Starving photographer rescued from B.C. wilderness

I know this area very well and is not the place to be trying to live without being adequately supplied. The area is remote, rugged and if you get in trouble out here, you might as well be on the moon. Luckily this man was saved by a passing helicopter then rescued by the RCMP and volunteers on snowmobile.

No one is exactly sure what this person was thinking, however it evokes memories of a certain person named Alexander Supertramp.

Note that Hudson's Hope is in British Columbia, Canada

From CBC.ca

A wildlife photographer who planned to spend the winter living in a remote trailer in the wilderness of northeastern B.C. narrowly escaped starving to death after he failed to pack enough provisions.

Hudson's Hope RCMP say the 42-year-old man was trapped for more than two weeks without food in the Carbon Creek area near Williston Lake.

Police and rescue volunteers found the hungry man on Feb. 1, about 36 km from the W.A.C Bennett Dam, according to Hudson's Hope RCMP Cpl. Darel Woroshelo.
Full Story link

This map shows the general area. The town of Hudson's Hope is slightly southeast and just off the edge of this map.

If he ran out of food this early, I sounds like he seriously miscalculated.

Nice,

Waits until 17 days AFTER the food has ran out, then tries to hike out.

I wonder if he kept a diary. Sure would like to know what his thoughts were around day four or five.

The again, if he was meling a lot of snow for water, might have been able to keep a full feeling in his belly.


buckeye

There's so many things to ponder about this story. I hope he eventually decides to share what happened.

To run out this early into winter I have to wonder if he was planning to supplement his food stocks with fish and game, but failed at hunting or trapping and fishing. Then again, being a photographer he might have been more interested in getting a good picture instead.

I also wonder if he failed to compensate for how many extra calories he might need in those conditions.

A couple of points:

1) Since he waited to walk out until "17 days AFTER the food has ran out" he was fasting for those 17 days plus the length of his walk. Hunger should disappear after 4 or 5 days and if he kept hydrated, which he seems to have he made it through the survival situation fine. He could have probably last a few more weeks if he had to.

2) Most people have no have no idea how many calories are required to live in the wilderness for months at a time. Normally I uses the standard 57KCal/Kg of body weight per day. That means 2 1/2 times the calories you would normally eat in a day.

3) Living off the land is very hard and in many areas not particularly practical. That's why the native peoples of the areas where nomadic. i.e. they moved to where the limited games was!

C'mon now ... you've got to look at the positives.

1. He lost some weight - it beats going on a diet
2. He probably took some nice pix
3. He got a great outdoors story to tell his friends

other Pete

There's a bit more (not much more) information here - specifically some audio from RCMP Cpl. Darren Woroshelo
http://www.energeticcity.ca/fortstjohn/news/02/15/10/starving-man-saved-near-hudsons-hope

From an ETS point of view, I'd like to know what signaling method he used when: "he was finally able to signal his distress to a passing helicopter"

I haven't heard what method he used to signal.

But from what I've read, northern pilots will investigate *anything* unusual that might be a signal. I suppose it's common courtesy in the bush, where you might be next, with two busted legs and a smashed plane, signalling like mad with a red handkerchief on a stick.

BTW, from the news reports I read, this guy refused medical treatment when they got him to town. Instead he got a ride to the nearest restaurant. And he was in the process of resupplying (I assume with ten times the chow and hopefully a sat phone) with the intent of going back to finish his trip.

If he were incompetent overall, he'd be dead already; that country, in winter, gives no quarter. The fact he's going back means he's no quitter either. I just hope he got the food math right this time.