It is easy to stay in the warm comfort of the Hamlet office, but they all go out in the bitter cold, day and night looking for lost people. At times they spend half a day out there searching. I was told by my friends just the thought of someone out there desparately needing help is unbearable. That's why they all come out to help. Tonight was a perfect example. A young guy had left Whale Cove for Rankin Inlet on a snowmobile and had failed to show up there at the projected time, roughly about 5pm yesterday. Search parties from both Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove had been looking for him ever since. It was about 30 hours later, tonight at 10:30pm when they finally found him. It was such an emotional moment. His parents' thankful and tearful voice on local radio station brought everyone to tears. There were still 12 people out there looking for him, including my friend Sean. Now the base had the task of getting hold of the remaining crews to give them the good news and bring them back to their bases. I can't wait to hear how he managed to survive the -45 degrees temperature without a sledge. Experienced hunters and travellers use a sledge to carry survival gears, and to use it as a shelter if needed.
The last time someone froze to death around here was about ten years ago. A hunter headed south looking for caribou and muskox. He got lost due to blizzard and didn't make it back. The search parties themselves were trapped out on the land due to blizzard for five days. By the time the blizzard had passed by it was too late for the hunter. They found his frozen body shortly after the blizzard. He did have a sledge and enough food and material to make it for a couple of days, but not for five or more days.
Blizzards up here are simply unbelievable. We had one really bad one in January with no visibily what so ever. All I could see was just walls of snow moving by our windows, like a non-stop train. It lasted for more than 36 hours. I did manage to go for short walks during mild blizzards. Short for a reason, as you might be able to walk down wind, well actually run, as the wind pushes you faster than you could possibly walk, but almost impossible to head back up wind. And of course the wind will change the landscape so dramatically. One rarely sees any tracks, even though there are rabiits, foxes, wolves and other wildlife around.
Whale Cove has been buzzing with a couple of school related activities for the past couple of weeks. First we had a group of high school exchange students arrive from Ontario. They were here for a week, mingling with our students, learning about life in a small arctic community. Then we had the SportsNet crew arrive to make a documentary about our school's boys hockey team.
 |
I am doing my best to give Sean a run for his money. In the end I wasn't even close to doing that!
|
One of our teachers, Andy, had organized a little hockey tournament in his hometown in northern Ontario for our team. It became such a big hit that Northern Ontario's City TV covered it in their breakfast program for a few days. They then decided to bring a SportsNet camera crew here to film the boys in Whale Cove, on their trip to Ontario, and the tournament in Ontario. They also arranged for the boys to attend a Leafs game in Toronto, and a chance at watching them practice. They'll have all of these as a documentary which is going to be aired sometime in the spring.
 |
Sean, kicking the target over 8 feet high! Part of a presentation for the Exchange students and the film crew
|
We don't get a Spring break, as most teachers do down south, but the upside of it is that we get to finish the school year a month earlier than rest of the country. The added bonus however for me is the extra long days. It is still sunny and bright for another 3-4 hours after work, which gives me ample time to head out for runs on most days. It feels like I have my freedom back again. Luckily there are no bears to worry about either. I am sure they are all out on the floe edge looking for seals than being around town looking for smelly garbage or skinny runners.
 |
| Sean and another friend getting the sledges ready |
I still head out on the magical floe edge everytime the opportunity arises. I find the ice and its ever-changing appearance as fascinating as anything I have ever seen. Once out on the sea ice, you never know what ice made landscape you might see. Wind, currents and tides change the ice so mush that you rarely get to see the same thinge twice. Where today was a very long lead, open water, that looked like a river might be a perfectly flat ice covered with snow crystals for miles on the next day. You sometime come across makeshit beaches on the sea ice. It is complete with a nice gentle slope towards the water, as the ice thins on the edge.
|
|
Sean on the make-shift beach made of ice!
|
Last weekend Sean, and I and another friend headed out on the floe edge. Out there we met Theophile and his son who were hunting seals. We decided to join them for the hunt. It was a beautiful, sunny but cold day. We took a kayak and they had a little dingy to recover seals. The trick is to shoot the seal with rifle, then paddle out there to retrieve it, often with the help of a harpoon. It is incredible to even contemplate getting out on the water, where often you have to launch the boat from thin ice.
 |
| Looking for seals at the floe edge. Theophile is using the scope as a binocular |
We spent an hour at the first lead before it was closed completely. We followed Theophile east in search of another lead, open water. It is not always possible to get to open water out there. The best indicator of it is steam rising from warmer water. But there are days that all the leads are closed and you just don't see any open water around. The bay is covered with pack ice and open water. But the pattern is very tricky to predict. There are
polynya, areas of open water within the ice pack. These are more permanent open water areas. I was told of one or two around here, about 30km or so away from our town.
 |
| Sean waiting for seals |
Our second spot was much scarier to navigate. The ice we were driving on was only 2-3 inches thick. Theophile would lead with his snowmobile. He would stop about 100 metres or so before the edge of the water to check the thickness of the ice with a stick that had a long spike tied on its end. He carefully checked the thickness and advised us to proceed with care. We stopped the machines and walked to the edge. The ice was so thin that you could see moisture on the ice, something very rare out here. Any moisture on ice freezes so quickly in other areas. But out here the ever moving water was still seeping through the thin ice.
 |
| Theophile launched the boat from a super thin ice edge. I don't think I could ever convince myself in doing that. It felt so cold even watching him paddle out. |
Out here, Theophile decided to launch his boat. I guess just for fun, or just to get some well-needed practice! I wish I could describe seeing him paddle out in the steaming water surrounded by moving giant slabs of ice. You have to be out there to realize how cold and dangerous it was. But these guys do it day in and day out. I guess this was the only way of finding food for thousands of years up here.
 |
| Another beautiful yet temporary scene on the ice |
After another hour or so, our open water shrank to a tiny channel so we decided to move again. This time we headed west. On our path we passed by some high piles of snow and ice that looked liked large containers from the far. This last spot looked like a beautiful beach. There was a gentle slope from the ice to the water's edge. I was almost tempted to go ot there and touch the water. But only managed to get within 5 meters of the edge. At this time the sun was setting on the ice and the full moon rising over the steaming water. We had to be careful, as the ice we were on could separate from the fast(land) any minute. On our way to the edge we had actually crossed over a large gap separating the ice packs.
 |
| Our caravan on the ice |
So we kept an eye behind as well as scouting the steaming water for seals. There it was at last! Sean waved and pointed my attention towards a large dark thing right in the middle of the rising steam. It was a seal checking out all the commotions. It looked huge, but Sean told me it was just an average ringed seal. It looked large as it was rising way up in order to have a better view of the surroundings.
