Stranded for 8 days at -30C on the arctic tundra? I don't think I'd fare as well as these Inuit gentlemen. The search area was 15,000 square kilometres of rock and ice.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada...anded-in-tundra

Very good story. How do you use a small knife to make an igloo? - small blocks?

Small knife for a true Inuit is probably anything just a hair under 12"

Another case of 'should have prepared more.'

I get that they had likely done this trip at least a dozen times successfully; not a walk in the park, but still doable.

However -- the Arctic in Winter is already an extreme survival situation -- the moment you step out your front door.

At a minimun: Arctic rated survival gear for each person: -20 bag, pad and tent, clothing, stove, etc.

Spare food (up to 6,000 cal / day) water, fuel, etc.

Better communications gear/ electronics: even a cheap 2nd gen. GPS would have prevented this mishap. ($10-25 on ebay)

Spare gas (!) tools, parts, for each snow machine

Signaling gear: mirror, radio* snow dye, panels, etc

Tools for the unique environment: snow knife, shovel, ( 1/person) snowshoes, bear gun, chemical heater packs

* I realize that not everyone can afford a sat phone or even the PLB technology...but a cheap GPS, spare gas and even a short range consumer radio (which might actually reach the promised 36-50 mile range given line of sight from person to an aircraft) they could have shortened the search time.

I think you are a bit over the top here. Hindsight is always 20/20, and there certainly are a few things that they could have done better, but overall they were reasonably prepared for that journey. Let's consider a few of your comments:
The arctic is these folks' home, winter and summer. They know what they are doing. They survived 8 days with no harm. I suspect some of the commenters here on ETS would have a hard time surviving 8 hours in the arctic in winter

They had one sleeping bag and mattress. An igloo is vastly superior shelter to any tent in those conditions. They obviously had good arctic clothing (riding a snow machine in -30C you would freeze in moments without it). They had a stove and fuel, which lasted 8 days.

They had tea and sugar. They shot a caribou, so they had plenty of food. Presumably they had a rifle to shoot the 'bou. They had enough stove fuel to last 8 days. They stayed hydrated (a big deal in the arctic).

This may or may not have helped, depending on how far off route they were. Gas is heavy. The more spare gas you carry, the more gas you burn. Depending on the terrain, carrying too much extra weight can lead to other problems.

This is probably the one thing you list that would have made a big difference.

Bottom line is I think they were reasonably well prepared, and did quite well under the circumstances. Surviving 8 days in arctic winter conditions with no ill effects is no small accomplishment. True survival incidents are always graded "pass/fail". They clearly got a passing grade.

In my brief Alaskan experience, an igloo, or anything resembling that, is vastly superior to any tent - warmer and more quiet and definitely more stable.

Isn't this incident an example of the value of possessing the requisite skills and knowledge (how to build a snow shelter, even if you only have a "short" knife, how to hunt, etc.) rather than just a pile of gear? I wonder how affordable a PLB would be for the typical Inuit family.....

Great story! To me, being prepared, or equipped to survive, doesn't equal thinking that everything will unfold perfectly and nothing will ever go wrong. (It would be just as foolish to think that you were well prepared just because an adventure goes off without a hitch.) We should do what we can to minimize problems, try to anticipate and mitigate what we can, but things will go wrong. That's life.

Kudos to these guys for knowing what they needed to do to survive the situation, and for doing so successfully. A GPS and 2-way radio may have helped them stay on the correct course or get help sooner, but you know what we'd say about them putting their faith in technology if they didn't have the chops to be out there in the first place ... It sounds like they had decent supplies and skills, just made a navigation error.

Not everyone can make an iglo. There are a lot of little tricks involved, that kind of trick you have to aquire through hands-on training: What snow makes good building blocks, the proper 3D shape of blocks, how to use snow to bind blocks together and so on.

Snow caves are much simpler, everyone can dig one. Provided, of course, you actually have a bank deep enough to dig into. I don't know squat about their particular location, but Lots of areas in the arctic don't get much precipitation, and what little snow that falls will blow away. Leaving a surprisingly thin snow cover most places. The wind will build pretty deep snow banks leeward of some obstacles, but finding one when you really need one can be hard.

Both igloos and snow caves will have a temperature around freezing point, and they will be draft free. That's actually really cosy and snug when it's -30 outside. A tent will only be warm when heated, which consumes a lot of fuel. And tents are pretty far from draft free...

I imagine retail markup might only be double or triple not septuple due to PLB light weight ...
so ordering online should be about the same price (or plus $60)...
so the cost per family would be about one week to three weeks worth of groceries


Poverty and Prosperity in Nunavut Four in ten people in Nunavut – 13,197 or 39.3 percent of the population – received social assistance in 2011
$60 drill, sells for $450 in Nunavut
$12 Rice Krispies / $9 ketchup ... $600 grocery bill median income for Inuit $19,900 year
shipping $29 + $22 per kilogram
So $60 drill (~4lb) + 29$ + $22 + $22 + $22 + $22 =~ $200 (rounded up)

Its funny how articles about food costs never include dry rice/beans/grains as groceries