Lost Nunavut family found safe towing sled to community, officials say

"There's a helicopter on site and they're being evacuated to Hall Beach," said Bill Kennedy, a search co-ordinator in Repulse Bay, Nunavut, the community the family had set out from on May 1.

"We were pretty happy to hear that. It's a happy resolution to kind of a long trip."

The search for the family - with five children under 12, including two one-year-olds - began Sunday after they didn't show up in Hall Beach, about a 250-kilometre trek from Repulse Bay.

The search was limited to ground crews until Thursday, when foggy, cloudy weather lifted enough to allow an airplane and a helicopter to join the effort.

But it was a patrol of Rangers, a largely aboriginal military reserve force, that eventually found the lost travellers. Thursday morning, they found a set of tracks they thought could have originated from the family and they followed them until they came to a burned-out snowmobile.

"It was a group of Rangers from Repulse Bay that had located this Ski-Doo that had been burned as a signal," said Kennedy. "They found them shortly afterwards."

Kennedy said the snowmobile had probably been burned to produce smoke. But the heavy cloud cover made it impossible to see the signal.

The family was found near a river fairly close to Hall Beach, said Annie Angotingoar, senior administrative officer for the community.

"They were in the right direction, walking toward Hall Beach," she said.

"They are happy and fine. The kids were in the komatik and the parents were (towing).

"We're all happy."

The family had been making the 250-kilometre trek without an emergency locator, satellite phone or radio.