Students stranded on ice floe

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What was supposed to be a week spent studying whales became a lesson in Arctic survival for 10 high school students from Baffin Island, N.W.T. stranded on a sheet of break-away ice.

The high school biology students, along with three Elders, a science teacher, an eight-year-old child and a hunter, were trapped when the sea ice they were traveling on broke free at the tip of Baffin Island and drifted into Lancaster Sound.

The group, all residents of Pond Inlet, N.W.T., a remote community on Bafffin Island's northern coast, spent nearly four days on a three-kilometre-wide island of ice while storms hampered rescue efforts.

By the time a helicopter landed on the ice floe, it had drifted about 90 km, almost three-quarters across Lancaster Sound.

"It was really terrifying," said teacher Steve Van Oostveen, remembering the ice breaking apart a few feet from where the group was traveling on snowmobiles.

"It happened so fast," he added. "We were only about 500 m from shore when we realized."

Van Oostveen said the group tried to outrun the growing crack and cross back over to the shore side of the ice, but a spring squall caused whiteouts and made it impossible to travel quickly.

Realizing they were trapped, they radioed Pond Inlet to advise the search and rescue volunteers of their predicament.

The group had planned to spend a week at the floe edge studying whales as part of a senior biology class. Outfitted with rifles, navigation equipment, a week's supply of food and a radio, the most immediate danger was the potential of the ice floe to break apart.

"We're thankful to the Elders because they knew what to do," said student Abbas Parks, 15.

The Elders, including one who spent six weeks trapped on an ice floe in 1963, moved the group to a section of old ice which had been floating in the ocean for more than one season and was less likely to break apart.

But the high winds that grounded rescue helicopters also caused huge chunks of the ice floe to break away.

"The storms and the whiteouts were kind of scary," Parks said. "One morning we noticed some of the ice had broken off."

Student Brian Koonoo said the wind was so fierce during a blizzard that the kamotiqs (sleds) almost blew away.

As well as contending with the unpredicatable Arctic weather, the group was very aware of the danger of polar bears, which regularly travel near open water to hunt. A guide kept a vigil around the clock to keep bears at a safe distance.

"I saw new polar bear tracks," Koonoo said. "That bear was pretty close to our camp."

When the students weren't sleeping, sharing stories or fetching snow for water, they tried to keep their minds off their situation.

"We had hot dogs, listened to music and tried to have fun," Koonoo said. "We tried to forget we were stranded."

"It was a great adventure, but it was kind of scary," said 15-year-old Aaron Pitseolak, adding the students earned marks for learning Arctic survival skills.

The group was rescued by helicopter which forced them to leave five snowmobiles and most of their camping equipment behind, an estimated $50,000 loss.

But Koonoo put that loss into prespective.

"We can't buy new people, but we can buy new machines."