No Fixed Address: Flight from Resolute to Grise Fiord

There was fantastic weather the day I flew over from Resolute to Grise Fiord. I got lots of photos the whole way over, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Some friends have mentioned to me in the past that it's a shame I don't post maps so they can get an idea of where these places are. Well, here you go, here are a couple to show you where Grise Fiord and Resolute are. These are Canada's most northerly communities, apart from the scientific station at Eureka, and the military base at Alert, which are both further north on Ellesmere Island.

Here's a closer-up view. You cross Devon Island to get from Cornwallis Island to Ellesmere. Baffin Island is to the southeast, off the map.

That's the twin otter that is making the flight. We're waiting for the fuel truck to show up.

Some buildings on the apron at the Resolute airport.

View of the Resolute airport terminal on takeoff.

My facebook friends among you will recognize this photo of the interior of the plane.

The photo below is my seat. You can see my carry-on stowed safely under the seat in front of me. They are pretty casual with carry-on on these flights. On my first flight to Grise Fiord, I sat beside a man who had a bunch of projectile-worthy vegetables in an open plastic crate sitting on his lap. On this most recent flight I was the only one on the plane, so I could switch sides to take photos.

Photo quality is variable- dirt on the windows and the glare of the sun messes with the colours. On most photos I increased the contrast so you could see the shape of the landscape more easily.

A river on Cornwallis Island, heading to the sea. Looking southeast.

The same river draining out on the coast of Cornwallis Island. Heading out over the frozen water now.

Here's the edge of Devon Island, looking out the northern side of the plane this time.

Some frozen rivers draining to the west.

The Devon Island river below is interesting- it has cliffs on most of it's oxbow bends:

Much of the surface of Devon Island looks like this:

Looking south, coming to the eastern edge of the northern portion of Devon Island (check the map up top, it's a big island), although first there is a fiord that we're passing over:

A river draining out into the mouth of the fiord:

Looking north at the coast of Devon Island (again, eastern edge of the northern lobe of the island):

We've crossed the fiord now, this is looking south again at the last lobe of land before we head out over Jones Sound. I like that massive snow drift at the bottom of the land. There must be a spit of land underneath it.

Frozen surface of Jones Sound:

Iceberg! This one is huge. It's frozen in the ice. It's so far north that bergs don't have time to melt in one season, they get re-frozen into the ice every year.

First view of the southern edge of Ellesmere Island:

It's worth clicking on some of these to see them bigger, the landscape is really beautiful:

Coming up to the south cape of Ellesmere Island:

I don't know what the fiord at the south cape is called, but that's it to the right, around the corner of the cape:

Another massive iceberg:

A view into the last fiord before we come to Grise Fiord:

Coming up to Grise Fiord (the actual fiord, the community is to the east of it):

View up into Grise Fiord:

Same thing but a wider view:

This is the western edge of the fiord. The first settlement of Grise Fiord was at the base of this mountain. They were here for several years before they moved to the present town site.