Come on in! The water is fine! Seals will keep several holes like this open in the sea ice. The seals need to come up for air from 4 to 10 times an hour. Sometimes they will use the holes to look around to see what is on the ice above them. Polar bears may hunt for seals by waiting near the breathing hole. Inuit hunters can stand motionless over a seal's breathing hole for hours in hope of harpooning the animal. Seals are an important food source for inuit across the arctic. 

Cliffs rise 1000ft straight up out of the ocean. These red cliffs are near Arctic Bay on the northern shores of Baffin Island.  

Here is an interesting building. It is located in Iglulik. The building was originally a research facility. It was built in the 1960's during an era when prefabricated fibreglass panels were the wave of the future. The building is now being renovated and will be used as an arctic wildlife research facility. Spiral staircases bring you up to a central common area and the various labs radiate from the building's centre.

Starting off my morning in Hall Beach. These are the conditions just before we got the plane on it's way to Iglulik. The sun hasn't been seen for a long time. The sun looks like an atomic blast (In a way it is). Blowing and drifting snow was just the beginning of a massive blizzard covering much of Nunavut. We were to stay an extra day in Iglulik then on to Arctic Bay where we were once again weathered in.

This is Hall Beach Nunavut. That's it that's all. Hall Beach is in the middle of polar bear country and is often visited by the bears. The community is small but surprisingly busy. The community suffered damge from very high tides. The sea ice kept piling up on the shore one day. It crushed many boats and threatened homes on the shoreline. One of the local people told me that they believe that there was a tsunami. She pointed out onto the sea ice and said that sea quakes occur there sometimes. I know that the tides were unusually high then as the moon was on it's closes approach to earth at the time. This caused very high tides around the world. 

One of the thousands of unnamed peaks that we flew over during our run about the Baffin Island region. This shot was taken at 21000 ft. from within our chartered single engine Pilatus. 

This Clyde River. They have been having a few blizzards. Every home has a snowbank trailing from the leaward side. The winds were over 100K/hr for several days. Where is my snowshovel? Where is my car??  

We left the plane in Nanisivik overnight. It's a good thing that it wasn't buired in the snow! 

An Arctic Bay sunrise as viewed from the hotel.

Red sky in the morning. The weather in the high arctic was unusually warm. Arctic Bay was quite warm at +2C. This time of year one would expect daily high temperatures to be -30C.

Somebody get some snow removal equipment so we can get our snow removal equipment. 

Happy New Year

The new year is here. How did we celebrate the new year? We had a bonfire. Sure it was minus 30C outside but we have a little cast iron pot belly stove complete with chimney, sitting outside on the tundra. We built a wall of snow bricks cutting them out of a drift with a saw. The blocks would squeek and squeal just as though they were made of styrofoam. The wall, when finished, stood five feet high and twenty feet long. It curved around the pot bellied stove in a semi-circle. The wall protected us from the wind while reflecting the fire's warmth back at us. There were twelve of us, feeding the fire, feeding ourselves, telling stories and playing backgammon. The fire raged and the hot toddies abounded. After several hours of fire, backgammon and hot toddies, we prepared for the strike of midnight. We looked out onto Frobisher Bay to see snowmobiles stretching in a line over two miles long. They were heading out onto the sea ice for the midnight ringing in of the new year. The snowmobilers formed a huge circle several miles out on the ice. There had to have been hundreds of them. I poured another rum toddy and watched the spectacle. At the stroke of midnight, we started to fire flares. Red flares, green flares and bright blue flares. Some of them would whistle while others would light the beach up as if it were daytime. We could hear people shouting and sounds of air horns, sirens and other loud noises. The new year is here! Happy New Year!
The snowmobiles rode around in a huge circle for several minutes. We could see others with fireworks and flares out on the ice. We watched as the machines broke the circle and started to head back into town. The two mile long line of headlights formed from shore to sea ice. The stars in the sky were bright and numerous. The northern lights seemed to dance in green, red and blue to welcome the new year. My toddy was not very hot anymore. I made sure that the next one would have more rum in it to avoid having my drink freeze in the -30C air. I cuddled up near the fire for a few more hours. A few more games of backgammon. Many more hot toddies. I looked at the wall of ice that we had made. The women had decorated it with ice candles of various colours. It really looked great! We were all tired and a bit drunk when we decided to let the fire burn out and call it a night. It was a very good New Year's Eve indeed.

Ice fog during the short daylight hours. The fog developed after the open water came into contact with the minus 35 degree air. The sunsets shortly after 1PM this time of year. The sun barely makes an appearance.  

Cari-Boo!

