Dancing with Bears
from Anne and Ryerson Clark of Yellow Knife, NWT, Canada
(Some things are universal; they went shopping)
TALES OF OUR NORTHERN ADVENTURES
Big changes here in the past few days as temps rise and snow melts! We have put our parkas away now and wear what Nova Scotians would wear in late winter, early spring. All this week days will be above freezing.
Arctic Winter Games:
We had a ball working the Arctic Winter Games as Medical First Responders. Happy to report that all we were needed for was band aids and ice packs. The games themselves were a hugh event and a great success thanks to 2500 volunteers from the community.
We were stationed at many interesting events including basketball and indoor soccer, which is a very fast sport, as well as dog mushing outside.
Teams came from Yamal (northern Russia) Greenland, Alaska, Yukon, Nunavit, Nunavik (which is northern Quebec), Northern Alberta and Sammi (what we would call Lapland years ago). Annie and I did 55 hours at the games and have since been doing some other work as MFRs in the community.
ICE ROADS:
For some, it is season’s end for the ice roads. The mines have closed the roads north and had a good year. In total more then 8000 tractor trailer loads went up to Davik and Ekati diamond mines northeast of here. The drive takes 16 hours from Yellowknife with speed limits strictly enforced for safety. Our local ice road to Dettah, six lanes wide and about 11km long is still open but this could be the last week as temps rise. In the photo below of Brenda, Connie and Annie, you can see the main ice road to Dettah in the distance, as well as smaller roads to the house boats, Snowking, and fish plant.
The weather was a bit cool for this time of year a few of the days, but that was just another new thing to feel. Temps stayed between -34C and -5C during their visit but it was sunny everyday, and lots of it to [sic]. We ate out in great places, drove on ice roads just like the “Ice Road Truckers”, stood spellbound under the northern lights on Yellowknife Bay, shopped, toured galleries, and even learned how to drive a dog team and then spent several hours in the wilderness mushing over lakes and trails. To see some of our adventures look here:
Big changes here in the past few days as temps rise and snow melts! We have put our parkas away now and wear what Nova Scotians would wear in late winter, early spring. All this week days will be above freezing.
Arctic Winter Games:
We had a ball working the Arctic Winter Games as Medical First Responders. Happy to report that all we were needed for was band aids and ice packs. The games themselves were a hugh event and a great success thanks to 2500 volunteers from the community.
We were stationed at many interesting events including basketball and indoor soccer, which is a very fast sport, as well as dog mushing outside.
Teams came from Yamal (northern Russia) Greenland, Alaska, Yukon, Nunavit, Nunavik (which is northern Quebec), Northern Alberta and Sammi (what we would call Lapland years ago). Annie and I did 55 hours at the games and have since been doing some other work as MFRs in the community.
ICE ROADS:
For some, it is season’s end for the ice roads. The mines have closed the roads north and had a good year. In total more then 8000 tractor trailer loads went up to Davik and Ekati diamond mines northeast of here. The drive takes 16 hours from Yellowknife with speed limits strictly enforced for safety. Our local ice road to Dettah, six lanes wide and about 11km long is still open but this could be the last week as temps rise. In the photo below of Brenda, Connie and Annie, you can see the main ice road to Dettah in the distance, as well as smaller roads to the house boats, Snowking, and fish plant.
