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NUNAVUT
The search for a missing Kugaaruk man became a recovery mission Dec. 19 after organizers determined that Bernard Pujuardjok likely could not have survived two weeks with the supplies and gear he had.

Searchers braved temperatures reaching -50 C with windchill in a two-week search that covered 240 square kilometers in an attempt to find the 22-year-old, an RCMP release said.

Pujuardjok left Kugaaruk for Taloyoak Dec. 5 to visit his girlfriend but never arrived, hamlet senior administrative officer Robert Ferland told Nunavut News/North in December.

Travelling by snowmobile, he had an additional five gallons of fuel and was lightly dressed.

Hopes were raised Dec. 12 when searchers found footsteps leading away from their discovery of Pujuardjok's grub box 65 to 80 km from the community, but bad weather hampered the search and the man was not found.

The aerial and ground search involved members of the local search-and-rescue team, Canadian Rangers from Kugaaruk and Taloyoak, the RCMP and volunteers from the hamlet.

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