Ice Fog

This past Tuesday, even by noon, the temperature had reached only -41. This causes ice fog - the weather on my phone made the noise of tinkling ice crystals when I checked to see if had warmed up any - of which I have a marvellous view from my apartment window. Needless to say, indoor recess for the kids across the street pretty well all week!

It can get a little scary if you're driving the ice road in ice fog in the dark, as my sister did to get to work. The road takes a sharp turn when it reaches Dettah - apparently ice roads always begin and end with turns, so that waves generated by entering cars do not run the length of the road - but also continues on 10 kms or so to the fish plant. Not that it wouldn't have been possible to turn around and go back, but the lack of orientation when the whole world is white (and dark at the same time) can be disconcerting. She found the turn safely, I'm glad to say.

REALLY Cold...

Ok, I admit it - today was REALLY cold. I still walked to Javaroma, mind you (well wrapped), and the car started for driving to supper at my sister's, but goodness, was it cold! Trudy and Bill thought today/tonight was the coldest they've experienced in their four years. It's the windchill that meteorologists always talk about so glibly, now experienced first hand. So I checked the weather site - and indeed, it's -32 but feels like -47, with overnight temperatures just a little colder. This weather is supposed to last until the end of the week.

Oh well - dress warm, cover your face, wear the big sheepskin gloves. Walking is still surprisingly pleasant. And today there was a partial sun dog around the sun - not unique to Yellowknife, as I've seen them the odd time in Calgary, too - but very pretty. Apparently Aristotle was the first to have written of sun dogs (see Wikipedia Sun dog) - didn't know it ever got that cold in Greece!

Walk to Tuk'!

 
"I walked to Tuk!" is the slogan of the 2013 Mackenzie River Walking Challenge (slogan from the website pictured on the right). "Form a community, schools and workplaces team," advises the website ( Challenge Homepage), "and together ‘walk the distance’ of the Mackenzie River from Fort Providence to Tuktoyaktuk. Teams have from January 7 – March 4, 2013 to collectively walk a total of 1658 km." The Challenge is organized by NWT Recreation and Parks Association (http://nwtrpa.org/rpa/ ), and sponsored by local businesses, including First Air which has donated a flight to be won by some lucky draw participant.

It's quite a distance, and one a person couldn't do as such, certainly not in winter but not in summer either, although it might be possible to boat it, I suspect (but don't know).

My team - "The Arctic Plodders" - is organized by my sister's friend, librarian Erin. Walking achievement is submitted in time rather than distance. The goal, of course, is health, accepting the premise that activity leads to health and that walking is a great activity. I concur - the walking for my almost daily errands amounts to at least 20-30 minutes, sometimes an hour if I go out several times. I suppose that if one can have something against Yellowknife, it's that everything is so close by it might be difficult to get in the requisite time!

The Challenge seems particularly keen on Nordic walking, and the website shows groups of hardy folk poling steadily on snow-covered paths/roads. I do have some poles (ski poles, but hey), and should dig them out. I've found that walking in the cold - even in the -30s - is really quite pleasant, for the most part, as long as one dresses the part.

Should be fun to track the hours and "walk to Tuk!"

My Mom in Yellowknife

Last fall we (my sister and I) tempted the Canadian winter travel gods by suggesting to my 90-year-old mother she consider spending the Christmas season here rather than in her assisted living apartment in the Niagara Peninsula, her home for the last four years. It took a bit of arranging, but the upshot of it was that she arrived on December 8 and departed on January 6, a period which enabled her to attend my concert, take in a few shows at NACC, "do" Christmas and New Year's with family, and celebrate her 91st birthday on January 4th.

The weather gods smiled benignly (whew!! thank you thank you thank you!!) in Toronto, Calgary, Yellowknife, Edmonton, and Toronto again. It must be said right off that the whole undertaking could not have happened without the wonderful contribution of my son Willem, who ferried his grandmother from her apartment to the airport in December and back again in January, the return trip no small feat since it involved a midnight pickup in Toronto the night before his first class. Thank you Willem!! And the Air Canada staff who saw to my mother's well-being in the various stages of the journey were almost universally uncommonly attentive and kind - thanks to them, as well!

So of course the first thing winter visitors from "the south" almost always require is suitable attire. Note the difference in my mother's outerwear in the first picture (waiting in Calgary airport, where I had gone to meet her), and in the second (Yellowknife, my sister having brought the right clothes to the airport):

The polar bear is iconic and must appear in thousands of photos around the world - not that polar bears are native to Yellowknife, but they are to the arctic parts of the Northwest Territories, and since Yellowknife is the capital, it's legit.

We did many things, considering that the first few weeks were indeed very very cold. One day, after we had spent the previous one only indoors, I suggested a walk, if only a short one, on the flat and relatively sheltered path around Niven Lake. Dressing my mom in windpants, parka, hat, mitts, boots, had us both laughing at the Charlie Brown image it invoked, of his falling down in his winter attire and having to be pushed around by Snoopy. That was certainly what it felt like! but such wear does have the advantage of warmth, which is the ultimate goal. So mom at Niven:

We attended a few events at NACC - Timothy Chooi on the violin, the Bella Dance Academy's delightful performance of the Nutcracker - and of course there was loyal support for my choir concert at St Patrick's Catholic church. Here my sister, my mom, and I after that concert:

Other events were more mundane - comparing grocery prices, for example, which to my mom's chagrin turned out to be cheaper here than where she lives:

But the most important part of the visit - besides giving her an impression of where two of her daughters are living - was family. My niece Laura was up from San Francisco - in the first picture she and mom are at Trudy and Bill's enjoying a bit of advocaat (potent Dutch vodka-laced "pudding"), in the second she is relaxing with Bou, in the third about to open her stocking at our family Christmas "do":

 It was a good visit, all told - and we all agree we'd better not tempt those weather gods again!