Baker Lake searchers find two young hunters

(Updated 4:55 p.m., Nov. 6)

Searchers have found two young, inexperienced hunters who went missing outside Baker Lake after failing to return as scheduled from a trip on the land Nov. 5.

Cpl. Yvonne Niego of the Nunavut RCMP said late in the afternoon of Nov. 6 that the two young people are now safe at home.

She said it turned out that their all-terrain vehicle had run out of gas.

According to Mike Akilak, chair of the Baker Lake search and rescue committee, the two hunters — a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl — didn’t return the night of Nov. 5.

Akilak said the search for the two began immediately, at about 11 p.m. Six people on ATVs searched throughout the night without any luck.

Akilak said the two were about 80 kilometres outside of town with a group of about four or five others on ATVs when the 20-year-old spotted and pursued a wolf.

“It was snowing yesterday and they lost track of him and from there they just didn’t know where he went,” Akilak said.

Niego also said the two are fairly inexperienced hunters.

“I think the fears were that they weren’t well equipped,” Niego said.