Although the exact details on how this family came to be stranded in the frozen wilderness is not confirmed, it seems the family may have been using their cellphone as their navigation, which is not always reliable.

Phil Waldner wasn't expecting to come across a stranded family of five when he went out for a snowmobile ride in rural Manitoba after Christmas last month.

The Steinbach, Man., resident was on a trail near Whitemouth Lake, which is nearly 130 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg, when he saw car tracks, which seemed odd.

"It was about 15 or 16 kilometres in when I came upon the car that had broken through the ice, and in the car there was an elderly gentleman and two young children," Waldner said.

"They were huddled up in blankets trying to keep warm and I asked them, 'What in the Sam Hill are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?' and they said they're going to Toronto.".

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/family-rescued-snowmobile-manitoba-1.5439399