Floe edge

The trip out to the floe edge has been the best thing so far. I was so glad to be outside! Jenn and I arrived at Alvin's house to find that he was almost ready to go. He'd already attached the komatik (sled) to his skidoo. A small boat and a large wooden chest were lashed on top of the komatik. Jenn explained that if we were lucky enough to find and shoot a seal Alvin would use the boat to go out and fetch it. To me it sounded like a rather risky operation. He would have to push the boat out in front of him towards the edge of the ice until it dropped into the water. Then he would have to clamber aboard. The landing sounded even worse as he would have to haul both the boat (containing himself and the seal) up onto solid ice. I imagine that the ice would continually break underneath, requiring yet more hauling using curved picks (a bit like ice axes I suppose). Unfortunately we didn't find any wildlife at all during our trip so I never got to see this. Alvin was a very considerate driver but even so being towed behind the skidoo led to a bumpy ride. It was a bit like a rollercoaster as we never quite knew when we'd hit the next stomach churning dip or lump of ice. My goggles had iced up and I could barely see anything so it was quite amazing to stop, take off the goggles and see the surrounding beauty. This place is absolutely stunning. The vast expanse of ice and snow is almost luminescent. The colours in the sky graduate from pink to dusky purple to blue and for a brief period we even saw a refracted image of the sun - a firy rectangle floating above the true horizon. Areas of open water are obvious because of the clouds which form above them. The Inuit call these tunguniq or water sky. On this day there wasn't very much open water but we went as close to the edge of the floes as we dared. Alvin said there was a very strong current in this area, and with the skidoo engine off we could hear the groaning of ice grating on ice. Where the floes had rafted up over one another there were large mounds and lines of geometric ice shapes. All the facets and angles caught the light differently to stunning effect. Who would think that ice could have so many colours? I loved it out there. It was wonderful to see that despite his familiarity with it Alvin still appreciated it too. "It's different every day" he said, "I'd be out here all the time if I could". Even as I watched the ice moved and different patches of water opened up and closed. Alvin spotted two sets of polar bear tracks - one from yesterday and another set only a few hours old. He also found an aglu, a seal breathing hole, that was in use. It was a circular mound of smooth ice (the rest of the ice surface was quite rough) with a small hole in the centre through which we could just see the water. Interestingly the ice we were on appeared to only be a couple of inches thick - best for me not to think about that observation too much!