Missing Canadian boy, 17, who got lost in the dark while snowmobiling builds a snow cave to prevent hypothermia before being found five hours later – in ‘textbook’ survival response
- The teenage boy went missing around 6:15 PM on Saturday when he got lost near Spanish Lake
- He parked his snowmobile in the open near a wooded area where he had built the snow cave
- Rescuers found the teen with food and water in the shelter around 10:34 PM
- Authorities praised the teenager for his ‘knowledge of the hibernators in the hinterland’
- Do you know this fast-thinking teenager? Email [email protected]
A 17-year-old boy who went missing while snowmobiling in Canada is praised for his survival skills after building a snow cave to survive.
The British Columbia teenager, whose name has not been revealed, got lost around 6:15 PM on Saturday when he was separated from his group at Spanish Lake.
The quick-thinking survivor parked his sled in a visible area near a wooded area – while his family and friends returned to the parking lot and called the South Cariboo Search and Rescue, who notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“This young man did everything right after it went wrong,” the South Cariboo SAR said on Facebook.
A teenage boy who went missing in Canada survived after building a snow cave
“This young man did everything right after something went wrong,” said the South Cariboo SAR
The volunteer organization found the teenager ‘in good shape’ with food and drink around 10:34 p.m. and reunited him with his family around midnight.
“This young man made our task a little less difficult by staying in place and having some survival knowledge in the backcountry,” the organization posted.
Val Severin, a search manager at South Cariboo Search and Rescue, told CBC the teen’s choices were “ pretty grown-up. ”
He didn’t panic and lost sight of the situation. He understood exactly what to do, ”Severin said.
Another 17-year-old boy, Nicolas Stacy-Alcantara, survived almost 30 hours alone by building a snow cave in an incident in Utah
Earlier this month, a California teenager survived nearly 30 hours after being trapped in the snow on a mountain in Utah and built himself a snow cave as a shelter from another incident.
Nicolas Stacy-Alcantara, who is also 17, was visiting from Fresno to visit an ex-girlfriend and took a day hike on January 2.
“I like to walk, it makes me a little bit clear,” he said at a news conference at the University of Utah.
He took an Uber up a canyon east of Salt Lake City and brought six peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and 40 ounces of water. He planned to be out all day and be back in time for dinner after a 15-mile hike from Millcreek Canyon to Park City.
Stacy-Alcantara got stuck in the snow and dug a snow cave, where he slept overnight.
He eventually found other hikers who had a satellite phone and was flown out of the canyon by helicopter.