Massive search turns up one survivor from missing Iqaluit pair

Two Iqaluit men who were missing for four days last week were found last Thursday, but only one survived.

Joe Amarualik, a Canadian Ranger and volunteer searcher, tracked the survivor, Ed Norman, 33, by snowmobile around 3 p.m. last Thursday, about 32 km up the Sylvia Grinnell River.

While searching the area, Amarualik noticed a set of tracks coming down a hill. On closer inspection, he saw that they were wolf tracks, following a previous search party’s trail. He followed the snowmobile trail until he came across a “tired and hungry” man. Norman had been walking the track for several hours hoping to get back to town.

“We were happy to see each other,” Amaraulik said.

Amarualik offered Norman a sandwich and a hot drink while his other search party members, Andrew Cox and Charlie Audlakiak, caught up with them. They reported the find to headquarters, which sent a helicopter to pick up Norman.

The search party then backtracked along Norman’s trail in search of 27-year-old Todd Reid, whom Audlakiak found dead three hours later, some 15 km behind. Norman had constructed a snow shelter for Reid when he could not go on walking.

The pair, both originally from Newfoundland, had headed across Frobisher Bay around noon on Sunday, May 8, in poor weather. Family members reported them missing when they had not returned by 7:30 a.m. the next day.

A massive search fanned out from Iqaluit with dozens of volunteers on snowmobile as well as a Kenn Borek Twin Otter and a Hercules from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax.

Neither man had told anyone where they were going, and the search and rescue teams had no leads, right up until the day before the men were found. They were traveling without a qamotik.

Norman was in Newfoundland this week to attend the funeral.

An old friend from Reid’s home town of Old Shop, Nfld., described Todd as “one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known,” with Jim Carrey-like qualities.

“I know when someone dies, people always tend to say ‘they were liked by everyone’ but in Todd’s case, that’s absolutely true,” Jamie Baker said.