Otto Sverdrup Expedition

The coming week sees a changing of the guard. Keri and Greg will remain in Hourglass Bay to keep vigil on the well-being of Northanger - as we enter the critical period around break up of the ice. On Wednesday they'll help Graeme hike out to Cape Storm over the eastern ridge of the Bay to catch a plane en route from Grise Fiord to Resolute Bay. The same plane will bring in French mountain guide, Etienne Souille. Etienne, like Mike Sharp who comes into Hourglass Bay next month, is also a sailor; no doubt Keri and Greg will be most glad of that sort of company in the days to come!

Here in the Bay itself, it's a tale of wind and water. From atop the ridge where we welcomed the returning sun a few months ago, we see more open water on Jones Sound than ever before; it stretches right across the mouth of Hourglass Bay; icebergs float by with tidal currents. The inner Bay is flooding with the higher water but the ice is still very good and dry for travel at low tide. Our resident small herd of muskoxen is evidently quite content amidst the eruption of willow and saxifrage up the valley. Common eiders and geese have joined gulls in winging around these parts. And, as usual, it's very windy in Hourglass Bay - sustained 20-30 knots from the SE for the better part of the last week! And, lastly, for Canada Day..Ellesmere's first rain of the millennium!

Keri, Greg, and I left Hourglass Bay last week for a sledge & ski trip to Muskox Fiord to the immediate east. When we left there was a touch of winter still on the land. Even though Northanger had started to float gently (ahead of schedule) in a melt pool of her own making, she still had to be chipped out a little bit at the beginning of each day to free her completely from the grip of ice. This was a pale and now pleasant reminder of gruelling and much colder winter hours pounding away with the chisels; I'm not sure Greg, the Crown Prince of the Order of Holy Chiselers, has quite recovered yet from overuse tendonitis. When we left Hourglass Bay last week, there was just a suggestion of melting on the ice surface. The melt was more advanced on land; it began to be challenging to find a route from the shore hut to Northanger when pulling gear in our sleds - in keeping to diminishing ribbons of the white stuff until on the bay ice itself.

Six days later we have floated more than skied into a fully transformed bay. The outer bay is at least 50% covered by slightly brackish water about 5 cm deep. In the inner bay, the conditions are a little less advanced but the area around Northanger is quite treacherous; the snowdrifts laid down by winter's storms are quickly softening into a deep and unpleasant porridge. Souvenirs left by now departed canines Bamse and Yukon emerge to enrich the batter. The land is more brown than white. Here and there, especially in the flats seaward from the hut, there are variegated green patches, signatures of new life. Snow buntings have been joined by gulls and wading birds such as Baird's sandpiper. Above all there is the sound of running water! It's funny how the sound itself - not the taste or the sight of it - is so riveting for us. It is a musical affirmation of the end of winter. No more snow building up, no further threat of spindrift quickly undoing the travails of shovelling. Strange also that I miss those exigencies of what was certainly a harder life...

In between the end of winter and this now established summer, we spent a few days in and around Muskox Fiord. We set out about 8 pm one evening and found our way through scattered pressure ice along the Jones Sound coast en route to the impressive razor back feature named by Otto Sverdrup, Little Storm Cape. Here we camped at 4 am and set a pattern of travelling during the "evening" hours when the lower sun permitted the surface to harden up a bit. This Cape was an island after the the last major glaciation about 10,000 years ago. The land was then released from the tremendous pressure of ice and rebounded like a slow motion spring - but at the impressive initial rate of up to 4 cm per year. Eventually the island became a peninsula. The rebound has slowed dramatically but one can find seashells at considerable heights above the current sea level. This legible geological history is accompanied by fascinating human elements. At this headland we encountered many testaments to a strong Thule culture which flourished some centuries ago: fox traps, winter houses, rocks arranged to hold their kayaks, a gravesite, and a bear trap. Following the common box-type of foxtrap, the design beckoned a bear to enter a rock cavity with a ceiling tapered lower and lower towards a morcel of food at the rear. The bear's pulling at the bait attached to sinewy thread released a slab rock to fall into a perfectly contoured slot at the front of the trap. The bear was imprisoned in the trap in a poor position to create sufficient force to burst out of the heavy construction. He was dispatched by spear.

