Doug from the Arctic
Hi everyone-at last! Hi 109′ers and Charlie! The crazy weather you guys are now knee deep in delayed our departure just enough to keep us busier than usual the last few days. Hope you are all bundling up too! Everyone up here wishes it would snow like that up here, as they are apparently experiencing a drought cycle.
So the temperatures have been ranging from the about -32F to -44F. When Canadian’s that live up this way tell you the temperature, nobody even bothers to say minus. We’ve started using our “Polar Bear” camera coat because the camera has been getting so cold it’s quit working several times. We’ve also noticed that a battery that is rated to last 8 hours will quit in as little as 15 minutes! You can last for about 5 minutes without hat or gloves before you begin to loose feeling in your fingers and ears-and ouch, does it hurt!
We’ve made some new friends and now that we are getting used to the cold are beginning to have some fun! One of my favorite new friends is Chopper Chuck. He’s a terrific pilot and took us flying for about 3 hours in his helicoptor.
We followed the ice road all the way up to Tuktoyyaktuk. It was -40F that day, so everytime we opened the door to film the views we would all freeze. When we stopped for fuel Chopper Chuck had to dig out the fuel barrel. He brings his own gas pump with him so at least it wasn’t frozen.
We flew around some pingos, including this one that is the largest on our continent! It looked like a small volcano with a sunken top that contains the ice core.
Today we met with Steve, a scientist who specializes in permafrost and is an expert regarding Pingos. Here he is-those giant mittens he is wearing are made out of wolf fur. Many people up here learn how to stay warm from the Inuit people who have lived in this region for thousands of years-these giant mits are an Inuit invention.
Tomorrow we will be working with sled dogs! This will actually be our second time. The first time I was lucky enough to get to drive my own team!
The dogs belong to Judy and Oloff (sp?) and they were terrific!
Oloff is also a pilot and has been on expeditions all over the world, including the North Pole and I’m pretty sure Antarctica! He was once lost in an arctic storm alone for 18 days-this guy is amazing.
Terry our sound guy also has a dog team. He will tell you guys about it in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here is a picture of his team he gave me. He is not Inuit, but has lived in Yellowknife for about 30 years and knows an awful lot of cool stuff!
The dog teams we will be working with tomorrow belong to a teacher. I’m going to bring all of the awsome projects you guys did and show her. I’m also going to try and see if she can help me locate a fifth grade class up here. I’m really excited to here you are doing a movie project, so I’m going to see about giving a disposable video camera to some kids up here so you can see how they live.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a picture of my friend Rob. He really likes comic books and likes to think about legions of radioactive polar bears combing the north country with a hungry twinkle in their bright red eyes!
Take care and stay warm. Almost forgot, we saw a beautiful fox the other day. It was red with a black and white tail!
So the temperatures have been ranging from the about -32F to -44F. When Canadian’s that live up this way tell you the temperature, nobody even bothers to say minus. We’ve started using our “Polar Bear” camera coat because the camera has been getting so cold it’s quit working several times. We’ve also noticed that a battery that is rated to last 8 hours will quit in as little as 15 minutes! You can last for about 5 minutes without hat or gloves before you begin to loose feeling in your fingers and ears-and ouch, does it hurt!
We’ve made some new friends and now that we are getting used to the cold are beginning to have some fun! One of my favorite new friends is Chopper Chuck. He’s a terrific pilot and took us flying for about 3 hours in his helicoptor.
We followed the ice road all the way up to Tuktoyyaktuk. It was -40F that day, so everytime we opened the door to film the views we would all freeze. When we stopped for fuel Chopper Chuck had to dig out the fuel barrel. He brings his own gas pump with him so at least it wasn’t frozen.
We flew around some pingos, including this one that is the largest on our continent! It looked like a small volcano with a sunken top that contains the ice core.
Today we met with Steve, a scientist who specializes in permafrost and is an expert regarding Pingos. Here he is-those giant mittens he is wearing are made out of wolf fur. Many people up here learn how to stay warm from the Inuit people who have lived in this region for thousands of years-these giant mits are an Inuit invention.
Tomorrow we will be working with sled dogs! This will actually be our second time. The first time I was lucky enough to get to drive my own team!
The dogs belong to Judy and Oloff (sp?) and they were terrific!
Oloff is also a pilot and has been on expeditions all over the world, including the North Pole and I’m pretty sure Antarctica! He was once lost in an arctic storm alone for 18 days-this guy is amazing.
Terry our sound guy also has a dog team. He will tell you guys about it in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here is a picture of his team he gave me. He is not Inuit, but has lived in Yellowknife for about 30 years and knows an awful lot of cool stuff!
The dog teams we will be working with tomorrow belong to a teacher. I’m going to bring all of the awsome projects you guys did and show her. I’m also going to try and see if she can help me locate a fifth grade class up here. I’m really excited to here you are doing a movie project, so I’m going to see about giving a disposable video camera to some kids up here so you can see how they live.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a picture of my friend Rob. He really likes comic books and likes to think about legions of radioactive polar bears combing the north country with a hungry twinkle in their bright red eyes!
Take care and stay warm. Almost forgot, we saw a beautiful fox the other day. It was red with a black and white tail!
posted by Arctic Doug and the 109'ers at
2:18 PM
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