Canadian SAR has lots of issues: horrible weather, rugged terrain, dense forest, unprepared rescuees, uneducated rescues, etc... and most of it is out of their control and they tackle it anyway. No SAR team is ever going to have a perfect success ratio but come on, these men and woman are amazing and, I'm sorry but most of the time, the fatalities are not their fault. They do a job that most of us wouldn't do and the expectations of them can be unreasonable at times.

The story says that the men were outside the search area, and that there was absolutely no sign of them in the search area after a week of looking. In this case, is it possible that the guy saw the helicopter flying TO and FROM the search site, when they chopped wasn't looking for them and the men didn't or couldn't signal them? Is it possible that they built a shelter and camouflaged themselves from the SAR teams? Is it possible that he built a warming fire, not a visual signal fire, and that the searchers were too far away from smelling it and couldn't see it through the forest? Is it possible that the guys were outside of the area they said they were going to be in? Is it possible that they moved away from their searchers as they tried to find help? Is it possible that they had hypothermia and did the exact opposite of what they should have done?

Watch the Survivorman episode with Les and his friend Bob in Temagami Ontario, or the one where he's in the Sierras, and see for yourself just how difficult it can be even when the rescuee is in good health and knowledgeable, and the weather is good, and give the SAR teams the respect they deserve.