Resolute Revisited

I finally got around to putting some pictures on from working in Nunavut this summer. We were based out of Resolute, but got to fly all over Cornwallis Island and western Devon Island in a helicopter. Our pilot was a frenchman named Claude Noel so we were thinking of telling the niece and nephews that we were flying around with Father Christmas.

This is Tom at the Pond Inlet airport on our way up to Resolute.

The next three pictures are from the archaeological dig site at Resolute. These structures date back to the late 1800s (if I remember correctly) and are constructed from large whale bones.

The sea ice was really neat and I ended up taking quite a few pictures of it. This is from west of Resolute looking towards the mainland.

We had quite a few fog days . This was a rather mild one where fog covered the channel to Devon Island, but we were still able to work on Cornwallis. Near the end of the project we were completely grounded for several days in a row. I shot this picture of Tom at a bulk sample site on Devon Island as he was watching the helicopter take off.

Just a shot taken on northern Devon Island with some of the neat colours of the various rock, debris, and vegetation. This is one of the most heavily vegetated areas we came across... meaning more moss & lichen, some

This is the edge of the glacier on Devon Island with a sea-ice filled fjord in the background.

Fjord on Devon Island.

I bet this would make a pretty spectacular waterfall when the water is flowing... but for now it's an ice-covered perched lake.

Delta emptying into the channel between Cornwallis and Devon Island, from the Devon Island side.

Cracks in the sea ice on our last trip back to Resolute from Devon Island. The ice disappeared surprisingly fast with a little help from some warm weather and several days of strong north winds.

Back on Cornwallis. We were hiking along rivers taking stream samples. This is a picture of me right after sinking into the mud up to my knees. Fortunately I've had experience walking through quick sand in northern Ontario and had the technique down to walk through it without losing my rubber boots. I'm just glad it wasn't any deeper otherwise I would have had to belly slither out of it. My boots weighed a ton by the time I got out though... at least it amused the other people on my crew - they couldn't stop laughing!

Here's Tom checking out a plane wreck we came across on the Tundra. We were hiking along another stream and saw it. We spent a bit of time checking it out, and just as we were heading back Claude came buzzing up behind us in the helicopter to do an emergency run back to Resolute because the fog was rolling in.