At one nearby headland in 1902, Otto Sverdrup's men reconfigured a stone foxtrap into a cairn. There they left a note and map describing the situation of Fram in Goose Fiord to the west. Fram had not been able to extricate herself from the ice there after the winter of 1900-01 and Sverdrup was anxious to leave some indication of the whereabouts of the Expedition, then into its fourth year. In the event, he was successful in sailing back to Norway to wide acclaim later that year. His cairn note was picked up by Sgt. Joy of the R.C.M.P. travelling with the Inuk Nookapingwa in early spring 1926. Joy left his note in a rolled canvas pack inside a Mason canning jar. My wife Lynda and I came across that note in 1995. The jar top had rusted away and the note packet was lying exposed to the elements in a rock crevice below the cairn. The note has since been properly preserved and archived. The ruins of Sverdrup's cairn, the original foxtrap rocks with long geological and human histories, are still very evident at the outermost point of land on this cape. Our own pace was entirely leisurely in contrast to the pressed schedule necessary on our earlier trip to Axel Heiberg Island - and as befits much gentler weather.

We had hardly had time to unpack our sleds back in Hourglass Bay before a flurry of decidedly more modern human activity unfolded. Our friends Michael, Seeglook, and Parry arrived by snowmachine from Grise Fiord to visit for a last time before the ice becomes impassable due to meltwater and leads - fissured gaps in the ice presaging break-up. A Twin Otter plane landed shortly afterwards on our last run of useful bare ice. We were fortunate to be able to send out some of our empty fuel drums and borrowed supplies with the plane, which was on its way back to the charter "hub" of Resolute Bay from the meterological station of Eureka at 80 degrees north. Now it's very quiet in the Bay again and wetter by the hour. We've hauled the small boats out of storage in the hut. Summer begins, our fourth arctic season.

Graeme Magor here - back in Hourglass Bay after almost seven weeks on the sledging trail. Guldborg, Lars, and I left still frozen Northanger on April 12 in the company of Greenland dogs Bamse and Yukon. It was hard indeed to turn my back on everything which had become so familiar in lightness and in dark for much of the past year - and harder still to separate from Lynda and Keziah for some months to come after a wonderful winter of family togetherness.

We had been concerned about how we would regulate our different abilities and tempos while sledging. We came up with an approach which is both old and new. When open terrain allowed all 5 of us would hitch up to our 3 sleds connected in convoy style, pulled as a train. We adopted the fan hitch system used by dogteams in the eastern arctic. It's actually quite efficient in that there is always someone - canine or human - pulling at the traces at any given moment in time so that forward momentum is never lost. Despite a total load weight at the outset of close to 350 kg, we were able to knock off about 20 km per day on good surfaces - and this in about 6.5 hours of hauling. Temperatures were quite tolerable, never lower than the mid minus 20's, and for only part of one day were we confined to the tent by poor weather.

We passed by Sverdrup's two final wintering sites (1900-1902) in Goose Fiord, followed his old trail across the low pass at Nordstrand, and then lived and travelled for the entire next week out on the sea ice as we continued across Norwegian Bay towards Axel Heiberg Island.

There were so many bear tracks at our landfall at Hyperite Point that we mounted a watch by rotation throughout our sleeping period. Of course no bears showed up for our efforts. They had the good sense to wait until we were well on our way up Wolf Fiord and believing ourselves to be out of likely range. In the middle of the bright night, Yukon barked once, then again and we were up in our bags in short order. Indeed a young bear, a 2 year old in its first year alone was about 40 meters from the tent and coming in warily. He did not appreciate our salutations of scare cartridges and pot bangers. It was, however, some time before we convinced him to move along and down the fiord in search of a less bizarre species of prey.

This was the first in a series of remarkable encounters with wildlife on this seldom travelled island. We had visits in camp from wolves and Peary caribou. Along the way we met muskoxen, foxes, and hares. The cheerful and ubiquitous snow bunting made its musical appearance on cue at the beginning of May. We saw few other birds with the remarkable exception of a snowy owl - this species apparently about to have a good breeding year with lemmings in the high part of their population cycle.

