Saturday, March 5, 2011

Catchy Slogans For Luah Party

The risks of playing poker in the Arctic (updated with photos)

Hi folks, like traveling all around?

I come back here with another "mini story" about my adventures in the Arctic. This time I have no pictures of me, which I have read are borrowed for as then was not to go taking pictures jijijiji. (I'm still waiting for photos of the storm, so we do not get the hang well on the blog)

all started on Friday morning, because everything was a disastrous sequence of events embarrassing, when to wake up I realize that my phone had no signal, by itself it is no big deal, but here in the north that cell phones when they want to go hehehe.

So I went to work, to find out later that there was no internet as the site where the antennas suffered a breakdown. And the comment was that it would take several days to get ready because a storm was coming and were not able to go to fix it until the weather improved.

So far so good, nothing too serious ... But as you can imagine I'm not going to run out to talk about ... And as we had planned for Jordan, Gabriel and Joan Sebastian (two guys from Montreal who moved does little to Inuvik) going to the cabin to play poker Mo and overnight. I call to Jordan in the evening after work and go to Mo's house to find the bike to go sledding at the cabin at that hour because the wind was very strong and it was snowing plenty to like 3 days because he was with temperatures warm to the Arctic (about 10 degrees below zero) to tell them that on Thursday I was walking in Bermuda because it was cute ...

But we would not allow a small arctic storm stop us so we went to Jordan through an Glen connecting the Mackenzie River to Lake of the airport is where the cabin. I already knew the way and as we were going downwind, everything was great. I was in the new sled bike Mo and Jordan in an older but it goes great. When we reached the lake the wind was very flushed but soon found the cabin, turned on the heat and combine with Jordan it was for me at the entrance to the lake in 1 hour and I was coming back to town to get to the other 2 for take them by truck to Jordan Lake and then took them to the cabin in the bike sled. But there lies the bad because after returning to town and get the truck when he was going to look for the Gurises me stay locked in the snow because the storm did not yield much snow had accumulated on the road and the truck got stuck. After half an hour of digging and gets out and bitching I went to look for the Gurises, by the time we reached the lake the poor Jordan was waiting for us sitting on the sled motor, luckily that was half the repair and that it was very cold (about 15 degrees below zero) and ta, the Gabriel and Sebastian leave to Jordan and went to take the van to get the bike back to sled and returned to the cabin.

The chilled beer for the night

So far, so more or less normal, but remember they still had not fixed the phones or the Internet so everyone was in solitary confinement, the only thing were walking line phones and only local calls. Also worth mentioning is that we could not use credit cards or debit cards and that both the ATM and the bank were not giving cash because they had no access to account information. So the coffee sales were low on Friday and almost nil on Saturday but how could it be otherwise the liquor store was full of people who in one way or another got cash to buy alcohol.

Video of the storm from the road

But back to the hut, after a good night playing poker in which win $ 5. We got ready to sleep, I slept well and continued sucking Gurises beer because of the doubts had been carried 15 liters of beer and a bottle of whiskey (but do not worry about not finishing the whiskey). On Saturday we woke up only to realize that not only the temperature had probably dropped to 25 below zero, but the wind had increased considerably. But after breakfast I went back to Mo's house on the bike to lift the truck sled and stayed with Jordan for the Gurises take to the street in an hour. I returned as well, but note on the way back there was water in the canyon, and with three days of warm temperatures for the arctic water in the creek overflows, but if you're fast enough you spend on the water without problems, now if you just turn off the sled bike, maybe swimming ... jijijiji finish. But nothing happened, grab the truck and went to look for the Gurises. Wait 10 minutes and there appeared to Gabriel Jordan and 10 minutes later with Sebastian.

