PINEHOUSE, Sask. – A woman who was part of a missing canoe party in northern Saskatchewan has been found alive after surviving for eight days in the wilderness.
At the same time, her husband’s body was found in Kinosaskaw Lake, Saskatchewan.
The body was spotted by a Shellbrook float plane operator Tuesday morning after an overturned canoe was seen east of a set of rapids called Needle Falls.
Pinehouse RCMP chartered a plane to investigate and was able to identify the body as that of a missing 66-year-old Prince Albert man. His name is not being released.
He had failed to report to his family with a “SPOT” satellite messenger tracker device eight days earlier.
Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) was called in to assist Mounties and arrived at the lake around 5:40 p.m.
They were able to locate the 62-year-old woman at the mouth of the rapids, where she had a fire burning and was waving at the aircraft.
CASARA was operating a fixed-wing, non-float aircraft and was unable to land but the crew circled above the woman for two hours while a float plane with two Mounties was dispatched.
The float place arrived around 7:30 p.m. and the CASARA crew directed the float plane to the woman’s location. She was taken to a hospital in La Ronge for treatment and later released in good health.
Police say she was able to survive for the eight days after the couple’s canoe had capsized on the rapids by relying on her outdoor experience and survival skills.
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