The tundra is treeless. Because it is treeless, animals on the tundra behave somewhat differently than animals in forested areas. This fact may have made a big difference in the life of one tundra roaming caribou.
A young inuit man was walking along the outskirts of town of the northern Baffin community of Pond Inlet. The weather was harsh. The wind blown snow made it hard to see even a few feet at times. The young man walked doggedly through the blizzard holding his parka hood down to block the wind. His progress was slow but measurable. Along the side of the dirt road are poles that were imported to the high arctic. These poles are made of the tall pines that grow in forests far to the south. They stand along the road every 50 meters or so. Wires are strung along the top of the poles, some connecting to a street light here and there. On the other side of the road was a vast seemingly unending expanse of ice and mountain. The dirt road was the boundary between the wild and the humanly inhabited. The poles defined the difference well, they were on the civilized side of the border. Brought to their final plot by people from some forest somewhere. Trees standing in a treeless land.
The young man continued his difficult walk, looking downward away from the blowing snow. He then saw in front of him a utility pole. He knew how much further he would have to walk now. After adjusting his hood to make the opening for his face a bit smaller, he aimed himself for the next pole down the road. He could not see it. It is dark in the winter all day and the blowing snow is blinding. The wind and snow made it hard work to walk. The hard work helped to ward off the minus forty degree cold. He started off with an idea of how long it would take to get there. A minute or less. As he walked, he noticed a dark figure. "The pole" he thought. He walked up then raised his hand up to touch the pole. He felt, only for an instant, a coarse fur coat. Immediatly he looked up to come eye to eye with a caribou. A very wide eyed, nostrils flared, snorting, rearing up on his hind hooves caribou. For a few femtoseconds, the two stared face to face in the surrounding snowy haze, both sporting the most surprised look that nature can make on a face. The caribou, being from the wrong side of the road, had probably never seen a human being before. The caribou, being from the wild treeless arctic, had never seen a tree before. The animal having been startled would therefore behave in a manner conducive to scared ungulate of the treeless land and bolt full speed, head and antlers down, in the opposite direction of the young man. The man saw the caribou rear up and turn but could only hear the animal's retreat. The caribou disappeared so suddenly in the blizzard that he could only hear the hooved pace and not see the animal. The sound of the running caribou ended with a sudden loud thump. The young man reluctanly continued his walk very cautiously. After a short walk he came upon the dark figure of the caribou laying on the ground. There was a bit of blood on it's nose. The young man almost didn't notice the utility pole that the caribou had run into. "He must've cracked his skull" thought the young man. He decided to go home to tell someone about what had happened. He wondered if anyone would believe how the caribou died. Before going back on his way, he was tempted to take one more close look at the animal. Only a few steps away but still very hard to see with the blowing snow. The young man was looking down but didn't see what he had expected to see. He saw hooves. The caribou was standing up. He looked up and again, for a few femtoseconds, the two stared face to face in the surrounding snowy haze, both sporting the most surprised look on a face that nature can make. The young man couldn't see the caribou but could hear the galloping and the loud thump that once again ceased the sound of pounding hooves.

Good job men! 

Life's a ditch and then you dig one. 

Blizzard

The first winter storm warning was issued today. It looks like Hallowe'en may be a walk through heavy snow and blinding winds. It is not unknown to postpone Hallowe'en in arctic communities. We have had many trick or treaters in the month of November. It is hard to deny the children when they so look forward to bags of goodies and costumes. An arctic blizzard is not something that one should send one's children out into to get candy kisses.
Usually this time of year there is lots of ice and snow. The kids dress warmly and make thier rounds. The local by-law officers and the local fire department are out on the streets with spot lights. They are there to assure the saftey of our kids.
I will have to listen to the local CBC broadcast on the radio to see if Hallowe'en is postponed. If the storm is expected to last for several days then a party at the Parish Hall will most likely be organised. The local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion will probably have something for the kids at the Cadet Hall. We always ensure that the children enjoy the trick or treat tradition, even if it is a bit tardy. Living in the extreme climate of the far north requires a few modifications of southern traditions. Hallowe'en is not always on October 31 in Nunavut.

Low Tide. 

High tide and low tide. The tides in Frobisher Bay can be as high as 12 meters. Notice the little boat in the middle of the frame. My friends Ed and Leah had to walk out to the boat during low tide in order to stock up for a trip. They are seen leaving at high tide. 

This is what you see when you exit the airport in Iglulik. This inuksuk in Iglulik is always ready to greet people as they arrive. 

Welcome to Grise Fiord, Nunavut!

Wow! The logo on this website says Grise Fiord N.W.T.
Grise Fiord is in Nunavut not the N.W.T. Somebody should update this thing.
Anyway, someone asked me where Grise Fiord was so I am posting a link to the site. There you go.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO GRISE FIORD