A search effort for a Grunthal snowmobiler in Whiteshell Provincial Park was called off late Tuesday afternoon.

Dan Lemay, 50, was reported overdue to Lac du Bonnet RCMP on Sunday at 11:25 p.m.

Two reports of a lone snowmobiler heading northbound to Eleanor Lake on the night of Feb. 21, near the time Lemay was reported missing led aerial searchers to an area of open water. Trained ice rescue technicians from the Office of the Fire Commissioner went to the area and located snowmobile tracks that led to broken ice.

"There were no tracks leading away from the site," they said in a press release.

Two days of searching by more than 50 volunteers and numerous trained search and rescue teams, which covered hundreds of kilometres of trails, had not lead to any evidence of where Lemay or his snowmobile has gone.

Police say they believe Lemay entered the water and did not resurface. He is presumed drowned.

The search for Lemay and his snowmobile will resume in the spring once conditions are safe for a dive team to do the search, according to RCMP.

Lemay had departed Pinewood Lodge, located along Provincial Road 307 near Dorothy Lake, by snowmobile at 4 p.m. Sunday to retrieve a broken sled from Rennie, about 45 kilometres south.

Lemay phoned a family member at 7:15 p.m. to say he was unsure of his location but thought he was near Nutimik Lake. Two hours later he called again to say he believed he was near Pinewood Lodge.

Local riders began scouring trails for signs of Lemay at 8 a.m. Monday, Manitoba RCMP said Tuesday in a release.

CASARA, the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, deployed a plane to assist ground search teams from the RCMP and the Office of the Fire Commissioner.

On Tuesday, a helicopter equipped with a thermal imager began flying over the area looking for heat signatures.