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The trip, 11 hours in good weather, is well-travelled and studded with shelter cabins along the way.

But it also crosses rugged terrain, twisting along jagged coastlines and climbing over mountain passes.

And the weather wasn’t good.

“We were in a kind of blizzard,” Keyootak said. “That’s why I got lost. I lost the trail road. I turned in the wrong direction between here and Pang.”

Instead of heading northeast to Pangnirtung, the travellers were riding south down the shore of Frobisher Bay. By the time they realized their mistake, they didn’t have enough gas to retrace their tracks.

With no communication equipment, there was nothing to do but hunker down in the high winds and -30 C temperatures and wait for help.

“My son and nephew, they got a caribou,” said Keyootak. “That’s how we survived — the meat from the caribou.”

After a few days, the igloo began to break down, so Keyootak built another and the vigil resumed.

They had a few supplies — a camp stove, some fuel, tea, sugar.

We had one sleeping bag, one mattress. That’s all we had. The sleeping bag went for my son.

“We had one sleeping bag, one mattress. That’s all we had. The sleeping bag went for my son.

“He was the most important to keep warm. Me and my nephew used our parkas to cover ourselves every night. It’s hard for me to survive in that kind of weather, cold in the night.

“During the day it was all right, when the sun was up. We would stay outside all the time. We would get up in the morning and go outside right away after drinking tea. We would stay outside and move around so we were not just sitting in the same place.