We travelled mountain corridors lined with crevassed glaciers and, from a base camp within the Princess Margaret Range, ascended just one of many unclimbed alpine spires. This is Canada directly north of Winnipeg!

Not all was fun and games; we wallowed in the white stuff at times and, at others, could find none when when we badly needed it. We dueled with canyons and icefalls from glacier toes. Bamse lives to pull. Yukon isn't so sure that's all there is to life. Neither can ever have enough to eat. We had enough food but still lost weight.

Throughout the length of the island we took soil samples for micro-organism analysis back in Ottawa and collected Peary caribou fecal specimens; examination of these will provide some information on the feeding habits of this endangered sub-species in the more remote parts of its range.

Ahead of schedule we reached Sverdrup's furthest north dating from the same month of May, 100 years earlier. Here at Bukken Fiord, he claimed this land for Norway. His sovereignty document, corked in a cognac flask, still lies undiscovered here - this despite our best efforts to reconstruct his sledge journey and to locate his cairn. Both starting and ending where he did a century earlier, however, we saw an unchanged arctic and felt the same awe he expressed.

Back in Hourglass Bay, it's shaping up as a late year. So far the snow cover is almost complete on the land and the temperatures are still getting to double digit minuses with summer solstice not far off. Still waiting to see the first purple saxifrage emerge from a snow patch. Stay tuned for reports of spring - and for images from the sledging journey!

What a week it has been! The entire team has been caught up in a relentless roller coaster ride of weather problems!

The Axel Heiberg Island sledding team completed their journey on Monday, reaching Bukken Fiord in enough time to have a good look around for the mysterious cairn left by Sverdrup 100 years ago. They had no luck in locating the cairn. As Thursday approached the team prepared for the scheduled flight pick up in Bukken Fiord. There were problems with weather in Resolute Bay, where the plane would take off from, as well as other problems in Hourglass Bay, so a delay ensued.

Keri & Greg had returned to Grise Fiord from a not too rewarding fishing derby on Devon Island with their hosts, RCMP officer Debra Morris & her husband Parry. They had planned to return to Hourglass Bay immediately to facilitate the sledding party landing there. Weather, in the form of a massive blizzard carrying winds of up to 100km/hr also encroached upon their plans & they were put into a holding pattern for several days. As weather improved elsewhere, it began to deteriorate up at Axel Heiberg Island, disallowing clearance for the plane to land there...more waiting!

In itself, this situation would not have been such a bad thing...for to be "stuck" in a beautiful location as Axel Heiberg Island such as they were, was no big problem for the sledding team. To be stuck without food began to be a problem!! The sledding team had used all but a small portion of their food rations & were having to share with team dogs, Bamse & Yukon as well since their food had been used up. Things can deteriorate rather quickly in the Arctic when food & fuel are not available to human beings!!

It was with great relief that weather eventually cleared in both Resolute & Axel Heiberg Island to allow the flight to pick up the hungry sledding team late Saturday evening. The question remained as to whether they would be able to land in Hourglass Bay. Keri & Greg had finally departed Grise Fiord at 2pm Saturday, allowing barely enough time to arrive in Hourglass Bay to assist the pilot with putting out landing markers. En route to Hourglass Bay an HF radio contact with Greg confirmed that they had run into white out conditions & dangerous open water leads, making travel unsafe. They turned back to Grise Fiord & would not be available for assistance in Hourglass Bay.

The pilot flew over Hourglass Bay to have a look, but the light was not good (even with 24 hr. sun light) & he deemed a landing too risky. The deflated sledding team, while feeling quite "lucky to be alive" (to quote Bob Dylan), flew on to Resolute without their belongings & Graeme with new problems to face in returning to Hourglass Bay somehow!!

The north continues to hold its grip on human endeavors despite our careful logistical planning!! At time of reporting I am happy to say that Graeme has made his way back to Hourglass Bay with Keri & Greg by snowmobile & qomatik after flying into Grise Fiord on Sunday afternoon.

We bid a fond farewell to our Norwegian team mates at this point in our year long expedition as they will head home to Norway after a brief stay in Ottawa. It has been the journey of a lifetime for all of us & I am sure the remaining team of 3 in Hourglass Bay will miss their presence as well as our team dogs, Bamse & Yukon.

