Snow, ice and light

Yesterday marked 4 weeks since I arrived in Inuvik. Already so much has changed! The sun rises before 7 am and sets just before 11 pm. It has warmed up dramatically, with temperatures now hovering around 0'C.

On Saturday, I went for a snowshoe with Genevieve, another freshly imported allied health professional, a physiotherapist from Quebec. We went across the ice road to one of  the innumerable lakes around town, apply named, "Big Lake." You could go forever! We made good progress on the wind-pressed snow on the lake, but attempts at snowshoeing near the trees were foiled by the dry, dry snow - even with snowshoes I sunk in up to my knees! Coming from a coastal snowpack, I thought this weird, but the snow that falls here stays dry and accumulates throughout the cold winter. That same cold is what allows the ice roads to exist.

Because of the cold, we also have permafrost, the deeper layers of soil that stay frozen all year round. This has presented a challenge in the buildings of structures in Inuvik, as the heat from the buildings risks melting the ice beneath it and compromising the integrity of the construction. The result is that everything is built on pilings driven deep into the ground in the permafrost layer, and buildings sit off the ground to allow cool air to flow beneath them. Here is a particularly dramatic example of an apartment building near my own:

Obviously people have adapted well to the challenges of northern living. Of note, I think that there must be as many snowmobiles as regular vehicles in this town, and with the longer, warmer days, this is the mode of transportation of choice that allows you to explore in any direction that you desire. Soon things will start melting in earnest, the town will become quite soggy, the ice roads to Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik will close, and the ice bridges over the Mackenzie and Peel Rivers will soon be impassable. The Dempster highway will be closed for about a month in May and we too will (temporarily) be a Northern, fly-in community. But for now, it's a wonderful time to be in Inuvik!