Summer Recap

It's been a great summer in the High Arctic! Any possibility of complaint is taken away with the winds. Since my last post there has been a variety of activity on station. We had a group of military personnel here with two Chinook helicopters who were forced to stay here for longer than they expected due to bad weather conditions further south. Easily the biggest helicopters I have ever seen.

CF Chinooks (photo credit: Kevin Shepperd)

  
Last week I was fortunate to get the chance to take a ride in one of the other helicopters here under contract to the BBC who are doing some filming of a local wolf pack for a future documentary. The pilots had some down time, and took us on a “systems check flight” aka joy ride. We danced along the side of Black Top Mountain, dipped and dangled between the valleys and ridges, and got close to being horizontal at one point during a tight turn. The pilot took us out into the fiord and we circled an ice floe, and almost landed on it, but sadly it wasn't safe to.

The sun has now started to set in the evenings, and we are getting some hours of darkness. Summer is over, and Fall has taken stride, with Old Man Winter swiftly on its heels. The temperatures have begun to drop below zero, and the snow is starting to accumulate. It was a productive research season in Eureka, with many different research teams passing through for short stays before venturing onwards in their pursuits. Met a lot of new and different people along the way. Currently we are back down to 11 people on station, and things are slowly winding down.

I was nominated for the ALS Icebucket Challenge while I was here, and I performed it while standing on an ice floe, and then took a swim. Refreshing is a good word for how that felt!!

Our annual sealift happened this past week, in record time as well! The Coast Guard ship Des Groseilliers arrived Tuesday morning very early, and departed Thursday afternoon. The boys did a great job working longer shifts to get all the cargo offloaded and properly triaged. The highlight of the sealift for me, was being able to take a tour of the Coast Guard ship. We were ferried over on a barge, and climbed a rope ladder over the port side of the ship. We were given a tour of the main deck, the crews' deck, the officers' deck, the galley, the engine room, the mess hall, as well as the bridge.   Even had the opportunity to sit in the captains chair and look over the bow.  For a guy who once thought about joining the Coast Guard, this was a special experience.  It became clear to me that I may have struggled a bit with the limitations on ship...primarily the lack of head room at the bulkheads and doorways!

Lyle, myself, Roxanne, and Nick about to board the barge

For those of you who are wondering, yes, the science continues to occur. It's not all play and no work up here. Most of the time it is all work and no play, but who wants to ONLY read about the fine nuances of applied optical physics in the Canadian High Arctic? I'm approaching my anniversary of starting with Dalhousie and CANDAC, and it has been a great year! Learned a lot, and have been able to help them out as best I can. Hoping to continue to learn every day!

Hoping everyone is well, wherever you are!

Happy Trails

Mike