Inuvik (Apr 03/06) - A British dogsledding adventurer lost all but one of his dogs in a mishap in early March.

According to reports from CBC Radio, the 40-year-old man was driving his team west along the Beaufort Sea shore around March 5 when he broke through sea ice near Paulatuk.

Gary Rolfe was heading for Inuvik.

Details about what happened are sketchy. Police didn't issue a press release about the incident.

What is known is that he fell through the sea ice, almost all his Canadian Inuit dogs drowned, and he was saved by a Paulatuk hunter and flown to Inuvik for treatment.

According to Rolfe, he had insurance that covered the cost of the medevac.

Police would only point to Rolfe's website "www.garyrolfe.com" to get more information, but there is nothing helpful there beyond a recount of a 2005 winter dogsledding trek in the same area.

In 2001, Rolfe was ordered to leave Canada by the immigration department on a conditional discharge for working illegally in the Inuvik area.

Icelanders change course

Meanwhile, a group of hard-core truck driving Icelanders have found even the mightiest vehicles can run into Northern difficulties.

Travelling out of Inuvik, the six-man crew had ventured as far a Kugluktuk before Mother Nature blocked their way.

The original trail was to have gone through the Kitikmeot, then south through Baker Lake to Gimli, Man.

Warmer than usual weather bent their trail back south last week, forcing them toward Yellowknife by way of now-closed ice roads.

Their trip inside tricked-out Ford-150 diesel trucks was to take six weeks and cover 6,200 kilometres.