Jordan while playing poker

I waiting bets

One of the "cans" of beer

Jordan out of the hut

Video of Gabriel and Jordan on the bike triene

Lake Views



Walking in the storm

Gabriel after the bike ride sled

pity that the wind does not appear in the photo

Sebastian after bike ride
sled

Making plans with Jordan

Just in case I told Jordan to be careful in the ravine and that if he saw water to speed up and if an hour was not in the house I was going to Mo go look at the other bike sled. And so we went with Gurises driving, we came home in 15 minutes and sat down to wait for Jordan, but after 35 minutes and he did not come I thought that I'd better go look and find him halfway in case. Since the path of the cottage to the house takes about 15 or 20 minutes depending on the speed at which you go, but with the headwind I thought it would take a little longer to find the Glen Jordan not so familiar with the lake. So I put on my gloves and all my stuff for the snow and went sledding on the bike to look at Jordan, but could not find at the outlet of the valley as expected nor in the canyon, but there was no traces of it had gone through Glen so I imagine that was lost and had returned to the cabin because I was sure he knew to find the cabin. But when it comes to the hut was empty, I find that I have to admit that at that moment I worry a little, but then I realized that perhaps she had gone the wrong way and that there is another canyon that is a little before he had to use and low visibility may I was wrong, and I went to the creek, happy because soon found traces of Jordan sled bike but after a couple of minutes following the tracks, half worried that I was running out of fuel in my bike sled and did not know how far Jordan was gone, I found the bike locked in Jordan sled snow without Jordan in jijijiji. But Jordan could see the traces of which is that he was tired of trying to get the bike sled and had walked to the hut and sure I had not seen snow flying everywhere. But ohhh problem when I went to turn my bike sled has reverse and everything (that of Jordan will not be reversed but smaller and lighter) lockout is me too .... Upssss!!

Another video from the van on the road, the windows are closed and still feel the wind blowing through the vents of the van.

After trying out my bike sled for a couple of minutes and see that it would not accomplish much, I decided to try with Jordan and after cleaning the snow that was before trance All I found was not only snow but there was a entangled in the ski industry that prevented the sled motor to move, after breaking the Olympic left branch of the canyon and walked towards the hut, leaving behind my bike sled waiting for Jordan to find what we were going to find.

Leaving the canyon, I decided to follow in the footsteps of Jordan to make sure if it was in the cabin I would find the road. But I did not even 100 meters above the lake jijiji lost tracks, so as a tracker would starve me, but using my common sense and logic I decided to stay close to the coast and I assumed that Jordan would have done the same to locate the cabin. And after a few minutes walk blindly and looking around to see if it was to Jordan, I see on the shore waving his arms waving at me. And I went out there. When she came to Jordan told me that this pain and asked if had hurt or what had happened but it turned out that what had happened was that he did not have snow boots, his feet had cooled while it was freezing and it hurt, I tell him that the fact that they hurt the feet was good news because after a long time in the cold do not feel anything and that means we are freezing the tissues.

I told him to pick up the bike sled and go to the cabin I stood in a little while but I told him very sore foot and could not handle, so we got the two and go out, me trying to get to Jordan with my left hand because the poor would be jumping on the back and trying to manage and accelerate with your right hand. To not make it easy, the wind was on its side and the snow flying everywhere, so the ground was uneven all because there were parts where the snow was loose and we were sinking, and parts where it was tight and we jumped and as a last detail, to control the bike sleds must use your body weight and the weight of Jordan died back and I was out of balance to make sure not to lose to Jordan in a jump, the poor bike was half sled jijiji Side. But came to the hut, climb the small hill on which is the entrance and Jordan sat in front of the stove, you pull the boots and I made sure I had feeling in their feet, had a lot of snow on the boots and socks but still had feeling and movement so I stayed quiet.

I instructed to stay in the cabin no matter how much we take to re-look the storm because I imagined that we would take, plus we still had no phones which did not help to warn that were waiting in Gurises the truck and I figured by now they would be getting nervous.

