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Hiker drowns in Auyuittuq Park

"This is a very dynamic landscape. It can change from hour to hour"

SARA MINOGUE

A 61-year-old man from Ontario died last week while fording a river in Auyuittuq National Park.

The man, whose name has not been released, was hiking through Akshayuk Pass, the main route through the park, with another man from Ontario. On Friday morning, the pair were crossing a river at around 7 a.m., when one of them was unexpectedly swept downstream.

His hiking partner managed to get across the river to get help from another group that had crossed earlier that morning.

The group — a professor and two students from the University of Ottawa who were in the park to do research — helped the cold, wet hiker retrieve the unconscious man from the icy water. They weren't able to resuscitate him.

The accident happened about 65 km north of Overlord, the southern entrance to the park, 25 km north of Panniqtuuq, the hamlet formerly known as Pangnirtung, at one of several river crossings that hikers have to traverse to get through the pass.

Luckily, the hikers were just outside the Glacier Lake emergency shelter — one of several scattered throughout the park — and were able to call for help.

Parks Canada, in co-operation with the RCMP, took a helicopter into the park to retrieve the man. By evening, he was pronounced dead in Panniqtuuq and RCMP notified his next-of-kin.

"Our first response is to make sure the family and friends of the victim are taken care of and they know that they have our sympathy," says Elizabeth Seale, superintendent of parks in Nunavut.

Seale says that safety is a priority for the park's staff. All visitors to the park are subject to a 45-minute personal orientation that covers hypothermia, rock falls, polar bear safety, how to use the emergency radios in the park, and how to cross the glacial streams that flow through the floor of the pass.

Visitors can also get a copy of the park's planning guide, which gives safety and logistical advice to visitors planning a trip through the park, and also gives them an idea of what to expect once they get there.

"We emphasize the risks of traveling in wilderness locations — particularly stream crossings and river crossings," Seale says. "The problem is that this is a really dynamic landscape. It can change from hour to hour."

There was a low ceiling of clouds in Panniqtuuq on Friday, but the weather may have been different 90 km north of town.

River crossings are one of the trickiest parts of the hike through Auyuittuq Park.

"They were crossing in the morning, which is a good idea. If it's hot and the glaciers are melting then you get a lot more water later in the day, but if it's been raining, then you can get lots of water anytime," Seale said. "Sometimes it's been raining up high when it's not raining where you are so it's hard to tell."

Seale says there hadn't been a death in any of Nunavut's parks since at least the last four and a half years, when she joined the park staff.

Dave Reid, who operates Polar Sea Adventures in Pond Inlet, says that the death is "unfortunate" but also says that the type of people who visit Nunavut's parks are aware of the risks.

"I've hiked in Auyuittuq maybe half a dozen times and you just have to be very careful."

Visitors who travel northwards through Akshayuk Pass will see a plaque outside the emergency shelter at the south entrance commemorating Horst Werner Pfaus, who died of hypothermia in the shelter in 1985.

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