INUVIK
While the mock exercise that took place Oct. 24 was deliberate, the situation it mimicked was all too real.

Chris Church, left, huddles in the snow as searchers Adrienne Talbot, Beverly Kingmiaqtuq and John Moore arrive on the scene. - photo courtesy of John Hicks

"We planned out the roles," said Brian Terry, vice-president of the Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) team in Inuvik. "Everyone acted the way I expected them to act, and learned what I expected them to learn."

About a dozen volunteers turned out Oct. 24 to search for Chris Church, who dressed down to his skivvies and hid in a snowbank in the woods for hours for their benefit.

While Church was tasked with simulating a brain injury, organizers noted the similarities between the fake situation and a real one when a child went missing in late September.

In the end, the child was found safe at a friend's house but it was still the first time the GSAR team was called out for a real emergency. Team members joined community volunteers to search the streets and forest surrounding town.

"It was great," Terry said of the exercise which included new members who have yet to take any searcher training, making them more like community volunteers than the experienced leaders they are meant to become.

"We had people come out this morning in everything from full gear to a purse. In that real situation, we had people coming out in flip flops at 1 a.m. with no warm clothes."

In the exercise, searchers were told a young man had last been seen in his bed at 2 a.m.

When his parents woke up, they saw his boots and jacket were missing. The team was called at 9 a.m. and arrived at the Inuvik Ski Club by 9:30.

After an hour of planning and strategizing, they set out at 10:30, following clues left in the snow, meant to both help and hinder them in their search.

Church was found just past noon and was taken to a radio tower structure to await a hypothetical evacuation.

Those who had some training were put in command while Terry and GSAR president John Hicks stood back and observed, stepping in when the need arose. While not originally intended, an opportunity to muddy the water came up in the process. When things at the camp became chaotic, Sarah Beattie was quietly taken aside and instructed to get pretend-lost.

"I think it played out really well," she said. "I could feel myself getting frustrated, I didn't really have a job, I was just carrying things . it showed how someone getting lost could happen."

In the debrief at the ski club after, other searchers noted how much "realer" is was when there was a human playing the victim instead of a plastic dummy.

They also talked about how the role of leaders was unfamiliar for many of them, but that they made it work. In a real situation, GSAR members are meant to lead teams of community members.

"While we hope to never have to encounter this, it's good to know that people are well-trained and ready to get people in trouble help and back to their families," said Hicks.

For his part, Church - who spent just under three hours nearly-naked in a snowbank - had just one suggestions.

"Just look faster," he said. "That's all."

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