Following the sinking of the tug Sea Alert just south of Nain Labrador in the fall of 1995, Dave Barnes faced what most would find insurmountable odds to survive. After swimming a mile in freezing water, he managed to make it to land but a mountain lay between him and safety. He climbed the snow-covered mountain in bare feet and finally made it to a small shack on the Labrador coastline. But surviving the night would be a major struggle.
This is Part IV of Survivor Extreme.
Fortunately for Dave Barnes, the weather in Nain on the night of November 1, 1995 was as good as it gets at that time of year.
It was cold, minus-15°C, but that was not unusual and the foot of snow on the ground was also normal for early November. Dave was grateful for the favourable conditions.
Winds were light and the most important thing was the clear, moonlit night allowed him visibility of a mile or more. The few cumulous clouds were light and didn’t obscure his vision when they crossed in front of the three-quarter moon.
Early into his journey, Dave noticed large beds of kelp lined the shoreline. Remembering his childhood days growing up in Bay d’Espoir, he knew the seaweed was soft and without boots, he figured his frozen feet would suffer less damage, so that’s where he walked.
It was only a matter of minutes into his trek when Dave was severely challenged once again. A river, approximately 40-feet wide, flowed down from the mountain to the ocean.
He could see the river was mostly frozen, but he also knew that moving water meant there would be soft spots in the ice and he needed to be cautious. But, there was no option — he had to get across, so he found a place where the ice looked fairly strong and started crawling.
He was about halfway across when he heard the crackling sounds of ice shattering and knew what was about to happen.
Within seconds, Dave was once again immersed in water, except this time it was shallow and he could stand.
“What struck me first was how the water didn’t feel cold, but that worried me. I realized my body temperature had fallen to a very low level — I felt nothing, just numbness,” Dave says.
He managed to get across the river and once again was standing on the snow and ice-covered shoreline.
As he stumbled along, Dave saw a very bright light in the distant sky moving in his direction. Moments later he heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter approaching. The searchlight from the helicopter was blinding, but Dave once again had hope of rescue. He lay down on the rocks to make as large a target as he could for the searchers to see, but once again his hopes were quickly dashed.
The helicopter flew almost directly over him and even though the bright searchlight shone directly on him, it was to no avail.
“I realize now they weren’t looking for survivors — they were looking for something else,” Dave explains.
“By that time the likelihood of anyone from the Sea Alert being alive was almost nil so they were looking for debris and that kind of stuff.”
After trudging along the coastline for approximately a half hour, Dave estimated he was far enough along to start the climb up Scotch Hill. Once he got down the other side there should be a place to rest not far away.
Having observed the coastline earlier that day, Dave knew it was impossible to walk along the beach and around the headland to get to the Ten Mile Bay campsite because in some areas there was no beach. The cliffs were large and went straight down into the ocean and even if he could walk, it was simply too far.
Despite the odds and a tortuous struggle for survival lasting more than seven hours after the Sea Alert sank, Dave’s climb to the top of the mountain was relatively uneventful.
Shortly after reaching the top and looking for the best way down the other side, a Buffalo aircraft flew over the area dropping flares. Even though search coordinators felt there was only a very remote possibility of anyone from the tug still alive, they didn’t give up hope either.
“That [flares] was a great help,” Dave says, explaining how the flares glowed brightly long enough to illuminate the whole area, giving him a view of where he needed to go.
Dave says going down the hill to Ten Mile Bay proved to be more difficult than climbing up. Rocks were frozen in ice and were too embedded to move out of the way and the snow that was wet in the afternoon sunshine had frozen and created extremely harsh and slippery conditions. Dave realized the best way to navigate that part of the journey was to sit on the snow and ice and wiggle his way down using his frozen feet and his hands as brakes when necessary.
The last 25 feet were the hardest.
He reached an area that had been mined to extract Labradorite, a multi-coloured mineral used largely to make ornaments and jewelry.
“Miners had made deep cuts into the rock. I’d say the cuts were eight to 10-feet high. A couple of the cuts had ladder-type formations that were relatively comfortable to climb down but one didn’t have anything,” Dave explains.
With the top of the shack in sight, Dave was not about to give up now, so he jumped. Instead of pain, he remembers feeling a sense of amazement when he landed squarely on his feet without even stumbling and despite the distance he had jumped from, he felt no pain.
But, there was no time for analysis of why that was the case. He had to get to the cabin and the quicker the better.
As he started toward the shack, he noticed a drill rod on the ground.
“It was about two feet long and a bit bigger than rebar and I thought I’d bring that in case I had to break a lock or something to get into the cabin,” he says.
But a break-in would not be necessary. The door wasn’t locked and the first thing Dave realized was that the cabin was warmer than he expected.
That’s when he noticed a space heater and saw the light from a low flame through a glass door in the front of the stove. The light from the flame provided enough illumination to see a few things in the cabin, including a clock on the wall. It was midnight.
Dave tried to turn the stove flame higher to provide greater heat and more light, but he almost ruined everything by turning the control knob to the off position instead of high.
However, he caught it just in time and it wasn’t long before he started peeling off his coat and shirt, hanging them over the heater to dry. He found a kettle and a container of water, as well as a container of Cheez Whiz. After more than nine hours of unimaginable struggle to survive, things were finally looking up.
Little did he know the worst was about to come.
Join us next month for the conclusion of Survivor Extreme.
