May 6: Northwards

Today, we flew North. We left Yellowknife at 8am, and got on a Beechcraft airplaine from Buffalo Air.

Here is the team, eager to get to the ice!

Popi and Bluee were very keen to play on the toy helicopter in the waiting room, while the rest of us checked out the cool artifacts celebrating the early days of Canadian Aviation in the North. In many of the communities, flying and sailing are the only ways to reach out villages, and flying has done a lot for the connection of the northern settlements to the rest of Canada.

We stopped first in Cambridge Bay Ikaluktutiaq (69°6’N, 105°7’W), then in Resolute (74°N, 94°W), and finally landed in Eureka (79°N, 85°W), with beautiful weather throughout.

Shortly after our arrival, the cargo plane arrived, and we emptied the gear, and loaded the plane with ice core boxes. Debbie and Linda stayed behind in Yellowknife, and they will load the boxes onto a truck tonight, and the (freezer) truck will transport then to the Canadian Ice Core Lab in Edmonton, they should arrive tomorrow night.

Then, it was time to try on the cold weather gear that we will need in camp (boots, pants, jacket, mittens), and we were just in time for dinner at 6pm at Eureka. We thought we could fly out to Müller tonight, but there was some ground fog settling in, and we postponed till tomorrow morning.

Bluee found a new friend: Brutus the arctic wolf. He lived with his pack for many years around Eureka, was equipped with a collar, and people here could follow his movements. One day, the collar stopped moving for a while, and a team came to find dead Brutus. They brought him back to the station to honour his contribution to wolf knowledge. During our briefing, we did have a chapter “If you see a wolf pack, here is what to do…”. Luckily, polar bears do not seem too interested in Eureka, and seldom visit the station.

If it all goes well, tomorrow morning, we will head out to Müller ice cap on the ski equipped twin otter.