Look, Ma, No Trees!

God only knows what was going through the mind of early explorers who first braved the dangers that the remote arctic climate has to offer. “I think I’d like to get a summer home up here” was probably uttered less than “I hope the polar bear I’m looking at now met the seal I saw earlier” which in turn was likely thought of even less than “How the $#&% can anything survive up here?!”

Although Ugg the caveman may tell you otherwise, settlements as northerly as Alert have only started to become a reality in the last half century. The Canadian Forces Station of Alert has been pieced together over that time with new additions and improvements being undertaken all the time. During the summer months (a balmy 5 degrees Celsius tells you it’s time to break out the sun-screen and enjoy the 24 hour sunlight), the CFS station can be home to in excess of 100 residents; typically around 50 during the winter months.

The station as it exists now is quite the opposite of roughing it, with a gymnasium, 2-lane 5 pin bowling alley, theatre, computer labs and all the other benefits of electricity and running water. As comfortable as it is on the inside, there definitely won’t be any awards for architectural ingenuity. The outside of the station, in my opinion, resembles a large stack of railroad boxcars, very large ones, stacked and adjoined to one another as necessity dictates.

Though the station is now for all intents and purposes, fully modern, it did not come without several hardships and tragedies along the way. There have been several planes which have crashed while navigating toward the station, some as close as 100 metres away from the existing runway.

Thanks to Alert not being involved in any outdoor city beautification projects, I was able to see the remains of two of the planes which went down between the 50s and 70s (or so I was led to believe, take this as a Wikipedia-like disclaimer as to the validity of the information contained in the blog herein).

These first three pictures were taken from the plane which crashed near the runway. According to the story they were attempting to land during unadvisable storm conditions.

A crash site amidst the station between a pair of gravel roads is the next which I visited. The story behind this plane is again poor weather and navigation equipment being down. As this plane is nowhere near the runway it gives an idea of exactly how miserable visibility can get at times up here.

Despite the susceptibility of all living things in this climate a number of life forms do manage to survive. As of this point the most I’ve seen are very small flowers and a couple of birds.

I’ve heard stories of seals, wolves and lemmings all being present as well. No sightings thus far but I’ll keep you posted.

While on my miniature hikes to the crash sites I was more interested in the landscape than any of the history or animals that might be present. As this video illustrates, walking along the shale coastline sounded (and felt I imagine) like walking on a huge pile of your grandma’s finest china. It was awesome!

I suppose no tour of living quarters, no matter how poorly written and misinformed, would be complete without a glimpse of the accommodations themselves. As I mentioned earlier, over the years living halls have been added to the station. I am currently housed in the Chimo Hall of the station. Here’s a glimpse of my already untidy abode (approximately 15’ x 15’):

Next time on BAA: A special visitor, animal sightings and more!
Same BAA time, same BAA channel!

Byron
Ice to see you!

A Trip to Trenton - On the Road to Alert

After a few hours of driving east along the 401, and a couple of u-turns within the city of Trenton, I found myself at the humble Yukon Lodge. The hotel which doubles as the residence office for the military base in Trenton was quite comfortable offering amenities such as a fridge, microwave and access to the internet which is occasionally operational. None of which were much of a concern considering I arrived in Trenton at approximately 11PM and had to arrive at the nearby AMC terminal at 5AM.

Sure enough I wake up, call the local ABC taxi, pay the flat-rate $7 fare and arrive at the AMC at 5AM sharp. A couple of chocolate bars and introductions to fellow passengers flying up to Alert later, we were ready for boarding and proceeding through the security check doors.

Upon completion of the security check we were able to get a glimpse of the air-liner which would take us on our voyage. 7AM rolled along and we received word that our flight had been delayed an hour due to weather conditions. Being familiar with movies such as Alive, we were more than understanding of taking the necessary precautions. An hour rolled by and sure enough we then received word that the entire flight had been delayed for 24 hours and that a shuttle bus would transport those of us heading back to the Yukon Lodge.

After checking back in to the Yukon Lodge and a failed nap attempt I thought I may as well see what downtown Trenton had to offer. I grabbed a pamphlet from the hotel concierge and was on my way west down Dundas past RCAF road. I stopped at a local diner where they were providing a breakfast special for under $5, ka-ching! With some food in my belly I perused the pamphlet a little more and discovered that Trenton was holding a Street-Sale on that day. I decided to check it out and was there early enough to see people setting up their various stands and beat the crowd. After grabbing two pairs of shades for $15 I went to the nearby theatre, aptly name Theatre, to see when the latest Harry Potter was playing. To kill the few hours before the show I stopped at the local bookstore and picked up a couple classics to add to my "To Read List", To Kill a Mockingbird (So far so good), Moby Dick and The Catcher in the Rye. I was able to find Trenton’s surprisingly modern library and spend a few hours there, stopping to watch the occasional HERC fly by.

By noon I was ready to head back to Theatre and picked up my ticket, popcorn and a pop for the amazingly low price of $10! The movie was good but left me with that incomplete feeling that the first Lord of the Rings film did, impressed with the overall plot but wanting to see more.

I made my way to the grocery store on the way back to the Yukon Lodge, stocked up on pizza pops and juice boxes and came across Byron Street, where oddly enough the beer store is located! Next I passed by what is known as an Adult Mobile Home Park (your guess is as good as mine as to what that entails?!)

Back at the Lodge I pretty much vegetated until I could no longer keep my eyes open and repeated the wake up procedure of the previous day.

This time we were successful in our take-off attempt and on our way through a 3.5 hour flight to Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut. It may come as a surprise to some people but Iqaluit is actually home to a population of approximately 8000, with the entire territory of Nunavut providing residence to 50,000.

After a slight delay due once again to weather conditions we were on our way to Resolute Bay, a more modest city in northern Nunavut of approximately 800 people, a 2 hour plane trip. The flight went smoothly with a slightly scary landing, the plane appearing to almost tip after catching a gust of wind. Fortunately our pilot was skilled and able to land the plane safely.
The final 2 hour trip from Resolute Bay to Alert went off without a hitch and before we knew it we were greeted by cheering members of the station eager to welcome familiar and unfamiliar faces alike.

In the following post I'll show you around my first few days in Alert including a brief history lesson and other frozen fun. Until next time, keep fit and have fun!

Byron
your source to up north

Welcome to duesouthofsanta.blogspot.com!

Hello and welcome to duesouthofsanta.blogspot.com!

If you are visiting my site, chances are you know what the story is behind it. However, for those of you who have stumbled down a rabbit hole and now find themselves in a site which they thought may contain a tasty egg-nog recipe, please allow me to explain:

As fortune would have it I recently landed a contract job working for Environment Canada...pretty awesome eh? Well there's more to it than that. My position is as the new GAW Lab Operator in Alert, Nunavut. For those of you who aren't familiar with the geography of the vast northern territories of Canada, Alert is the northern-most permanently occupied settlement on the planet (hence the due south of santa), located on the northern tip of Ellesmere island. There aren't many places where you could say that you are thinking about taking a trip south to Alaska, but Alert is one of them!
























Throughout the next 14 months I hope to inform, enlighten and hopefully entertain you via the musings and stories from my work-term-adventure in this remote region of Canada. I thank you all for visiting and welcome your questions, comments and even questionable comments!


Byron
your polar bear brother from another mother