Flying south out of Arctic Bay

Just a few more photos to show you from my flight south on July 10.  I didn't mean to drag them out for this long!

Here is Holy Cross point from the east as we climb out of Arctic Bay:

I took a physical geography course in university but of course have forgotten all the words I learned for the various landforms.  So here are those fan-shaped thingies that form at the mouths of rivers:

Just some interesting landscapes, not the greatest photos though.  I do the best I can though a dirty airplane window and the variable moisture in the air:

Landscape on the cusp of becoming repetitive and boring:

... and that's it.  That was my trip to Grise Fiord this spring and early summer.  Not sure where I'll be going next, or when.

The new Arctic Bay airport

They started building the new airport in 2006, and it took 5 years.  The  new and improved runway is on the site of a previous smaller runway that was used occasionally for medivac flights and maybe other small charter planes.

The former regular airport was around 30 km away, close to the old mine and townsite of Nanisivik.  Weather at the old airport was frequently a problem so flights would often be cancelled- I have heard it's much better now that the new airport is open.  As well, if the taxi forgot you on it's way to the old airport (happened to me once!), it was a very big deal to try to get a ride out there before the plane left without you (if it landed at all... weather!)

Flight from Resolute to Arctic Bay

Here we are taking off from Resolute on July 10.  If I ever spend any time there, I want to try to walk around these old buildings at the airport that you can see in the photo below.  Lots of them are very old and no longer in use.  Some or most are government buildings, some might be military too:

A peninsula pointing south:

North coast of Baffin Island:

We fly over some cool canyons as we cross the Brodeur peninsula:

I'm such a sucker for a pretty ice pattern.  This is in Admiralty inlet:

Entrance to Adams sound, which takes you to Arctic Bay:

Adams sound:

Flying over the southwest lobe of Arctic Bay the town, and Arctic Bay the body of water:

Next up, I'll show you the new airport at Arctic Bay that opened just this year.

Flying into Resolute

Our flight to Resolute from Grise was late on July 9, so these photos are all I got from my stay there, no time to go for a walk in the evening as we leave for the airport the next morning at 5:15 am.

Aziz, who runs the South Camp Inn, says that lake in this photo is usually frozen until August, and this year it was only a couple of days before it would be thawed.

There's Resolute the town in the upper left:

Coming in for a landing:

View from my room at the South Camp Inn.  I wish I would have had time to go for a walk, but I was just too tired, had been working right up until the time I left Grise.

Stay tuned, I have a few more aerial landscape photos from the flight down from Resolute.

The surreal landscape of Devon Island

Here are some more photos of Devon Island.  I love the patterns, and the meanderings of the rivers.

Mars on Earth

One of my fellow passengers on the flight from Grise Fiord to Resolute had worked at the Mars on Earth project, so he pointed it out to me as we passed over it on Devon Island.  There is an international research project that uses that site as a "terrestrial analog" for Mars.

The site is that white crater ("Haughton impact structure") and the surrounding terrain:

Ice in Jones Sound

Here are some pics of the ice in Jones Sound as we flew over it on July 9.  I love the patterns the ice makes as it melts and breaks up.  It's different every time I fly.

Leaving Ellesmere Island

OK, I have to admit, I actually left Ellesmere Island 3 weeks ago.  I've been a bit of a slacker in the past couple of weeks with updating the blog, but I still have some pics to show you from my flight home.

The weather was fantastic on July 9, when I flew out of Grise Fiord.  Here is the town on take off:

That's the Greenlander mountain in the middleground, the entrance to the fiord is to the left:

Grise Fiord (the fiord):

Isn't it beautiful?  They even pay me money to be on these flights.  And since it was a Saturday, they paid me overtime!  You can see a couple of glaciers in the photo below:

More fiords and ice as we follow the southern coast of Ellesmere Island:

Lots of glaciers now in the background mountains:

The ones below are of the south cape of Ellesmere Island:

Still more glaciers:

And the last look at the south coast of Ellesmere as we head across Jones Sound to cross Devon Island.  Lots of glaciers:

I'll show you some Devon Island photos, and the Mars on Earth site on Devon Island as seen from the air, so stay tuned!