So the clothes suit me and went back towards the town again in moto sled reaches the canyon and I remembered the water in the canal so I had the bright idea of \u200b\u200busing a road that goes over the river, and is in the woods for what I thought would be protected from the wind, but how could it be otherwise, I'm wrong, but there was less wind on the lake, the wind was blowing but rather out and had lots of snow on the road, but I was being pretty good, staying on course and making good average speed, but about halfway through a jump grip side and went off the road, but after 10 minutes of digging in the Snow and cinched with moto sled pull it out and went but after 100 or 200 meters way I dam again, this time much worse because I not only got off the track, but the sled bike sideways and stay near some trees that would be more difficult to remove. After a few minutes digging gets it right but at that moment I turn off the engine and do not achieve reboot. I figured it was because they had been on its side for a long time and had flooded the engine but had no idea how long I needed to work again or if it would restart without doing something mechanically. So after a few seconds thinking about what direction to go, I decided to leave towards the town, and I was going to take more or less the same time and at least they could tell that Jordan was well and had no trouble.

But I remember a couple of details, first to the village was to walk against the wind, second as he had seen there would be snow on the road which would make it difficult and slow walking and third that I was going to get tired as they were about 5 kms away to the village.

As soon as I started walking, I found that I was buried up above the knee in the snow, which does not help much, but I kept walking nomas stubborn, but when I was burying almost to the waist I had to change tactics because not only was I tired very quickly but was not moving all that much, so I started to crawl, distributing and managing my weight and stay on the snow instead of sinking both. While not very fast unless it is so exhausting and ended up being more efficient than walking, and luckily the road is easy to follow and I know it is where we ski with Louise and Mo to go to the cabin, into pieces so that there was so much snow, walking and the crawl was more complicated.

should be clear that the wind was blowing, and I was not too cold we say so I was not worried about the cold, but if it was hot that everyone would ask where we were and that I was the only one who knew that we were all well but could not go faster than it already was doing. After an hour and a half walking you reach the first lake, which was a good sign because I knew that was not far to reach the Arctic Chalet which is where Louise worked and where I know the owners to use the phone but the problem was that the lake had no objection and the winds were quite strong, and the snow flew furiously against my face so I could not look ahead to see where he was, thanks to God in the lake are markers para los caminos que hacen para los trineos de perros y a pesar de que están a unos 20 metros de distancia de cada uno, no podía ver el siguiente marcador hasta no estar a unos 10 metros, pero dos por tres encontraba un sorete de perro para saber que estaba en el camino compactado y así entre soretes congelados y marcadores en el camino fui lo más derecho posible, igual no estaba preocupado porque sabía que tenía que ir hasta el final del lago antes de encontrar la salida, pero con el viento tan fuerte en más de una ocasión me encontré caminando para atrás porque mi campera es bastante grande y me embolsaba el viento.

Termine el primer lago, cruce hasta el siguiente lago, pero con nuevas energías because there I could see the Arctic Chalet houses, and when he was coming I met Anna one that works there and ask me, What are you doing walking around here with this storm? And I told him briefly what had happened and asked to use the phone. Hence call Mo stationery and told him what had happened and then I found out that Sebastian had gone to the police to make the claim that we were lost. So I call them to tell Mo that we were all well, while I went to Mo's house is there cerquita to wait until I go to look for, from there we went to coffee and a couple of hours after police went to Jordan to look for cottage. Cuando lo encontraron Jordan estaba nervioso porque hacia como 5 horas que yo lo había dejado ahí, pero ya se imaginaba que iba a pasar la noche en la cabaña y se estaba cocinando un poco de arroz jijiji. Por lo que me conto, le llevo un par de horas para secar toda la ropa y sacara la nieve de adentro de las botas, pero tras una buena siesta había entrado en calor, pero el celular se le había quedado sin batería y había perdido la noción del tiempo así que eso no había ayudado mucho y cuando vio a la policía aparecer para buscarlo pensó lo peor.

Lo gracioso de todo esto es que al mismo tiempo que la policía fue a buscar a Jordan, el hijo de Debbie was on his motorbike to the road luge lake where I take a friend of him, because they were going to go get one of the sleds bike since both know the area very well and know how to ride a bike better sled As soon as they walk and had heard of my adventures after laughing at me for a while, decided to come to the rescue, so passing to go get the bike sled went through the cabin and came while the police .

