Nunavut man waits out Rankin blizzard in a cabin

Trevor Autut, 23, of Chesterfield Inlet, went missing for five days after leaving home on Friday the 13th of March on route to Rankin Inlet. He survived in a makeshift shelter and then found a cabin to wait out a three-day blizzard. He was found March 18. (PHOTO COURTESY WILLIAM AUTUT)

(Updated 5:25 p.m., March 19)

Even though she knew Trevor was an experienced traveller on the land, once the blizzard hit the Kivalliq region on Sunday, Marjorie Autut had moments of panic in the middle of the night, listening to the howling wind and wondering what was happening to her missing son.

When the phone call came after 4 p.m. on March 18 and a voice said casually, “Hi mom,” all she could do was take the phone from her ear and stare at it in confusion.

“Then he goes again, ‘Hi mom,’ and I just started screaming ‘Ah! Where are you?” said Autut, reached at her home in Chesterfield Inlet. “I just knew in my gut that he was holing up somewhere, safe and sound.”

Trevor Autut, 23, the middle boy in a family of three boys and three girls, left his home community of Chesterfield Inlet six days ago, on Friday the 13th, with a snow machine and a qamutik, bound for Rankin Inlet, about 80 miles away.

He’d done the trip before and is quite comfortable on the land by himself, Marjorie said. The trip usually takes about four hours, if the weather is good and the trail is direct.

Trevor was on his way to Rankin Inlet to play in the Avataq Cup hockey tournament, she said.

But he ended up veering off in the wrong direction, following an incorrect snowmobile trail, Trevor told his mother. Realizing something was wrong, he checked his GPS unit and saw that he had been travelling inland.

He corrected his route but about 25 miles outside of Rankin Inlet, he ran out of gas.

For the first two nights, Marjorie said, he slept in a shelter he’d made by forming a “V” shape with his snowmobile and qamutik and covering it over with a tarp.

The first night was cold, he told her, but the second night was okay.

On the third day, Sunday, he decided to go walking in search of help.

He stopped in at two different cabins to rest and have tea before finding a third cabin, which was owned by former NWT cabinet minister Tagak Curley and his wife, Sally Curley, who happened to be Marjorie’s sister. Sally Curley died in July 2014.

That cabin was fully stocked, she said: there was food, a stove, camp fuel, a lantern and sleeping bags.

“He said it was just like walking into a house.”

After Trevor called his mother to tell her the story of what had happened, Marjorie called Tagak.

“I couldn’t figure out why Marjorie was thanking me and thanking me and she said, ‘he was at your guys’ cabin!'” Tagak said March 19. “My wife, I have a picture of her right here by my computer. She would have been so happy to know that.”

Tagak said they always made sure the 12-foot-by-10-foot wooden hunting cabin was equipped with supplies, pots and pans and sleeping apparel. And because of that, he thinks it helped save his nephew’s life.

“We were quite concerned,” he said. “The wind did not abate for four days. It was wicked, gusting to 110, 120 kilometres an hour. That’s hurricane force wind.”

Shortly after Trevor arrived at the cabin, the blizzard hit.

He spent three nights there and when the storm finally broke, he went out walking again.

On March 18, he was spotted by the pilot of a small airplane flying overhead. Soon after, his cousin Tittaq Komaksiutiksak showed up on a snowmobile and rescued him, Marjorie said.

He was about 15 miles outside of Rankin Inlet, he told her.

Although she did have private moments of doubt, Marjorie said she knew in her heart that Trevor would be okay.

Trevor’s father, Paul Autut, had been stranded on the land in a storm when he was only 15, she said. And in 2010, Paul’s dad, Trevor’s grandfather, also survived a storm while away from the community.

So Paul made sure to teach his sons how to survive if ever they ran into trouble while out camping or hunting, Marjorie said. Trevor knew what to do.

“He survived the 120-km an hour winds,” she said. “He’s a wilderness kind of kid. He loves it out there. He’s more comfortable out there than he is in a community.”

For now, Trevor is staying put in Rankin Inlet where plentiful, and relieved, family members are happy to host him. Marjorie said there might even be a feast held in his honour to celebrate his safe return.

Eventually he’ll make his way back to Chesterfield, she said, by snowmobile again, so he can retrieve his own machine and qamutik.

“But he’s in no rush,” she said. “And now that we know he’s OK, with family, in a community, we’ll just see him when he gets back.”