NWT - A Fort Good Hope teenager who was stranded in the wilderness with her younger sister for 22 hours said the event "changed my whole outlook on life."

Kyra Kochon, 18 (above), and her sister Shania Manuel, 13, were stranded with a broken snowmobile outside of Fort Good Hope for 22 hours on Sunday Nov. 29. - photo courtesy of Kyra Kochon

Kyra Kochon, 18, and her sister Sh Manuel, 13 were snowmobiling along the winter road from Fort Good Hope to Colville Lake on Sunday, Nov. 29 to visit Kochon's mother and baby.

"I guess I thought I would take a shortcut – I thought it was a shortcut but it wasn't. I just kept going and we went on a trail," Kochon recalls.

It was dark and there were too many willows and brush to break a trail, so Kochon tried to turn around but the snowmobile's belt was making a weird noise. Then it broke.

"The Ski-Doo just stopped on the lake. We were trying to start it – it wouldn't start. We were trying to make fire but it just wouldn't work," she said. "I was very scared.

"I tried to be strong for my sister because I didn't want her to panic."

The sisters walked to keep warm. They slept under a tarp that was on their sled covering them for protection until a North Wright Air charter carrying Fort Good Hope RCMP spotted them around noon the next day. A local searcher picked them up and the police brought them back to Good Hope.

The next day at 5:30 a.m., Whati RCMP dealt with a similar incident, responding to a call that an intoxicated male traveller was stranded between Behchoko and Whati. RCMP found him, asleep in the bush, about three hours later.

In light of these two incidents, NWT RCMP are reminding people to plan their trips safely, which means knowing where you are going, telling someone where you're going and when you expect to arrive, bringing emergency supplies and dressing for the elements.

Kochon said she now knows not to take those lessons lightly.

"I've learned a lot of things. I've learned not to take things for granted, that every day is a gift. You never know what could happen," she said. "I learned to respect the land and be strong."

"I don't think I would ever want it to happen to anyone else."