The missing man was found by searchers from Sucker River. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

search and rescue

Man rescued from abandoned cabin after snowmobile breaks down

Feb 8, 2021 | 5:09 PM

A missing northern Saskatchewan man was found by volunteers at an abandoned cabin as the temperature hovered around -33 C.

That’s according to Pinehouse Lake RCMP Const. Mark Wright, who said officers received a call Feb. 6 at approximately 2:45 p.m. reporting George Venne Jr. missing. He left a cabin on Besnard Lake and did not return.

“It was … approximately 8 p.m. we received notification that the male was found at an abandoned cabin on Morning Lake,” Wright said. “He was transported from Morning Lake area to a hospital in La Ronge.”

According to a social media post by Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson, Jason Halkett and Trevor Ratt, both from Sucker River, were the community searchers who found Venne. She notes Venne’s snowmobile broke down and he walked five kilometers on foot through slush to the abandoned cabin.

When Venne was found, he had symptoms of hypothermia and was later treated in La Ronge.

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“The searchers used a satellite phone to make arrangements to have an ambulance meet their snowmobiles at the Morning Lake/Clam Lake road,” Cook-Searson wrote. “The ambulance transported George Venne Jr. to the La Ronge Health Centre where he was examined.”

Cook-Searson expressed her thanks to several other search and rescue volunteers, band councillors, RCMP and EMS for bringing Venne safely home.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno