A Calgary hunter missing since Saturday was found west of Sundre Monday night, according to Rocky Mountain House Search and Rescue.
Timothy Benedict Campbell, 33, was located at 8 p.m.
He was found 7.2 kilometres from where he went missing and flown to Sundre Hospital, officials said.
“A great ending to a long three days,” said Roger Tetreault, senior search manager of Sundre Search and Rescue.
Crews had no physical evidence to work with.
Tetreault said his team walked 23.8 km through the bush on Monday.
Campbell was in good enough condition to walk up to the searchers, said Ed Van Heeren, president of Rocky Mountain House Search and Rescue.
Tetreault added that Campbell was upright, mobile and showing signs of exposure when he was found.
“He was actually barefoot when we located him,” he said. “We don’t know why.”
It was Sundre Search and Rescue member Devon Campbell’s first search, the outcome of which he called a huge shock and relief.
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“I was following footprints that were his and I was coming back,” he said. “The RCMP officer was looking at me and his face turned to quite a bit of shock, and the subject actually walked out about 30 metres behind me on his own.
“He was very quiet and obviously going through a lot of shock, and I’m sure [he had] a certain stage of hypothermia.”
‘Not giving up’
On Saturday at around 8:30 a.m., Timothy Campbell was out with his nine-year-old son and a friend in the Williams Creek area.
RCMP said he went off on an animal track and didn’t return. Timothy Campbell’s son and friend called police when they were unable to find him.
Sundre RCMP were assisted in the search by Sundre Search and Rescue, Rocky Mountain House Search and Rescue, RCMP Air Services, RCMP Police Dog Services and Clearwater Fire Rescue. From those agencies, 18 people in total looked for him.
“It was phenomenal work by all the parties involved,” Tetreault said. “Just putting the pieces together from clue to clue to clue and just not giving up.”
Crews said search efforts were difficult due to muddy, complex terrain.
“It was below zero both nights, warm during the day and it snowed last night,” Devon Campbell said. “The snow was wet and in some spots knee- to waist-deep. So he would have been soaking wet and cold and miserable.
“I don’t understand how he could have made it through the night and walked that far, to be honest.”
Devon Campbell said the odds were stacked against Timothy Campbell.
“That’s extremely rare to come out of that — even just surviving a single night, not to mention two — and travelling the distance he had travelled,” he said. “At least half of his steps were through wet snow and just terrible conditions.
“In any case, you don’t expect that to happen, especially for him to walk out on his own.”
WATCH: A desperate search continued Monday afternoon for a Calgary hunter missing since Saturday near Sundre, Alta. Lauren Pullen has the details.
– With files from Global News’ Lauren Pullen
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