Tune in again to find out the conditions the team has "come home" to in Hourglass Bay!

The Sverdrup Team has been on the move! The sledding team have, of course been steadily progressing towards Bukken Fiord, their final destination, while other team members take different transport methods!

The sledding team had 140km to go to Sluttvarden (meaning "end cairn") which is the location in which they hope to find Otto Sverdrup's "last cairn" containing the claim to Axel Heiberg Island for Norway. They have experienced a week of grey skies, making solar charging for the satellite phone difficult. The snow cover has been good & in fact deep at times, but never impassable. As of Friday May 19th, they were in Bals Fiord (80 20N / 95 26 W) having had to turn back on their first attempt through a pass a find another route due to a glacier which was too difficult to manoevre around. Some "technical" sledding ensued never the less, as they encountered an ice fall where they had to lower sleds by ropes to get by. They are now firmly on sea ice & will travel this way en route to Bukken Fiord some 70 km away yet. The reward for two days of tough sledding was the sighting of a snowy owl, one of the only arctic wildlife not yet seen on the trip!

May 17th was Norwegian Constitution Day & the celebrations could likely be deemed as the most northerly of any Norwegian at that latitude! The team had been supplied with a small quantity of "Aquavit" the libation of choice for toasting this celebratory day, & thus drank a toast to Norway on the eve of May 16th as is tradition! On the 17th there was a special scrambled eggs breakfast & of course the Norwegian flag flying proudly on sleds through out the day's "parade" festivities. Graeme reports that he has yet to hear the obligatory speech which is so well known on this day! Perhaps we can all wait for a written version of the "state of the nation" speech from our Norwegian team mates once they return!

While the team presses on, Keziah & I are finally settling in at home in Markdale! We flew from Victoria to Toronto on Monday, meeting up with Keziah's best friend Clark & his mom Cathy (Lynda's "best friend!"). Being home has been great so far, despite tackling the odd "glich" in the system! We have met our adopted pet deer who seems to have arrived a few months ago! The cats are understandibly traumatized by Keziah's exuberant presence in their lives again, but they will adjust! It has been a long time since we have had this much space to live in & it is a strange feeling indeed! We look forward to Graeme's arrival to complete our family home!

Keri & Greg are also on the move this weekend! They were due to head off on snow mobiles with Grise Fiord residents, Deb Morris & her husband Parry to try their hand at a fishing derby on Devon Island! With Northanger having been dug out from the heavy snow surrounding her, the two skippers were ready for a break from their "Hourglass Bay vigil" ! We await their "big fish" stories next week!

The sledding team are situated on the Triangle Penninsula at 79 22N / 93 07W. They will now begin a crossing of the Triangle Penninsula en route to a series of 3 overland passes which will take them into the area of Bukken Fiord...the final destination!

As they begin to move ahead towards the first pass, the team is experiencing much deeper snow. This has forced them to change their formation of a 3person, 3 sled fan, to a single person hauling system to allow the lead person to "trail blaze" for the 2 sleds following, making it somewhat easier. The weather has been quite variable for the team, with light squalls at times & clearing for periods of time.

Evidence of wolves in the area has been vivid, with a discovery of a caribou kill on the ice by Bamse & Yukon! The two sled dogs were apparently "beside themselves" in their discovery of this raw act of nature! The team took scientific samplings of the remains of the caribou which will hopefully be useful in further determining the habits of this species on Axel Heiberg Island.

The team is doing well & have actually been making contact with a team of researchers doing work in Expedition Fiord nearby. They took some time to wait for the researchers to ski out onto the ice for a short visit at the mouth of Expedition Fiord. A "tea party" on the ice was enjoyed by all!!

The team has made their way down into Strand Fiord (79 13N / 91 40W) but not without some tricky manuevering! The snow cover proved to challenge the team's ability to find areas with enough snow for the sleds to pass over as they travelled towards Strand Fiord. Consequently, for 2 days the snow for water supply was very much on the silty & dirt filled side of things! Yuk! Thankfully as they drew closer to Strand Fiord & sea level the snow cover increased, making travel & water consumption much more pleasant!!

