probably one of the most underestimated aspects of survival. That idea that will to survive, the physiological aspects that hurt that, that bother that along the way, your expectations that it'll be easy generally gets sort of run over pretty quick. And in Sam's case, he very much said, hey, he expected to be able to fish.

He expected, obviously, to be able to hunt and gather and didn't seem to be able to get much. But then had it together to be able to get up and walk out and try and meet those people on the road. Oh, yeah. I mean, that was the sense. That's what really him taking his two hiking poles. And you can tell by then he already sort of, he was probably suffering a lot of starvation because you were saying he was wrapping pieces of sleeping bag around his legs.

That's because you're going to, as your body mass goes down, it becomes harder and harder to heat your own body. And so by that point, he's suffering a lot, but he decided that he would walk out, obviously not with all his gear, you know, with only a limited amount of his gear, but he did. You know, it'll be an interesting story to find out how long it took him to walk out. I expect it wasn't a one day thing. In other words, in that few hours, he probably took a few days to make it out.

I have to let you go, but there's a real appeal in this country and beyond to being out in the wild. It attracts people for all the obvious reasons. What is one thing, if people plan to go on a trip like this solo, what is one thing that you think we need to think about? Well, be prepared. And your last guest was talking about that very much so,

but also in a modern world, take a beacon with you, whether it's a SARSAT, a SPOT, or an in-reach satellite messenger beacon, some way that you can say, hey, I'm in trouble. Here I am. Can you come and rescue me? Because then for the search and rescue teams, it becomes there's no search. There's only a rescue. There's retrieval.

And that's so much easier. And if you don't have one of those and you get turned around? Well, then a ground-to to air signal and a camp that's easy to find something that opens the area up around you, maybe on a cut line, on a trail, on a junction and somewhere so that it's easy for someone to find you and say, yeah, you're, I'm this speck in the wilderness, but I want to be found. Bruce, thank you very much for this. This is, it's a wild story and it will be really incredible to hear Sam in his own words, describe what he went through. In the meantime, appreciate your insights in this. Thank you very

much. Thank you for having me. Bruce Zawelski is chief instructor at the Boreal Wilderness Institute. He teaches modern wilderness survival. He's the author of the Canadian Wilderness Survival Guide. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.