A hunter from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, says he’s lucky to be alive after his snowmobile went through the ice about 20 kilometres outside of town last week.
Jackie Nakoolak headed out on the land Friday evening to hunt for caribou. He had waited until white-out conditions had cleared so that he could see the trail he was using, knowing that the weather the following day was supposed to be nice.
It was dark when he came upon Meliadine Lake – and that’s when things started to go wrong.
Nakoolak spoke to CBC News in both English and Inuktitut about what happened. He realized he was travelling through overflow on the ice, and so he picked up speed to get through it.
“The ice … started breaking,” he recalled. The snowmobile started to sink, so he stopped the motor and he climbed on top of it.
“I went on top of the Ski-Doo, just stand there maybe a good five, three, four minutes, wondering what to do. Do I jump to the side?”
Nakoolak worried that if he jumped to the side of the machine, he’d go through the ice. So instead, he jumped off the back and headed toward his sled – where he had his GPS.
“I was up to my hip … walking on the water,” he said. He struggled to get to the sled, but eventually was able to reach it – soaked.
As he searched for his GPS on the sled, he said he heard the sound of an approaching snowmobile – drawn by the light of his headlamp. It was a young hunter named Nathan Tulugak.
“He was travelling on the side of the hill, not on the trail,” said Nakoolak. “I told him, don’t, don’t come to the ice, it’s very thin.”
Nakoolak directed Tulugak to an area that was more solid. Then, he got off the sled and tried making his way toward his rescuer.
“I slipped again. I couldn’t get up. So I have to crawl to the solid area.”
There, he waited for Tulugak to help him up.
“He brought me to his sled and I asked him, I need mitts, my mitts are soaked.”
Thankfully, Tulugak had an extra pair. With both men aboard the working snowmobile, Tulugak “took off” to Rankin Inlet at “full blast,” said Nakoolak. When they got there, he said he was cold – but it wasn’t too bad.
He said he doesn’t think he would have made it, if it hadn’t been for Tulugak’s help.
Nakoolak said he hauled his frozen snowmobile from the lake a couple of days later.
