Flight from Grise Fiord to Resolute, August 9

The weather was amazing on the flight to Resolute.  There was some local fog, which made the pilots fly in a circle just outside of town to gain altitude quickly, which gave great views of the tops of mountains that usually the plane is below on approach or takeoff.

The next two are of rivers and canyons on Cornwallis Island, as we approached Resolute from north of town.

View from my hotel room in Resolute.

By the time I got out for my walk, the weather had become overcast.  The fuel ship was in town, so I went for a beach walk to have a look at it.

More good photos to come from the flight the next day from Resolute to Ottawa.

August in Grise Fiord: Ice and a cruise ship

I just have a few photos from August in Grise Fiord.

Here are a few of ice that came ashore with the tide on August 2:

On Saturday, August 3, the cruise ship L'Austral came to town.  Here are some of the passengers heading off on a short walking tour.  They are all wearing a coat that has a grab-handle on the back, I guess in case anyone falls overboard on the boats that bring them to shore:

On August 4, the tides were really low, and I took a walk into the bay next to town that had a lot of the bottom exposed that is usually under water.  Here are some photos of the ice that was beached along the shore:

And that is it for my photos, or the interesting ones at least, from August in Grise Fiord.  I got some good pictures on the flight out as well, I'll be back with those soon.

Flight to Grise Fiord

Here are a few photos from my flight from Resolute to Grise Fiord, on July 19.  It was raining and we were flying in and above cloud for most of the trip, but I got a few good photos at the end, as we approached the town.

These last two are from the walk I took that evening:

Grise Fiord again

I'll take a pause from re-living last year's trip to Banff.  I am now in Grise Fiord, I have started working in the arctic again.  I've been away since July of 2016.  Feels good to be back.

For contrast, here is the Rideau River in Ottawa just after takeoff:

Ice between northern Quebec and Baffin Island as we fly north:

The new airport terminal in Iqaluit. It was my first time there, I think they opened it in late 2016 or early 2017:

I liked my lunch on the flight to Resolute.  The chicken club sandwich was great, and the Biscoff cookies and Laura Secord chocolate bar were delicious too.

The plane lands now in Pond Inlet on the way to Resolute.  This view is of a piece of Sirmilik National Park (I think, or close to it if not) as we fly over the north end of Baffin Island:

I ended up stuck in Resolute for a day due to high winds, here is a view from my hotel room on April 26 as I watch the flag on the RCMP detachment flap violently:

Here are a few photos of my flight to Grise from Resolute on April 27.  Here we are crossing the NW lobe of Devon Island:

Grise Fiord, the fiord itself and not the town, as we fly in:

Ice patterns in the tidal zone near shore:

I had around 7 feet of legroom on the plane!  Luxury.  There were only 2 of us on the flight:

Nice clouds as I was out skiing in Grise Fiord on April 30:

More nice clouds while skiing on May 1:

... that's all for now.  I'll update later if I get some more nice weather pics.

Ocean freezing up

Flying out of Grise Fiord a couple of days ago, I took these photos from the plane.  The window was repeatedly frosting up, so these pictures turned out rather well considering they were taken through a layer of frost that I kept scratching at to try to clear.

Here's Grise Fiord (the actual fiord, not the town), with the open water at the mouth of it.  The light is the "golden hour" of evening, even though it's just after noon.  It's only around a week from losing the sun for 3 and a half months, so the days are very short and the sun just scoots across the southern horizon for around 3 hours.  The sunsets are also long and beautiful at this time of the year.

Thin layer of ice, with some thicker pieces that have broken off freezing into it:

I love the patterns that broken ice makes on the ocean:

I loved this pattern, and the way it meets a cloud bank at the top of the photo:

This photo is from my hotel room in Resolute, of the sun setting in early afternoon:

Low tide

A few more photos from low tide, these ones from this evening.

Actually, this first one is from around 1:30 pm, around high tide, for contrast:

Now low tide, or around an hour before it became it's lowest: