A Saskatoon man is safely recovering but has a harrowing story to remember after Black Lake RCMP led the rescue of a missing canoeist in northern Saskatchewan.

Shortly after 4 Wednesday afternoon, RCMP were advised of an SOS activation from a GPS device from a remote waterway about 25 kilometres northeast of Black Lake. The emergency message advised that a canoeist was injured and had his dog with him. Police were able to determine it was a 26 year old man from Saskatoon.

The police kept contact with text messages and the canoeist updated RCMP that he was getting progressively weaker as the temperatures dropped and he’d lost most of his gear. The temperature was expected to drop to -6 degrees celsius and RCMP determined a rescue needed to happen that night. However, the location was not accessible by land or water without several long portages and none of the local aviation companies contacted were able to travel and perform a rescue after dark.

RCMP contacted Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ontario which helped coordinate a rescue via helicopter based in Fort McMurray. The helicopter arrived to refuel in Stony Rapids around 10:30 that night and when it arrived at the canoeist’s location, couldn’t safely land. A paramedic was lowered to stabilize the 26 year old man and shortly before midnight, while hovering, the helicopter rescue team got the paramedic, the dog and canoeist safely inside the aircraft.

The injured man was flown to the nearest safe landing spot and was met by EMS. He is now in hospital and expected to make a full recovery.