At the end of the day with Jordan on the way to town, and Jake Roald rescuing the sled motor, Gabriel and Sebastian at home reassured that we were all good, the coffee truck that I was not because he had completed the battery, I was drinking tea with Mo, telling it the day when they call us by phone, turned Roald's father had been caught up in the snow on the way to Mo's house, so we had to go to the rescue once again, at that moment came with the bike Gurises sled and we all went there, but was so buried we had to use a backhoe to step through the route to get the car. But in the end we all alive and happy.

As

count weekend Jordan and I spent 3 days with muscle pain by physical effort, so let have to get our act together and recover physically, Jordan's girlfriend is still angry with him because apparently we did was very smart, Gabriel and Sebastian are just fine, Roald and Jake gave me a video on Sunday of how to get moto snow sled, Jordan also is prohibited from returning to the cabin at least, for several weeks, thank god Mo is a genius and not be angry because leaves 2 moto sled in the middle of the storm.

Charter Gabriel left after waiting for nearly two hours in a small room in the house frozen Mo says "4:20 pm, Hey, is Gabriele. Very cold. Walking into the Arctic Chalet. I have not seen the Gurises. Travel with them from there or call someone. John, Jordan, I hope to god you are well. Sebastian went looking for help with the truck. GB "The funny part is that I leave this letter in a small room that nobody ever goes and the only reason we find it is because we went looking for a rope to help the car was locked. Jijiji.

Video of how Roald sack the second moto snow sled, this is the next day and real-time were 30 miutes

Our adventures out on the radio and local newspaper reporting of police.

And as moral, if you go to bet in the Arctic, have to be willing to pay the consequences, but I happy because at the end of the day I win $ 5

jjijijij

Thanks for reading

Juan

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Desserts To Make In Advance

Tuktoyaktuk

Well after weeks of little time to sit down and write on the blog post here I return with a shortie but with many photos, as they Like a vague sleeve you do not want to read.

turns out that since mid-December ice opened the route that connects Inuvik to Tucktoyaktuk which is another native community still further north to Inuvik, but which can only be reached by driving through the winter. When the Mackenzie River freezes enough to handle. When they open the route is relatively safe although it is better to wait a couple more weeks to be safe and that's what we did we waited until mid-January to go visit the nearby community.

Please

Mo's van and we went there. Phil, Jordan, Louise, and I Pinette. I driver, never seen a Uruguayan driving on ice route, much less a danger behind the wheel as I jijijiji. So after stack all the arctic jackets for girls are nothing more than the Backpacks more food for lunch and we thought spending the day in Tuk (as affectionately call this community), we fasten our seatbelts and exit. Some 200 km away but as none of us had much idea of \u200b\u200bwhat conditions were the route I decided not exceed 60/70 km / h in case. So after about 3 hours driving in the dark since that time there were only about 20 minutes of sun per day and 5 hours of clarity we Tuk.

Ice Route

Reaching
Tuk

The 5 brave (Phill, Louise, Pinette, Me and Jordan)

is a very small town, about 900 people live there year round. There are two supermarkets, a small school and not much else.

Dog in the Arctic, the best picture to describe the loneliness of the place ...

Omnibus in Tuk (oh so it seemed)

Louise Jordan and Tuk

Phill in Tuk

Yo Tuk

Jordan and Pinette


As good tourists we are, we went to the route marker trans Canada as it is the northernmost point that reaches the route. And from there we went to walk around the Arctic Ocean. Although it had to be careful because some cracks are very deep but they were covered with snow capita than invisible to the naked eye. I messed up when I was back in for a picture. But no one was hurt.

Phil, Louise, Jordan and Pinette on the scoreboard but the route north of Trans Canada

Finding cracks in the frozen ocean jijij

After Louise and I decided we'd go swimming in the Arctic, so it was that the trip was organized at the beginning, we started to walk out to sea But after about 200 or 300 meters, we gave up and we were not going to find water for several tens of kilometers at least, and not, was not to make a hole first because we had to do and secondly because there must be at at least a couple of feet of ice on the surface. But we were not Tuk go without trying at least so in a fit of madness, we stayed in mesh and short respectively bathroom and pretend we were floating in the water or sunbathing. Same all lasted less than a minute because we had to dress quickie to die of cold not, maybe in the summer I can dip into other ocean more.

