Walks back to town after snowmobile freezes
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Rankin Inlet (Feb 07/01) - A Rankin Inlet man returned home safely on foot after spending two nights on the land during a blizzard.
Yvo Airut Sr., 54, left Rankin about 10 a.m. on Jan. 28 to conduct a bit of seal hunting near the floe edge at Rabbit Island, about 48 kilometres east northeast of Rankin Inlet.
Tim Hinds of the Department of Community Government and Transportation's (CG&T) Emergency Management Regional Centre in Rankin Inlet says Airut was well- equipped when he left the hamlet.
"He had a rifle, qamutik, sleeping bag, stove and tarp," says Hinds.
"However, when he hadn't returned by midnight, four search-and-rescue (SAR) members were sent to check out nearby cabins, but bad weather forced their return a few hours later."
Another SAR team was dispatched on the morning of Jan. 29 to check cabins from Falstaff Island to the Baker Foreland, about 50 kilometres from Rankin.
Hinds says search attempts were intensified when Airut still couldn't be located.
"By Jan. 30, SAR had seven ground searches on the land and four spotters in the air, with two spotters on a Kivalliq Air plane and two others on a Skyward plane.
"At 11:05 that morning, community radio announced he was safely back in the hamlet and, once SAR verified that, the search was immediately halted."
CG&T's Shawn Maley says Airut did exactly the right thing under the blizzard conditions.
"Yvo (Airut) thought he was following the bombardier's trail into Rankin, but it turns out the bombardier was, apparently, taking a cabin out to Diane River," says Maley.
"He passed right by Rankin in the blizzard and ended up at the cabins by the river. He didn't try anything foolish to make it back to Rankin. He stayed in the cabin until the weather broke. His snowmobile was frozen solid, so he walked back, no worse for the wear
