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Yellowknife Adventure - Snowking Castle

3/22/2015

My northern adventure continues... this time in Yellowknife. I left Inuvik on March 19, and am getting settled into my new home. It was a fun first weekend thanks to a number of activities at the Snowking Winter Festival - read here for more info: http://snowking.ca/.

Friday night I attended a concert in the snow castle - yes, it is a castle built of snow blocks on the surface of a frozen lake, complete with a bar, bathrooms, an ice slide, a stage and dance floor, and a roof you can climb up to reach the turrets! On Saturday night I attended my first rave, also at the castle ... it was a weird feeling watching everyone rocking out on an ice floor dressed in parkas, mukluks and mitts. Not your average party!

Today I took some pictures of the snow castle in daylight. Enjoy... and try to come for a visit!

Sun Beauty Untouched

1/28/2015

Today is Bell Let’s Talk Day, in support of mental health initiatives in Canada. Today’s post is dedicated to those struggling with depression and other mental illnesses. Every text, facebook share, tweet #BellLetsTalk, or long distance call will receive a 5 cent donation from Bell.

Up here in the Arctic, we are celebrating the return of the sun after a long period of darkness (a month of December darkness, to be precise). This is a hard time of year for many people, but I hope the beauty of creation will bring you as much joy as it does to me. We are now enjoying 5 hours of sunlight each day, and it keeps getting brighter.

In the spirit of being authentic, these photos are untouched and unembellished in any way.

Enjoy the natural beauty. May much love surround you.

Return of Inuvik Sun

1/17/2015

Last weekend Inuvik celebrated the return of the sun after a month’s absence with the annual 3-day Sunrise Festival.

There was a dizzying number of activities available, including a bonfire, fireworks, a concert, a skidoo rally, an 'Ice Road Village' complete with igloos, a snow carving contest, reindeer to pet, dog sled rides with huskies, hot chocolate served from an ice bar with ice furniture, a pancake breakfast, downhill snow sledding, drum dancing and jigging, and a 'Taste of Inuvik' food festival.

Below are some photos of the igloos, snow sculptures and the ice bar that was set up on the surface of a frozen lake in town.

The sun officially made its appearance on January 6th, although we actually saw it over the horizon as early as January 2nd. As of today (January 17), we already have over 3 hours of sun, with sunrise at 12:26 pm and sunset at 3:44 pm. It will be back with a vengeance soon.

I’m sure there is a scientific explanation why the sun came back earlier than usual, but either way, we’re happy. A lot of people also said that the month of December was a lot less dark than it used to be, with a lot more light in the sky even though the sun was below the horizon. If anyone knows why this is the case, let me know!

An inukshuk carved out of snow.

Some of the entries in the snow-carving contest.

Igloo #1

Igloo #2

The sun!

The bar made of ice with hot tea.

Hanging out in an igloo!

3 Years of Adventure

1/8/2015

Happy new year everyone! I hope you had a great holiday with family, friends and waaaaaaay too much food like I did.

January 4th marked my three-year anniversary of moving to the Arctic. Unfortunately, I didn't remember that significant milestone until the end of the day ... and then thought I really should have done something special to commemorate ... but I didn't! Instead I noticed we had a beautiful moonrise, so I went out and took these photos.

The sun is back as well, and it came back about 4 days early this year! I'm sure there's a scientific explanation why we saw it on January 2nd, when we usually don't see it until about the 6th or 7th. But we're not complaining - it's nice to see the sun again. When I'm not stuck indoors working, I will try to get a photo or two.

Christmas Lights in Inuvik

12/26/2014

Merry Christmas from the North Pole! I don't know a place that gets in the Christmas spirit quite like Inuvik, so I took some photos of the lights around town. Enjoy!

Mukluks in the Snow

12/24/2014

I’ve recently been wearing the mukluks that I made a couple of years ago – see the blog post here about how they were made.

It’s surprising how warm and comfortable they are, even for walking outside in cold temperatures. The bottoms are made of moosehide, and the other leather on the upper portion is deerhide (it’s cheaper, but not as durable).

I put some thin insoles in them to give more support. As long as I’m walking on snow, they are very comfortable, but I wouldn’t want to walk over sharp gravel... it’s a good thing we have lots of snow here!

The Longest Night, The Darkest Day

12/22/2014

Yesterday was December 21st ... the winter solstice ... the longest night of the year. That means it was our darkest day up here in the land of midnight sun (and noontime dark), and also means that the sky will start getting lighter from now on.

So that you can see what our “darkest day” looks like, I took these photos from my front door (I like blogging, but I am lazy on the weekends, so I make minimal effort sometimes!).

The photos are spaced about an hour apart, starting at 10 am.

10 am - still black

11 am

12 noon

1 pm - notice the skidoo :)

2 pm

4 pm

5 pm

6 pm - back to black!

Santa Claus Parade in Inuvik

12/15/2014

For the first time in many years, Inuvik held a Santa Claus parade yesterday. It was an impressive show, and the floats came complete with flashing lights, Christmas music, and candy thrown into the crowd.

The community and local businesses really pulled together well and did a great job bringing Christmas cheer to the north. It seemed like everyone in town was lined up along the main street, and both kids and adults enjoyed themselves.

Below are some pictures of the parade, but I must lead with the star of the show ... a real live reindeer! Read more about the reindeer called Addjub here (Addjub means ‘grandson’ in the language of the Sami, the traditional reindeer herders).

These pictures were taken around 2 pm – we don’t get any sun these days, so that’s why it looks a bit hazy in the middle of the day.

Goodbye Inuvik Sun

12/7/2014

Yesterday was our last day of sun… all eight minutes of it hiding behind the clouds. Starting today we won’t see the sun for a month. Below are some pictures of our last sunrise (at 1:41 pm) and last sunset (at 1:49 pm).

In case 24-hour darkness sounds intimidating, it’s not quite as bad as it sounds. It’s not dark the whole time ... it's more like 24 hours without sun, but with hazy light in the middle of the day. We still get dawn and twilight. If you want to see what midday looked like on the longest night of the year (December 21 last year), click here.

For good measure, I’m also including a photo of the beautiful full moon we had today and the sun just below the horizon.

Sunrise over Inuvik at 1:41 pm.

Downtown Inuvik at the height of the day!

Sunset at 1:49 pm.

Full moon setting on December 7, 2014.

The sun trying to rise on December 7, but it never got above the horizon. That is the ice road beyond the frozen boats.

Dressing for the Weather

12/2/2014

Last week we experienced the coldest temperatures so far this winter... almost -30C. When you factor in the wind chill, it felt closer to -40C (which is the same as -40F for you Americans). Brrrrrr. We have "warmed up" this week to -24C or so, which feels amazing.

The other exciting development is that we are now down to 1 hour and 37 minutes of sun. It will be disappearing on us fast! This is one of our last views of the sun. And below that are the recent sunrise and sunset times.

So how do you dress for that kind of cold? When I walk to work (because it's not worth wasting gas and warming up my car for a 1 minute drive!), below is what I wear. I put one extra layer over my jeans (usually workout pants). Then with my parka, mitts, socks and boots, I'm all set!