[Iqaluit - Day 1] In Search of Winter

Greetings,
Just so that everyone is up to speed on this, I'm currently embarking on a 10-day trip up in the sub-arctic to do some data collection as part of my Master's research. I'll be in Iqaluit during this time and will return to MTL on Nov 5th. Hopefully everyone who reads this will find it as fun to read as it is for me to write it ;)

My day started at 6am today with a rude awakening by a very inconsiderate and noisy alarm clock. I don't remember the last time I had to get up that early but one thing is for sure, I was obviously not ready for an early wake-up call. I stumbled out of bed, ate a fast breakfast, reassured my mom that I will come back in 10 days, and quickly got everything together as I headed out to the airport to catch my flight at 10am.

I underestimated traffic going into the city so after picking up Emma in downtown MTL (because she agreed to take care of my car while I was away, which I'm very thankful for), I got to the airport at around 820am ... which is faster than I antisipated. I ended up with a lot of time to kill while waiting for my flight, especially since there was barely anyone there. Security clearance was swift so I could probably have gotten there at 930 and still catch my flight. Though don't expect me to test this theory any time soon.

My flight had one stop in Kuuiijuaq, a northern Quebec community of about 2200 people near the edge of Ungava Bay. This stop was for about 50 minutes so we were given the option of either getting off the plane or staying on during the 50 minute pit stop but we had to choose one. Of course, I chose to get off the plane and check out the local area around the airport. The actual town was too far for me to walk to but I did manage to get a nice view of the town from the airport. I should say that it was 5C outside but the winds where blusterly at around 35 km/h, making it feel alot colder than it really was. It definitely made landing an interesting ride.

Anyways, after taking a bunch of pictures, I got back on the plane (had to go through security again) and away I was for Iqaluit.

The flight overall was decent and fairly quick. I watched The Matrix during both legs of the flight and I had a nice breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage, hash-browns, fruits, and a muffin. I also had a brownie for a snack (yum!) ... definitely not something you see on Air Canada flights that often, if at all.

It was 1:50pm and my plane finally arrived at Iqaluit, NU ... 20 minutes early!! I was expecting a welcoming committy but all I got was a late visit by William :P (one of the post-docs working with my supervisor). He was on his way back from the Weather Center to the Hotel and the terminal was kinda along the way. I collected my bags and we both went to the Hotel (Capital Suites) where I checked in (I was sharing a room with him during my stay). He brought an XBox with him and there was a decent cable selection, but the internet was mediocre at best, barely passible actually.

After dropping my bags in the room, we both proceeded to North Mart to buy a few things, a northern version of a Wal-Mart with a grocery store. As you would expect, everything up here is insanely expensive (except for baby food, strangely enough). For example, a 2L carton of milk goes for 7.50$ up here. If any of you plan to visit Iqaluit, bring lots of money ... or be a member of RBC or CIBC (the only branches in Iqaluit). I'll give a more in depth opinion of the community after I have properly explored it.

So after our purchases, one of which was a rope which was why William had to leave the Weather Center in the first place, and dropping the other purchases in our room, we then proceeded back to the Weather Center on the opposite side of the airport runway. It was a nice walk, I did manage to get some decent pictures of Iqaluit as we were walking away from the town. It was a 10 minute walk from the hotel and along the way, I saw some Huskies ... they were so cute but I don't think I would approach them without the owner somewhere nearby.

Gabrielle (a MSc.2 student also in my group) was at the Weather Station working on her thesis when we got to the station. She has been in Iqaluit since the beginning of October and she has another 5-6 weeks here before she heads home. She and another grad student, Robyn from U. of Manitoba, were launching weather balloons carrying radiosondes every 3 hours in order to get vertical profiles of the atmosphere. These radiosondes measured the temperature, pressure, and humidity of the atmosphere above as the balloon rised higher into the atmosphere. In fact, I got there just in time for them to launch another one so before I even had a chance to settle in, I took part in the launching of my first weather balloon ... yay! I mainly observed the entire process but it was me who atually released it in the end :D

While I was at the weather station, I was given a quick tour but for the most part, it was all about the weather balloon for the couple hours I was up there ... for me at least. Me and Gabrielle went back to the hotel after an hour after launching the balloon so that we can varify that data was successfully collected for the entire layer of the atmosphere (which was interestingly near saturation for a good 5-6km up from the surface). It was around 5 when we left the station and it was already dark outside, and a tad colder than it was a couple hours earlier. It felt like an early Montreal winter but with more snow on the ground.

Even though it was only 5, the day was done. Me, William, Gabs, and Roibn eventually made it back to our rooms and called it a day. I can't really explore the town in the night so that will have to wait for the next couple of days. And after fighting for a solid couple of hours trying to get the internet to work in my room, I finally got this post up. However, the pictures will take some time to upload (if I can barely get my Gmail to open, I definitely will not try to upload dozens of 2mb pictures). Unfortunately, the pictures may not get uploaded until after I get back to MTL if this keeps up.

More to come tomorrow ...