Missing Canadian boy (17), who got lost in the dark while snowmobiles were building a snow cave to avoid hypothermia before he was found five hours later – in ‘textbook’ survival response
- The teenage boy went missing on Saturday around 18:15 when he got lost near the Spanish lake
- He parked his snowmobile in the open near a wooded area where he built the snow cave
- Rescuers found the teenager with food and water in the shelter around 10.34pm
- Authorities praised the teenager for his ‘knowledge winners in winter in the country’
- Do you know this fast thinking teenager? Send an email to [email protected]
A 17-year-old boy who went missing while traveling in snowmobiles in Canada was praised for his survival skills after building a snow cave to survive.
The British Columbia teenager, whose name has not been released, was lost around 6.15pm on Saturday when he was separated from his group near the Spanish lake.
The fast-thinking survivor parks his sleigh in a visible area near a wooded area – while his family and friends return to the parking lot and call the South Cariboo Search and Rescue, which notifies the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“This young man did everything right after things went wrong,” the South Cariboo SAR said on Facebook.
A teenage boy who went missing in Canada has survived after building a snow cave
“This young man did everything right after things went wrong,” the South Cariboo SAR said
The volunteer organization found the teenager ‘in good condition’ with food and water at around 22.34 and reunited him with his family around midnight.
“This young man made our task a little less difficult by staying in place and having knowledge about the winter of survival,” the organization said.
Val Severin, a search manager at South Cariboo Search and Rescue, told CBC that the teenager’s choices were “very mature”.
“He did not panic and lost the situation. He understood exactly the right thing, ‘said Severin.
Another 17-year-old boy, Nicolas Stacy-Alcantara, survived nearly 30 hours alone by building a snow cave in an incident in Utah
Earlier this month, a teenager in California survived nearly 30 hours after being trapped in the snow on a mountain in Utah and in another incident built a snow cave for himself for shelter.
Nicolas Stacy-Alcantara, who is also 17, was visiting Fresno to visit an ex-girlfriend and went on a day hike on January 2nd.
“I like walking, it clears my head,” he told a news conference at the University of Utah.
He took an Uber into a ravine east of Salt Lake City and took with him six peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and 40 grams of water. He was planning to be away all day and come back in time for dinner after walking 16 miles from Millcreek Canyon to Park City.
Stacy-Alcantara ended up in snow and also dug a snow cave in which he slept overnight.
Eventually he found other hikers who had a satellite phone and he was flown out of the gorge by helicopter.