Weekends in Alert

 

     One of the main questions people asked me before I came to Alert was what am I going to do with my free time at the top of nowhere with a population of around 70?  As much as I tried to convince them I'd stay busy, I didn't really know myself.  Now I've been here about a month and haven't been bored once.  When I talked to people who had been to Alert before they said your experience up here is completely based on your attitude (like most of life).  There is so much to get involved in, but if you choose to hide in your room and watch movies every night the time will go very slow.
     Every night of the week there is something going on, whether it's a euchre tournament, ball hockey, or TGIF on fridays.  By the time I'm out of here I'd be surprised if I wasn't a card and pool shark.  Tuesday nights I join in the crib tournament, a game I'd never played before coming to Alert.  Wednsdays is MESS night, where everyone gets together at the bar and there are raffles with prizes like the signature "Frozen Chosen" pjs, sweaters, glasses etc.   Thursday you can either join the pool tournament or play ball hockey which I've just started getting into and am loving it (hopefully when I go home I can actually give my 11 year old brother a challenging game). 
    TIME FOR THE WEEKEND.  Friday night TGIF: the station gets together in the Arctic Club to welcome the newcomers and give farwells to those leaving the next week.  Lots of music, pool, cards, and the odd time there's been dancing.  Sometimes, like on New Years, there is kareoke which was a great time.  The kitchen staff brings out homemade chips which are dangerously delicious. On saturdays there is sometimes day trips like ice fishing which I went on earlier in the month.  The lake had around 5 ft of ice!  We drove a military PV (a very, very large vehicle) on the ice to the hut where the only kind of fish to catch was Arctic Char.  I caught one and a half.. (one of the fish ate both mine and the girl's hooks sitting across from me, which I reeled in through my hole.. it wasn't actually half a fish). In March the ice can get around 7 feet deep!

                         

     Below is a picture of me standing on the Arctic Ocean next to a giant piece of sea ice which, for as far as I could see, the ocean was covered with.  We climed to the top of one (the second picture, which you can only make out the reflectors on my parka) and looked north towards the north pole where the full moon illuminated the sea for several kilometres out.  It was one of the most spectacular and unbelievable sights I've ever seen.  These giants are formed from the sea ice being pushed together from the currents.  Once there is daylight I will return to the same spot to get a better picture, and there will be alot more excursions on the weekends like hiking Crystal Mountain (not actually a mountain, but you can find crystal on it).

  

An encounter with a wolf..

     Last Thursday I was working in the GAW office, located within the main base, when Bruce, the trashman, came and told me there was two wolves by the cardboard dump and if we were quick I could have my first chance at facing an arctic wolf.  For the past two weeks I have been telling everyone how badly I want to see one, so I didn't hesitate to grabb my camera and jump in the truck (after asking my boss who was all for it ).  When we got to the cardboard dump Bruce took a bag of garbage and started shaking it to get the wolves to come out.  Of course I was yelling at him that he was going to make them mad, but they are pretty used to people here and I soon figured he must know what he's doing since with his job he sees them on a weekly basis. 

     One wolf reappeared and stood about five metres away as I took pictures and Bruce continued shaking the garbage bag.  At times it seemed that it was going to approach us but was being very hesitant, which was fine by me.  The wolf had beautiful white fur and actually looked quite cuddly; I had to remind myself it wasn't just like a dog and to refrain from petting it.   Supposedly there is a pack of about twelve wolves that often appear together around the base, so I am hoping to encounter all of them at once someday.

    

     Other wildlife that I have encountered here in Alert is a lemming and arctic hare.  The lemming was about the size of a hampster and was running along the tracks to the GAW Lab.  I was driving the truck and at first thought it was just a rolling piece of snow until Matt, the lab operator, yelled at me to stop the truck.  We then tried to chase after it but it was surprisingly quick!  Unfotunately I didn't have my camera on hand.

     I have seen over ten arctic hare since I have been here.  Often they have been in bunches of about three to seven or running solo.  They are pure white and very big, not like the typical rabbit you see running across your lawn in southern Ontario.  When they stand up they are three to four feet tall! I swear I have even see one run while standing up, but the darkness does play tricks on my eyes here  (I thought I saw a polar bear the other day on the walk to the lab but turns out it was just a snow covered barrel).  Since the arctic ocean is frozen over this time of year there is no polar bears this far north untill it warms up a bit.  These arctic hare are even known to eat meat if they have the opportunity, which doesn't surprise me since they are larger than the arctic fox.  Below is a picture I tried to take of a hare which was hanging out at the building where we park our truck before the walk to the GAW lab.  I'm hoping to get a better picture soon and with more hare in it once the sun comes up.



        

First taste of arctic winds

With 50 km/hr winds blowing snow against us for the 700 metre walk to the lab, today was the first day I felt a deep appreciation for my gigantic parka with a fur rimmed hood that sticks out half a foot from my face.  For the two weeks that I have been here, it has been around - 30 or lower with very little wind.  So as long as you were layered up it was fine being outdoors, but today definately required the balaclava and hood zipped up all the way.  With those winds work today at the GAW lab was more challenging, but it was actually pretty fun facing them to get the wednesday air samples (which require walking into the wind about 50-100 paces from the lab). However, the wind at our backs did speed things up a bit while pulling our sleds full of air sample cases on the walk back from the lab to our truck. 
On the drive back from the lab I stopped to try and take a picture of the snow blowing along the 'road' back to the base:

Getting there..

      At 4 am, December 28th I checked into the Trenton military base for my 6 am flight aboard a C-130 Hercules. There was only five of us passangers sitting with the cargo on the plane, wearing ear defenders to muffle all the noise from the plane ( I wore ear plugs under my ear defenders! ).  It was an awesome flying experience, and was also the last time I'd see day light for a couple months!  I'm not sure where we were flying over when this photo was taken, but it was an amazing view with humongous valleys and cliffs all covered with massive amounts of snow.

 It was around a 7 hour flight to Thule, Greenland, where we stayed overnight before continuing on to Alert.  Thule is the United State's most northern air base and is on the northwest coast on Greenland.  We ate dinner at the TOW (Top of the World) Club while I asked a million question to the people I was travelling with who were returning to Alert, anxious to know about the place I'd be living for the next four months.  At 5 30 am the hotel's fire alarm went off, and after gettling dressed in your arctic gear and waiting in -30 to -40 weather there was no chance of getting back to sleep before the flight.  (Below: getting off the herc in Thule)