Zimmerman said the initial information around a possible location was quite vague, but rescuers knew he’d been travelling in a pickup truck.<\/p>\n
“We had to cover a large area to try and sweep around that centre spot,” Zimmerman said, “which is why we used P.E.P. Air, because to drive on the ground and check roads with ATVs, UTVs, or vehicles, there’s hundreds of kilometres of drivable trails in that area.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-zimmerman-quesnel-search-and-rescue.jpg\")
Bob Zimmerman, president and manager of Quesnel Search and Rescue, says the man found in the bush between Quesnel and Williams Lake, B.C. was lucky. (CBC News)<\/p>\n
The search team also tried using electronic surveillance to try to connect with any cellphones in the area. That too, was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
Finally, a\u00a0SAR observer went out with an RCMP helicopter crew on Friday.<\/p>\n
“The observer spotted a glint of sunshine off the windshield from the truck,” Zimmerman said.<\/p>\n
Rescuers found the truck, but not the lost man.<\/p>\n
Then, about five kilometres away from the truck, crews say they spotted a man standing by a lake and a big rock with the word “HELP” written on it.<\/p>\n
“He had built a little mud shelter with moss and mud up against the big rock,” Zimmerman said.<\/p>\n
The man, however, was in poor health.<\/p>\n
“He was having a hard time standing. I don’t know that he would have made it another 24 hours without us recovering him,” Zimmerman said.<\/p>\n
He did not have food on him, and Zimmerman said he had been drinking pond water. He’d also stuffed grass into his clothing to try to get more insulation from the elements, according to Zimmerman.<\/p>\n
Zimmerman recommended others to always have a charged cellphone on them \u2014 or, better yet, a satellite connector.<\/p>\n
“If people are going out, really the best thing to do is have something that will have a satellite connection for you. So you can always get a message out on a satellite by text as to where you are and what the problem is.”<\/p>\n
The man was rescued in the RCMP helicopter and then connected with the ambulance service, Zimmerman said.<\/p>\n
“He’s a lucky man.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than a week in the B.C. wilderness, a man has been rescued thanks to the efforts…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-133765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115003254649361903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}