Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Nov 11/02) - A 36-year-old hunter whose snowmobile broke down between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk was stranded for three days without food or shelter until help arrived.

Richard Selamio went caribou hunting in the Parsons Lake area Oct. 29 for what was supposed to have been a day trip.

Apparently the only person who knew he was out was the man he borrowed the snowmobile from. The man didn't report Selamio missing until Nov. 1.

That day, a three-person search party organized by Hans Lennie, vice-president of the Inuvik Hunters and Trappers Committee, headed out at 10:30 a.m. to look for Selamio. Five hours later, they found the hunter, cold, wet, hungry and dehydrated, but otherwise unharmed.

The searchers were breaking trail in the fog when they chanced upon Selamio, sleeping on the ground about 60 kilometres northeast of Inuvik, the way the crow flies.

The search party was headed for Parson's Tower, a North Warning Site commonly used by distressed travellers because its aircraft light makes it visible from a distance, the heated, unlocked shack makes for a convenient rendezvous.

Selamio's snowmobile had broken down just 13 kilometres from the tower, but fog thwarted his attempts to reach it.

When searcher's found him, he was only about 5 kilometres from the tower, after walking for three days. "He was really disorientated," Lennie says. "He had a gun on his back and that was it -- with no shells because he shot off all his shells trying to get the attention of other hunters."

Selamio had killed three caribou Oct. 29 and was heading out for more when his snowmobile broke down, Lennie says.

He spent the first night sleeping by the carcasses and the next day, he decided to walk to the microwave tower.

Lennie says Selamio would probably have been better off had he waited with his snowmobile because it would have been easier for searchers to find him, and he would have had more resources to survive.

By wandering on the land, he could have easily succumbed to the elements had it not been so mild.

"It was by pure luck we found him when we did," Lennie says. Another hunter was helping the search by tracking Selamio's path from his abandoned snowmobile, but caribou tracks and dropping light meant the effort would probably have taken another day.