Was just coming here to post the same thing!
Hope all is ok.
I appreciate the Nunavut posts!
Way far from Alert. A southern island in Nunavut. But having worked in polar bear country you always have to be aware and armed. Furiosa should be fine.
Is everyone ok?
. https://www.nytimes.com/...8&smid=url-share
That incident thankfully was nowhere near Alert, but some people here have worked at that site as it is the same company.
We joke a lot about the bears here but those incidents remind us that the shit is real, and to take the āBear Cautionsā seriously if they are announced, no matter how inconvenient. If a bear is seen within 6-10km of the station we go on Level 1 alert, which means you have to travel in pairs, in vehicles when possible (no roaming between buildings by yourself). For me that means either I or my coworker has to come down to the balloon shed and keep a lookout while the balloon is being prepped (yay, overtime!), since we normally do that job solo. If a bear is any closer than 6km then we go to Level 2 alert which means stay inside the main building (or the building you are in), with no travelling between buildings, and you need special permission to go out at all. We carry radios almost constantly. About 20 of us went on a little Sunday outing yesterday and someone came along with a gun, keeping an eye out.
There is a āpaw patrolā each morning at 6:30am and throughout the day if bears have been spotted further out. A couple of weeks ago a bear was seen near the station in the morning and our balloon launch was delayed by nearly an hour until we got permission to travel the 0.5km to the balloon shed.
Ok well that was weird, a bunch of posts disappeared after the big switchover to the different format. Iām going to miss the old-school feel of the original forum, not gonna lie.
Winter up here in Alert is attempting to make itself known more and more, and now that the sun has started setting the temps will likely drop pretty fast. Having said that, itās slightly above freezing today.
One nice advantage of being up here in the summer is the opportunity to participate in off-site excursions. I donāt think I had posted photos of my first excursion (done in Hokas as I am a true badass lolllll), to an ice cave.
Now I am not much of a risk-taker and I would assume that station management want to reduce risky activities, but apparently walking through an ice cave is okay. It isnāt very large, but itās dark and obviously caves in periodically as we navigated around some old ice blocks that definitely came from the roof. It was very cool but I am not going in there again.
Muskox skull
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For those that missed it, here are the photos of our walk to Crystal Mountain, about 6km from the station (but only accessible by vehicle for about half of that). Apparently there are loads of quartz crystals to be found in the area, although rockhounds from the past 50 years have picked the area pretty clean. Still, I got some pretty rocks to take home.
Walking on the tundra is interesting, as there are so many micro-changes to observe, and the different kinds of rocks are fascinating. Between the frost-heaved mounds are tiny eco-climates that the vegetation tucks itself into, in order to grow and thrive in the short season available. One wet area we navigated through was amazingly lush with mosses and short grasses. This landscape never fails to amaze and impress!
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Great pictures!
So what was the temperature that day you all went walking? Because you only have a sweatshirt on it looks like. And in the last picture with all the people in it, what is in the far distance? And did someone go along to be the lookout for polar bears?
Hi Cathy! Iām glad you are enjoying the pictures. Iām grateful Iām up here at a time of year when itās light out. The sun is setting now, and the days are getting shorter fast. About a month from now the sun will be gone.
The temperature on the day of our walk was a little bit above freezing. We all brought heavier clothes but once we started walking the stripping down began. It was a bit windy though so when we stopped for a while we got pretty chilly.
That last picture is just of a wide valley, with a cloud shelf in the background. About 2 hours after that photo the weather changed and it got overcast and darker for a couple of days. The weather changes fast around here!
Any excursion off the station like that one requires special permission from the Station Warrant Officer, and either he or one of his deputies has to accompany the group, with a rifle. Since our SWO is a SAR-Tech he is happy to head out into the hills and the heavier his pack is, the better. Last time we went somewhere he wore a weight vest. To say heās super-fit is an understatement.
The ice on the ocean is starting to form and the wildlife techs have spotted seals out on the ice. Soon the bears will start migrating out onto the ice after the seals, and will be seen more around the station. Iād love to see one, but from a safe distance.
This inukshuk is visible from the station, and is located next to the quarry where they BLOW SHIT UP. How cool is that?! We were allowed to come down and watch a blast, and get a good whiff of nitroglycerine. The senior blaster is convinced he will live forever due to his regular exposure to nitro. Something so fun about watching things explode.
The bay behind the inukshuk is Dumbell Bay, and when itās super-windy the ice gets pushed out, then the wind drops and the ice gravitates back in. Lately there has been more ice joining the ābergy bitsā into larger floes, so soon the entire bay will be covered in ice. Iām not sure if the ice will be thick enough by the time I leave start the ice surveys or not. I hope so, they are fun to do when itās not cold as hell.
There are several geocaches in the area, so a bunch of us set out to find 4 special geocaches. They each have a secret word stored inside, and if we present the 4 words to the SWO then we get a free shirt. Like the polar dip, anything for free shit.
On paper it looked easy but with a 35mph relentless wind pushing on us for the 10km walk on the tundra, I was freaking beat by the time we were done. Taking pictures was next to impossible since the camera was never going to be held still. We didnāt bother with a group photo as anything not held tight or weighed down heavily was taken by the wind. Even walking was hard at times if a gust caused you to lose your balance. But hey, free stuff! (The shirts were out of stock so Iāll get mine in a few weeks)
Although the landscape around Alert is fairly lumpy with mountainous features, there are long stretches of flat ground. Flat is a relative term, as the ground is rocky and has frost heaves everywhere, plus the periodic ravine to navigate, too.
An upper-respiratory plague has descended on the station, brought in by someone on a recent flight. Itās not Covid but management has mandated mask-wearing for everyone (not just the new arrivals who have to mask up for their first 5 days anyway) to try and nip it in the bud. We just had a planeload of extra military arrive to help with the annual āBoxtopā flights which will bring in gear and materials for the next year. Itās a big production and lasts for about a month, so hopefully the illness doesnāt ruin the experience.
Since I hate people I wonāt be caught socialising too much but as a volunteer bartender I will be on the front lines tonight, for those who are still keen to be around other people in spite of the cautions were are taking.
Three more weeks! (Weather permitting) The temperatures are still hovering around zero and any snow weāve received either melts or gets blown away. At least the heat in the buildings seems to have normalised to a more pleasant indoor temperature, so Iām finally comfy in my bed without having a fan trained on me all night. By the time I leave the mattress topper I ordered in July might arrive. Itās in the warehouse down south but is obviously not a priority package, and will get here when it gets here. (Hopefully not like the massage chair that took 4 years to get up hereā¦)
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Thanks for the info!
Awesome photos.
So cool!! Enjoy your last few weeks!!