On the wildlife scene, the team was visited on Friday night by a wolf howling away about 100m from the tent, on the ice foot! Bamse & Yukon were mostly perplexed by the visiting songster & only whimpered quietly!!

Certainly a rare opportunity as wolves are not known to make themselves seen to humans very often! Other sightings include an arctic fox, still in his winter white coat. A snow bunting sang out as the team moved onto the ice in Strand Fiord, welcoming them to spring & the west coast of Axel Heiberg Island!

To their surprise, the team also found about 100 icebergs all over Strand Fiord! This area is not fed by more than one glacier, so it was not expected that there would be many icebergs. Not so, this year! The theories are flying as to where the icebergs have come from!!

As they continue on, the team will head across Expedition Fiord towards Middle Fiord where they will make their way back onto another pass. The temperatures are warming up with lows of -18 & highs of -7, so the team hopes they will have enough snow cover to make the trip across the next pass!! They are certainly not experiencing the problems Keri & Greg had earlier this week when they were forced to abandon their trek due to deep snow! The two mariners are back at Northanger in Hourglass Bay, still miredin deep snow...digging the boat out!!

To Lars & Guldborg's delight, the team has spotted 3 different herds of muskoxen, one with 17adults & 3 calves. There have also been wolf, hare & lemming tracks in the areas they have travelled. It seems fitting that Otto Sverdrup named the area Wolf Fiord even 100 years later! They also saw some caribou & collected stool samples for analysis of their diet. Indeed a wildlife feast for the eyes! For certain all of the camera equipment has been getting a good workout!

As the team heads off on a 40km down hill segment of the journey towards Strand Fiord they have made some adjustments to keep things moving along. Yukon had been having difficulty with ice balls between his toes, which was causing the team to stop regularly for this to be taken care of. Graeme has stepped in as the local vet & clipped the hair around the toes to prevent this from reoccuring. Tune in again on the weekend to see how Yukon & the team are doing as the continue their journey to the west side of Axel Heiberg Island.

With the use of special noise maker pistols the team managed to perplex the young bear enough that he apparently opted for marine fare in his diet as opposed to land mammals! After such a jolt to the morning routine, the team decided they may as well get up & move on, thus allowing them to quite naturally start to change their days & nights around now that the sun is up all of the time! You could say they "let nature take its course" but that might seem too close to a pun!!

Progress continues to be quick for the three person sledding team, still making 17-18km per day! They did pause over the Easter weekend to celebrate both the Norwegian way, on the eve of Easter Sunday & the Canadian way on the day of Easter. The team had a good supply of chocolate easter eggs on hand for both celebrations, so their sugar levels didn't suffer!! The BIG celebration was Guldborg's 30th Birthday, which just happened to fall on Easter Sunday as well! It is a miracle they got going sledding at all on this "party day"!

It is just over a week since Graeme, Lars and Guldborg left on their sledging journey, heading north towards Axel Heiberg Island and just under a week since Lynda and Keziah left, pulling away in a box tied on top of a qomatiq, or sled (pulled along by skidoo). Only Greg and I were left and everything took on an eerie silence and sense of enormity. Everything felt bigger, the boat, the hut, the bay. The feeling didn't last for long. Four snowmobiles, each trailing a qomatiq filled with camping gear and teenagers, pulled up next to the boat, their images swirling in and out of the driving snow of a ground blizzard. The Grise Fiord school field trip had arrived. Driving one of the sled pulling snowmobiles was Micheal Shea, the junior high school teacher from Canada's northern most community, Grise Fiord. He had teamed up with Seeglook Akeeagok, the Wildlife Officer for the area, who was coming to Hourglass Bay to pick up Greg & I and bring us to Grise Fiord where we had planned to begin a sledging trip to the nearby fiords. Debra Morris, the local R.C.M.P. Officer and her friend, Paula, who was visiting from Resolute, commanded the two other snowmobiles. And then there were the kids. Nine curious teenagers from Michael's class who have been hearing snippets about this sailboat frozen into the ice 100 miles or so to the west of their homes. Jimmy, Brian, April, Jane, Rhoda, Frankie, Russel, Robbie and Randy exploded outwards from two of the qomatiqs and headed straight for the boat. Clad in sealskin boats and pants, some wearing cariboo parkas and each boy sporting a baseball cap, they descended the ladder into the boat. All gear was filed down the hallway to the bow to dry and the kids were squeezed around the salon table and plied with welcome hot chocolates. With 15 for dinner, I needed help and while the others helped to set up camp, Frank eagerly volunteered (this was of course after the explanation that everyone shared all duties aboard and that whoever cooked, didn't have to do dishes). A feast was concocted of creamed chicken with mashed potatoes and baby corn on the side. It was a grand success and a record number of people were served dinner on Northanger. It was the record number of teenagers aboard too! Sleeping arrangements were organized between the hut, boat and two tents and during the evening, we were well entertained by everyone's enthusiasm, their antics, jokes and songs, including a sample of Inuit throat singing by Jane.

