The family “ gathers in the hope ” at the religious service of Norway while the prospects worsen for missing trekker in northern Manitoba

Cher beings of Steffen Skjotelvik, a Norwegian hike that has disappeared in northern Manitoba for more than a week, gathered in his country of origin on Friday to hope for the best, while preparing for the worst, while the prospects for finding the 29 -year -old living player in the distant coastal desert rose.

Friday evening, around 100 relatives, friends and members of the community attended a service at Holmsbu Kirke church, just outside Oslo, to come together “to come together” for Skjotelvik, said Christian Dyresen.

“The fact that the police have now confirmed that (their) backpack and their equipment have been in the water for some time gives the family, unfortunately, the realization that there is little hope,” a spokesman for the Skjottelvik family told CBC News.

“But … they hang on to hope and they do what they can to make sure that research is going,” he said, speaking from the outside of the church. “Anyway, they focus on Steffen’s search.”

Skjottelvik, who called an experienced desert traveler in Norway, began his Trek de Fort Severn, Ontario, about 1,500 kilometers northwest of Toronto by Air, on July 25 and was to arrive in York Landing, man., About 850 kilometers north-east of Winnipeg, August 15.

Skjottelvik decided to travel from James Bay to Alaska in a documented trek on Facebook called Steffen’s great Canadian journey. His uncle, Lars Jorgen Sorensen, said Skjotelvik prepared for years for this trip.

On Thursday, the RCMP informed the family that they found the backpack and the rifle of Skjotelvik near the Hayes river, which flows into a perfidious and soggy Muskeg landscape. The RCMP said that the river is one of the fastest in Canada, and that water levels can change spectacularly four meters deep between the low and high tide.

The RCMP has since published a statement to Norwegian Press that the backpack has been in the water “probably for a long time,” said Dyreno.

This observation, associated with GPS coordinates, the RCMP obtained a few days ago by placing Skjotelvik near the day of its last heard, the family took care of increasing evidence suggesting that it could have perished.

Dyrena said that the family was also informed that researchers on the ground in the York Factor region, mainly volunteers from Fort Severn, in northern Ontario, and Gillam and other Manitoba communities, were back early Friday morning.

“It is mainly the inhabitants and the volunteers who do the research in cooperation with … the police,” said Dyreno.

“(Family) Understand the realism of the fact that the backpack has been found near the water and has probably also been in the water for some time, and that it is probably little hope now to find Steffen alive,” he said. “But it’s always hope.”

Various campaigns to collect funds for research effort continue in Norway and Manitoba.

Dyresen said Skjottelvik was inspired by two popular Norwegian fauna experts who documented their trips through Alaska, Canada and beyond.

Skjotelvik spent time in the Fort Severn Nation before leaving for its trek, intended for York Factory, 300 kilometers. Before leaving, he appointed someone strong Severn as his emergency contact who was among the field research.

The land between the two communities in the North is dominated by peat bogs Soucy which are difficult to cross on foot, and are also located in polar and wolf habitat.

Skjotelvik planned to arrive in York Factory a week ago today.

He checked the day before his disappearance, suggesting that he had been separated from one of his two dogs during a wolf attack, said the RCMP previously. Someone Fort Severn posted photos on Facebook of a lean Husky resembling one of the skjottelvik, saying that he wandered in the community on Monday.

The RCMP sent an officer to the region on Monday to search for signs of Skjotelvik using a thermal imaging drone to complete research efforts, largely by the inhabitants of the North, as well as manitoba conservation managers.

The SGT of the Manitoba RCMP. Paul Manaigre said on Wednesday that the Federal Police Agency hoped to send more resources to the north.

CBC News asked for an update from Fort Severn First Nation Matthew Kakekaspan and the Manitoba RCMP on Friday, but did not immediately hear.