'Unbelievable miracle': lost hiker survives for 50 days in the freezing Canadian wilderness

A 20-year-old man who got lost during a solo hiking trip has been treated in hospital after surviving 50 days in a frozen wilderness, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has said.

- Leyland Cecco

Sam Benastick was moving unsteadily, with the help of two walking sticks, when he approached oilrig workers surveying a remote forestry trail in British Columbia this week.

A cut-up sleeping bag was wrapped around his legs, shielding them from the bitter cold, and he nearly collapsed as they helped him into the warmth of their truck.

The RCMP confirmed on Wednesday that Benastick had been taken to hospital in Fort Nelson, more than seven weeks after he was last seen heading into the wild. He was suffering from frostbite and smoke inhalation from when his makeshift shelter burned down.

Mountain rescue workers called his discovery, which came after official search efforts had been called off, an "unbelievable miracle".

Benastick set out on 7 October, on what was supposed to be a 10-day camping trip. He was reported missing by his family after he failed to return home on 17 October.

An avid outdoorsman, Benastick was destined for Redfern-Keily provincial park - an 80,000-hectare (20,000-acre) swathe of "lush alpine meadows, forested valley bottoms, serrated peaks, glaciers, waterfalls and large valley lakes" in the northern reaches of the Rocky Mountains.