First work trip onto the frozen land and seascape

-51C and clear. 26kmph wind. 

 

I went out with the local Conservation Officer. He was part of the expedition in the 1980s with dog teams to Greenland. He has done other expeditions and is a living legend in the Arctic. I couldn't have a better teacher and mentor. Our first stop was a summer camping area that had a walrus meat cache last Fall. We also visited where he and 2 friends were attacked by a polar bear. The bear had him by the hand at one point. As his friend distracted the bear with a hammer he got his opportunity to shoot the bear before he could do more damage to his friend. 

 

A bit surreal to be out on the barrengrounds following him tearing along by skidoos across this very dramatic frozen land and seascape. He is a real joker. He always has a smile and is always pulling your leg. We continued on to where his extended family camps and hunts and fishes out of in the summer. His family walrus caches are in an electric fence or are covered with heavy wire. They are all empty now but both measures seemed to work at that site when they did have meat. We cruised even further to check the furthest camping area and fence. There were amazing ice formations/natural sculptures - some were 2-3 meters high. See the one behind me in the picture.

 

Ran into a complication when we turned for home. I had many layers of clothing and had been very comfortable heading out - no exposed skin anywhere as you can see in the picture. As soon as we turned back to towards town and into the wind, my ski goggles fogged up, and then quickly froze up on the inside of the lens. I finally had to stop when I could no longer see. I could only see him as a black dot ahead of me. He pulled up beside one of the electric fence sites and I headed straight toward the blurry image of him and proceeded to run over the fence which I couldn't see through my googles. I quickly stopped once I heard something odd. He thought this was hilarious and it was. I'm the one who has to put the fences back up in the summer so I'll have a bit of extra work there.

 

There was solid layer of ice on the inside. He thought it was due to the peaked insulated hat I was wearing. I bought it at Mount Washington and I thought it'd be perfect. It has full ear flaps. He thought the baseball type peak was causing my moist breathe to recirculate around my face and caused the icing. Any ways I ran the rest of the way back, only about 1/2 an hour with no googles. By tightening up the park hood around my face that worked just fine.

 

So the learning about how to travel on the land and frozen sea has begun. It was a great first trip. The scenery as we sped along surrounded by ice formations and drifting snow is something I'll remember for a long time.