New Suits

30 K Across the Bay

Stepping off of the airplane in Iqaluit reminded me of running head long into a brick wall. The cold wind was penetrating, and impenetrable. In the short walk from the plane to the building, the wind had pushed the cold through every layer I had on, and I felt like I was standing naked on some fictional icy planet. Iqaluit is not actually above the arctic circle, but sits just south of it on the map. The map lies. If you follow the tree line, the northern limit of where even large plant life can live, you will find that there is a sudden dip just around Iqaluit. Arctic storms that can be heard coming, howl across the ice, bringing temperatures that make your bones brittle. It’s a white dessert, with no open water, no trees, and scarce life to be found.

After meeting up with the team, I went back to the house where I’ll be staying for the next month, and was given my clothing that will be my only protection from the elements for the upcoming expedition to the even colder Ellesmere Island. The words of a good friend came to mind as I pulled on my bibs, and bent down to my knees to zip up my jacket. “Function over fashion,” Craig had said. I have no problem with that, as long as it keeps me warm!

Soon after, I was introduced to the dogs. They need no artificial warmth, or layers to keep them warm. Even the puppies can spend nights out, curled up on the ice. These dogs however are closer in relation to arctic wolves than they are to the handbag stuffing chihuahuas and the overbred lapdogs we find comfort in. It shows too. The elongated stride, the tooth scarred muzzles, and the cold, calculating, but intelligent stare of the dogs remind me of the feeling of looking into the eyes of a lion on the Serengetti.

The dogs you see in movies are malamutes, and siberian huskies, kitty-cats compared to the canadian eskimo dogs that are pulling us. Three of the dogs on our 9 dog team have drug their previous owners and 800 pounds of gear to the north pole twice. They are easy to make friends with though, and just like people, each dog has it’s own personality. The new dogs on the team are skittish, and afraid of people, just like a captured wolf would be. The veterans have the system so figured out that they could practically put their own harness on and will snap at other dogs for stepping out of line.
After a hard day of pulling you around, the dogs are tied up individually and fed, then after all the other work is done for the night, they look forward to a good petting that is the highlight of their day. Sarah, my teammate impressed the value of “saying goodnight” to your dogs early. A dog that is your friend is going to listen a lot better, and is going to enjoy pulling you around a lot more than one that resents you.

On my second day in Iqaluit, we load the sleds and harness the dogs for a 30 kilometer run out to a cabin that Sarah and Eric own across the bay. Sarah and Eric are the children of the famous arctic explorer Matty Mcnair-Landry. Matty is like one of the sled dogs, she pulls people up to the arctic. People with dreams of the North Pole invariably will come to Matty to lead them there. Sarah and I team up on a sled, and are yanked by the yelping dogs through a kilometer of broken up sea-ice before reaching the smooth ice beyond. I can’t say it was the easiest place to learn to ski. Dodging chunks of ice, wind hardened drifts of snow, and the sliding sled the whole time. Some of the new dogs didn’t always know how to pick their way through the ice while tied into the sled, and would try to go around the ice on the wrong side. As the sled went forward, the momentum and the 8 other dogs would suddenly yank the misguided dog backwards and the dog would get drug around the ice chunks and catapulted back toward the sled. Sarah has been doing this since she was two. She can remember being tied down to the sled and bundled up as her mom mushed the dogs across the ice. A life in the arctic running dogs makes for a strong person. I got to see Sarah lift an 80 pound dog (one of the small ones) as it got caught between two ice flows, and throw the dog over the ice, and over the sled, clearing some of the other dogs, probably saving it from being smashed to death between the flows by the frenzied other dogs.

Pictures from Iqaluit Airport

It's minus 15 degrees, and that's not including wind chill... This was my first taste of what training is going to be like. I guess it's nice to make the step down to -80 slowly.

And I'm off

Denver is 20 degrees, and the wind is blowing the snow sideways at 45 miles an hour. I suppose I should take advantage of the nice weather before I get to the arctic... I'll be in Baffin island all month training the dogs for the actual expedition. Or should I say they will be training me.

