{"id":885094,"date":"2026-09-06T04:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T04:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/885094\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T04:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T04:03:07","slug":"b-c-man-lost-for-5-nights-in-mountains-near-squamish-shares-survival-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/885094\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. man lost for 5 nights in mountains near Squamish shares survival story"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who survived a grueling five nights in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains is sharing more about his experience.<\/p>\n

Stanislav Volo became the subject of a massive search after he failed to return from a hike on Sunday after riding up the Sea-to-Sky Gondola, just south of Squamish.<\/p>\n

Search and rescue crews found him Friday evening<\/a> on the Indian Arm Forest Service Road after he’d descended the mountain injured, but under his own power. <\/p>\n

WATCH | B.C. man shares story of survival after 5 nights lost in mountains:\"\"<\/p>\n

B.C. man who went missing in mountains found alive<\/p>\n

In an interview with CBC News on Saturday after being discharged from the hospital, the 43-year-old father of two was in good spirits, despite bruises and a black eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically relied too much on technology in this situation, and technology unfortunately sometimes fails,” Volo said. <\/p>\n

Volo had intended to hike the Mount Habrich Loop, an area search and rescue crews decribed as technical, exposed alpine terrain.<\/p>\n

He said his phone died when he got to the top of the mountain, and he was unable to find his way down. <\/p>\n

\"MenMissing hiker Stanislav Volo was found alive on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (Submitted)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was panicking,” he explained. <\/p>\n

Volo heard what he thought was the highway, and with about four hours until the Gondola shut down for the day, decided to start descending in that direction.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be the wrong direction \u2014 what he actually heard was pipeline construction.<\/p>\n

But he slipped and fell in a drainage, injuring his heel and his wrist. That’s when he realized he wasn’t able to retrace his steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I have no option but to keep going down and down, slowly but surely,” he explained. <\/p>\n

Volo said he spent several nights sheltering in a small cave near a waterfall, where he focused on recovering, trying to stay warm. <\/p>\n

He said he rationed a few packages of gummy bears before he discovered a sweet-tasting wildflower to eat.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Crews scour mountains for missing hiker:\"\"<\/p>\n

Search teams looking for missing hiker in Sea-to-Sky region<\/p>\n

A large search is underway for a missing hiker in the Sea to Sky region. Search teams are tackling tough terrain to find the man and new AI technology is hoping to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it’s not that sweet right now if I try it, but back then it felt so sweet,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like OK, if I have the plants, and I know where to stay, I have my little hut where I am hiding from the rain, I think I can wait here a few more days to get my heel back in a working state.”<\/p>\n

He described seeing several helicopters, but was unable to get their attention.<\/p>\n

Eventually, he said he made the decision to climb down the mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have two options basically, you wait for the helicopters to come and rescue you \u2026 or you have to do something about it,” he said. “Basically I decided to take a chance and get out of there.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite his injured foot, he slowly and painstakingly worked his way down the mountainside, eventually intersecting first with a river, then a road.<\/p>\n

\"ASecurity cameras capture Stanislav Volo exiting the Sea-to-Sky Gondola around 11:30 a.m. PT on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (Squamish RCMP)<\/p>\n

He ran into a construction worker who connected him with the search and rescue crews who were already in the area. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a joy and such an amazing feeling of being there, and just tears of happiness were running down my face,” he said. <\/p>\n

‘He walked out on the road on his two feet’<\/p>\n

Volo’s sister Ola Volo was ecstatic about her brother’s rescue.<\/p>\n

“We found him,” she told CBC on Friday. “He walked out on the road on his two feet.”<\/p>\n

She eventually went to see her brother in hospital, where she connected him with CBC News.<\/p>\n

He celebrated by eating pizza, calling it “very tasty.” <\/p>\n

Squamish Search and Rescue search manager Tyler Duncan said was it is “remarkable” Volo survived.<\/p>\n

He said Volo descended the back side of the mountain, a route that involved steep, technical terrain.<\/p>\n

Duncan said it was one of the most “involved” searches he had been a part of in his 15 years in search and rescue.<\/p>\n

“He was out in that storm. It must have been an absolutely horrendous experience for him,” Duncan said. <\/p>\n

“I would absolutely love to sit down with Stas and have a good conversation about what he has been up to for the last six days,” Duncan added. “It’s got to be a remarkable story.” <\/p>\n

Now back in Squamish and recovering with his family, Volo was effusive in his thanks to search crews and everyone that helped look for him.<\/p>\n

He added that he’s learned plenty of lessons and hopes sharing his story will help others. <\/p>\n

“It can happen to anyone,” he said. “You never know what is going to happen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who survived a grueling five nights in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains is sharing more about his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-885094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}