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The North Face Baffin Island Kite and Ski Expedition - Live Dispatches |
An unexpected day....
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I had a lot to write about our last day in Sam Ford- like how the weather finally cleared a bit, how warm it was, how great the wind was for kiting, but at the moment, sitting at a kitchen table in Clyde River (always weird to be back inside), all I can think about are the polar bears we saw on our way back to Clyde last night.We were bouncing along as usual in the back of our komatik, about six hours into the journey, right when it starts to really get miserable on the back, the bum, etc., when Elijah, our ski -doo driver started shouting. Kasha and I just assumed he was shouting for joy at how fast his brand new snowmobile could fly over chunks of ice and send our komatik airborne, but we were wrong. Not one for going slow, Elijah actually slowed down and then stopped. Only then did I hear "nanuk, NANUK!!" - a.k.a. polar bear. The other snowmobiles, those travelling within the realms of "ski-doo with komatik" speed sanity, finally caught up to us. We were all bummed we hadn't seen the bear because of course, it took off running the instant Elijah came roaring around the corner. Lo an behold, though, our drivers/guides/crazy men from the north country, asked us if we wanted too see the bear. We all pretty much thought "fat chance", but never underestimate the powers of an Inuit man and his snowmobile. Meg and I went first, I hopped on the back of Elijah's sled, he unhitched it from the kumatik and said, with a very suspect gleam in his eye- "hang on, hang on tight". Oh boy.What happened next- my command of the English language could, simply, never do the experience justice.Picture this, if you can: 9pm which means the light in the arctic has this soft, ethereal glow to it, we're flying over the frozen ocean which, beautiful in and of itself, has taken on an absolute mystical feel because we are charging into a thick fog, we could only see maybe 40 ft in front of us. The fog is tinted with the slightest soft light from the long sunset and everywhere we look it's just white, white, white. The landscape is anything but flat because the ocean, when it's freezing, pushes up the most amazing ice formations (granted, it's these very ice formations that are sure to have made me at least an inch shorter because of all the bouncing!), and then, with my eyes straining, nothing in front of us but the tracks we were following, I can barely discern one white thing in a world of white that was moving. We caught up to the bear easily. It only took minutes. It was a male and we cruised alongside him, both of us stopping on occasion to stare at each other, me practically in tears, him more with a look like "Alright, now you're starting to piss me off". He was beautiful. I must leave it at that because any other attempt to describe it would prove to be a colossal failure on my part. What's truly amazing is that not just one or two of us got to experience this, but all four of us. The other three girls actually saw two polar bears. The male that I saw rejoined with his female counterpart.Life, and living, is an amazing thing, and always full of surprises. These expeditions are often much needed reminders. An amazing end to a fabulous trip- not to mention the experience did wonders to ease the pain of the remaining hours on the komatik ride to Clyde River....
Signing 0ff,
Hil and the ladies...
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A Few Down Days....
16 May, 05 - 20:04
After the excitement of the 12th and 13th, the weather has turned especially nasty, temporarily shutting us down. The 14th was windy and snowing heavily; we laid low and rested. Yesterday a few of u
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Friday the 13th
14 May, 05 - 20:51
Friday the 13th proved to be a very lucky day for us girls here in Sam Ford Fjord. Although battered from our 9 hour epic the day before, we couldn't resist tackling another coulior. After resting an
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It just keeps getting better!
13 May, 2005, 1300 hours
After a few days of rest [for various reasons--moving camps, weather, wind, reconnaisance missions, etc.], we nailed our biggest challenge yet, and our reward was probably one of the cooler descents a
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