It's Times Like These I Wish I Still Believed in Heaven

It’s times like these I wish I still believed in heaven. An old man is taking what could be his last breath with a few family members there to see him through it, all whispering a different hope into his ear. I would be there if I could, and it makes me think of what I would say. It’s a question I’ve wrestled with for 6 years now, ever since I gave up on what had been fed to me since birth.
Four years ago, my first friend passed away, and in the following two days two more followed. Since then another 13 people in my life have risen, or fallen depending on how you look at it. With each one, the question grinds deeper into my mind, and becomes harder to answer, and now, as my grandfather lies in a hospice, I wonder, if death can’t be a release, or even a reward. His pain is so great, and his body so deteriorated, that only drugs and machines keep him alive. Is he alive? Are we holding him captive when a better fate awaits? Can we not just let his soul go? If there is one to let go.
My grandfather was a man of war, raised in a generation that is said to be similar to my own. He was not in the World wars, but was raised in the aftermath and it’s effect could still be seen in his stance, if he could but stand. I’ve been wondering lately, after reading “Soldier of the Great War” if a man who has lived through war as my grandfather did in Vietnam, can respect someone who hasn’t seen the face of an enemy. I have no doubt that my grandfather is proud of his children, and his grandchildren, but to him it must seem as if we have never been tested, our foundations have never been shaken. Nomater what tribulations we face, they cannot match leaving your wife for a war, knowing you may never return.
I imagine that’s what he is going through now, he is about to walk through a door that he has no idea what is on the other side, and all he knows is that if he does return he will be a changed man. He is leaving his wife and children, who will say goodbye, and just as before they will try to keep a smile on their crying faces so he will see that those he loves are left happy.
If I were there, I wouldn’t be whispering hopes into his ears, I’d be holding his hand, smiling, telling him stories, and just maybe, bringing a little bit more life into his last days.

From our Favorite troublemaker

"I was reading about how countless species are being pushed towards extinction by man's destruction of forests.
Sometimes i think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere is that none of it has tried to contact us. "

-Calvin-

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about...

...Infact, it's quite likely. I do feel the need however to make a comment regarding all those little plastic bracelets that everybody is wearing into Whole Foods and REI. The goal here is to save the planet, it's people, cancer, whatever color you chose. Would it not be better then, to stop producing things like little plastic bracelets that end up in landfills, oceans, gutters, and in every case will be either removed or lost at some point? It's a waste, and although they probably only cost a few cents to make, that is still a few cents that could be given to a cause. The problem is not with the companies that produce these little amulets though, it is with us. We need to be able to give money or time to a cause without having to advertise what we did to others, and until we make that fundamental change, the bracelets will be necessary. Let me offer an alternative. If you want to stop poverty, or hunger, have those you are trying to help weave or create the bracelets out of local organic materials. It's the give a man a fish vs. teach him to fish illustration all over again. If you want to save the rainforrest, definitely don't buy one. Even if it's made out of natural rubber, that rubber comes from a tree, one that had to have land cleared so that it could grow. But, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, infact, it's quite likely.

Kicking slowly through a great blue void, to deep to see the surface, and hundreds of feet above the ocean floor, I allow the current to carry me so that I can conserve the priceless breath of air I'm holding in. I can hear a pod of spinner dolphin approaching, though I can’t see them yet. First a few flashes of light off of the sides of tuna, then the torpedo shaped fish begin to dash by on all sides. Following close behind, five hundred porpoise effortlessly glide by in formation. Some circle just beyond arms reach and others herd the young away from me. As quickly as the ocean revealed them, they are gone, their whistles still audible.

Video from Corcovado

Can you spot the Croc?

Turtle Rescue

Up and down the coast fishermen have been working the sea heavily for days now. It's not often that the ocean seems to boil over with life, what with all the overfishing that takes place off these shores. When, pods of spinner, stinky, and spotted dolphin where seen only 15 miles from shore, and stretching far out into the horizon, the fishermen knew that the tuna would be with them. Our first day in the water we hit it big. We go great shots of the schooling spinner dolphin, but we wanted the rarer, and more difficult spotted dolphin. These more elusive dolphin carry with them the big tuna, and are one of the species that is constantly under attack by the tuna fisheries... If you find the dolphin, you find the tuna, and the dolphin are what people search for.

We returned the the ocean yesterday with all of our gear, new knowledge, and refined techniques ready to "get the shot" but it seemed like a whole new ocean. The dolphin where not just to far out, they where gone. Yet, while we where in the ocean, we found a long line in the water about 20 miles out. It's not illegal to use long lines out here, but while we followed the line of bouys, we found a sea turtle in distress. It had swallowed the bait, and had been fighting for hours, it's fatigue apparent as it didn't even try to escape the boat. And so, we entered the water, and freed the turtle. In Costa Rica, even the endangered species are used for food, as any meat is generally a delicacy for the locals. All turtles are protected, and it was a privilege to help this one along on its never ending ocean voyage.