A man who survived a grueling five nights in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains is sharing more about his experience.
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.
Search and rescue crews found him Friday evening on the Indian Arm Forest Service Road after he’d descended the mountain injured, but under his own power.
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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.
“I basically relied too much on technology in this situation, and technology unfortunately sometimes fails,” Volo said.
Volo had intended to hike the Mount Habrich Loop, an area search and rescue crews decribed as technical, exposed alpine terrain.
He said his phone died when he got to the top of the mountain, and he was unable to find his way down.
“I was panicking,” he explained.
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.
It turned out to be the wrong direction — what he actually heard was pipeline construction.
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.
“I guess I have no option but to keep going down and down, slowly but surely,” he explained.
Volo said he spent several nights sheltering in a small cave near a waterfall, where he focused on recovering, trying to stay warm.
He said he rationed a few packages of gummy bears before he discovered a sweet-tasting wildflower to eat.
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“Maybe it’s not that sweet right now if I try it, but back then it felt so sweet,” he said.
“I 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.”
He described seeing several helicopters, but was unable to get their attention.
Eventually, he said he made the decision to climb down the mountain.
“You have two options basically, you wait for the helicopters to come and rescue you … or you have to do something about it,” he said. “Basically I decided to take a chance and get out of there.”
Despite his injured foot, he slowly and painstakingly worked his way down the mountainside, eventually intersecting first with a river, then a road.
He ran into a construction worker who connected him with the search and rescue crews who were already in the area.
“It was such a joy and such an amazing feeling of being there, and just tears of happiness were running down my face,” he said.
Volo’s sister Ola Volo was ecstatic about her brother’s rescue.
“We found him,” she told CBC on Friday. “He walked out on the road on his two feet.”
She eventually went to see her brother in hospital, where she connected him with CBC News.
He celebrated by eating pizza, calling it “very tasty.”
Squamish Search and Rescue search manager Tyler Duncan said was it is “remarkable” Volo survived.
He said Volo descended the back side of the mountain, a route that involved steep, technical terrain.
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Duncan said it was one of the most “involved” searches he had been a part of in his 15 years in search and rescue.
“He was out in that storm. It must have been an absolutely horrendous experience for him,” Duncan said.
“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.”
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.
He added that he’s learned plenty of lessons and hopes sharing his story will help others.
“It can happen to anyone,” he said. “You never know what is going to happen.”