Phil, Louise, Pinette and Jordan sitting in the port of Tuk

We reached the Arctic ocean

water

Looking

well here we go swimming

no water but happy to be there

After our walk through the waters of the Arctic Ocean, went to the city where we walked almost every street, you see in the pictures the houses suffer from constant lashing wind and conditions are pretty brutal, that day was about 40 degrees below zero, we found the remains of the first 2 Tuk buildings, which are a kind of huts, also visited the boat they used for years to transport children to school. We walked on a pingo, which is a unique formation of the Arctic and Tuk area is the richest in these formations, basically are a kind of ice volcano but no lava. The tectonic plates forced the frozen layers of soil and create small holes in the middle hills, but over time the wind and the snow so eroded leaving no visible opening round.

From the top of the pingo

Some pingos that are near Tuk

Buildings Tuk oldest

So are all the houses in Tuk, ice and snow covered

Barco, Our Lady of Lourdes

freezer also visited the Village, if you happen by 1930 decided to create a freezer for the summer to which I dig a hole in the ground to reach the layers that never melted and created a series of tunnels and chambers where people could put meat in the summer so that insects do not ruin or take to lose. The constant temperature is 20 degrees below zero and the truth that when we entered the freezer felt like a comfortable temperature as they were 20 degrees hotter than outside and there was no wind. Is reached via a staircase that descends about 10 feet to the layer of ice and sand which is the basis of this area and also the reason why all the buildings have no foundations and that the movements of the different strata ice and sand are constant. And there will be 3 tunnels of about 1.20 meters high and 1 meter wide. And these tunnels are no doors to enter the small chambers where people can put their meat and lock the door for safety. The woman who allowed us access to the freezer told us today is very few people still used because it is easier to have a conventional freezer at home or put it in a galponcito in the back of the house during the winter. So many doors were open and empty chambers, but we found a camera that had what looked like a seal skin and frozen geese. But most wonderful of all were the crystals that covered the ceiling of the chambers of the tunnel, we were enthralled by them and not get tired of taking pictures of them but I do not think we captivated the wonder of the show in the pictures ...

The entrance to the freezer

Lowering the freezer

We're all (Pinette, Louise, Phill)


The Tunnels


permanent ice layers (layers of ice and sand)


different chambers in the freezer

The
sealskin
Arctic Goose

glass roof

Louise, Pinette, Phil and Jordan in one of the cameras

Jordan and Louise

Each one sports such as

As I said, the views of the crystals were to look at them for hours

After the visit in the Freezer, we picked one that had igloos done the day before the festival welcoming the sun. Which if I may say it was not easy because the igloos were covered with snow and the white background of the frozen ocean is difficult to locate but we found one and we got the truth that while it is an ice house, again to be protected from the wind felt the difference in temperature and the small opening is the door creates a kind of camera you maintain an average temperature. The truth that looked very nice as in the joints of the blocks of ice you could see the light of day and gave a very charming, but really do not know if an igloo home.

The igloo, seen from outside

seen from inside the igloo

in the Iglu

I

Jordan, Phill, Pinette, Louise in the Iglu

out of Iglu

I

Jordan out of Iglu

out of the iglu Phill

Louise out of Iglu

Louise Leaving

Iglu of


Before we went back to the supermarket, where we ask to use the bathroom and we were amazed with the prices of food, which explains the continuing exodus of people from Tuk to Inuvik in winter to buy food at the super in Inuvik and that food is not very cheap to say.

The images speak for themselves

With $ 30 in fruit on the hands ....

And ta, that's the end Tuk, fue un gran día y con más confianza al regresar manejando a 100 km/h regresamos en un poco más de dos horas pero todos sanos y salvos y muy contentos con la experiencia.

Ahora estamos esperando unos días más para ir a Aklavik, otra comunidad que está a mitad de camino entre Inuvik y Tuk, que es más pequeña aun pero que esta al pie de las montañas así que las vistas del delta deben de ser muy lindas, pero para eso habrá que esperar.

Gracias por leer

Juan