We left Hourglass Bay the next day. A frantic morning of last minute packing ensued before we were able to load up the qomatiqs with all of our gear before closing down the hut and the boat. Our world changed in an instant. One minute we were in the familiar surroundings of our bay that we had been in since August, and then we were gone, the boat fading into a pinpoint and then nothing. Actually everything faded into nothing as the last image we saw was the serrated peninsula of Little Storm Cape before a whiteout enveloped the train of snowmobiles and qomatiqs. I was riding with Debra on her machine and Greg was plunked on the qomatiq with Russel and Randy. For six or seven hours, our only view was the occasional iceberg frozen into the sea ice, the jumbled ice caused from the strong currents and shallow patches, and the snowmobiles in front of us and behind us. Using GPS to navigate, Seeglook led the way, stopping from time to time for a hot drink or pit stop. Then, as if preplanned, the fog cleared and land appeared. And then we arrived in civilization. Grise Fiord. The school field trip was over. And so is our isolation of these past eight months.

As of Thursday evening April 20th, the sledding team's position was 77 32 N/87 56 W, putting them about 10km to the south of Little Bear Cape. With a daily average of 17-18km being covered, the team is very optimistic about reaching their intended destination to search for the elusive cairn holding Otto Sverdrup's claim of Axel Heiberg Island for Norway. The team expects to see the midnight sun tomorrow as the sun is just barely making it out of sight for a short time in the last two evenings. What an exciting time to be immersed in the arctic landscape!

The other wildlife tale which the team related was finding a very dead & mostly eaten lemming which Bamse & Yukon had caught & evidently brought over to the door of the tent to show off. There have been alot of lemming tracks out on the ice, which indicates that it very well could be a peak lemming year in the high arctic! Seeing the tracks on the ice means that the lemming population is too high for the available land space & lemmings are being driven out onto the ice for living space. This phenomena only occurs every three to four years, so it is very interesting to be able to witness such a thing.

After experimenting with several combinations of dogs, people & sleds, the team has settled on a train of three sleds hooked together hauled by 3 people & 2 dogs! They put in a 24 km day when in Goose Fiord a few days ago & have just pulled into Okse Bay today (April 17th), when they contacted me. They have had good conditions & were thrilled to report a wildlife sighting....a lone arctic hare sitting beside an iceberg! They were able to get great photo opportunities as the hare remained very still & Bamse & Yukon never caught wind of it!! They also reported seeing old polar bear tracks, caribou or muskoxen tracks as well as yet another lemming! They were able to catch a glimpse of Axel Heiberg Island at one point in the day today, so that was a good motivator for the stretch ahead across to the island! They sound like they are in good spirits & enjoying the trek immensely!

Back in Hourglass Bay things have likely quieted down since Keziah & I headed off on our qomatiq adventure last Friday & are now absorbing the spoils of southern society! (see my journal for details!) Keri & Greg are preparing to head to Grise Fiord by qomatiq on Wednesday where they will begin a short sled trip. Hourglass Bay will fall silent for the next few weeks as the team spreads itself around! Tune in later this week for another report from the sledding team heading to Axel Heiberg Island.

The day dawned bright & clear, but a brisk north wind added the beginning challenge to the sledding team as they strained against their loads moving out of camp towards the north side of Hourglass Bay. Still, it was a glorious sight to see the start of this long planned portion of the Otto Sverdrup Centennial Expedition! Keziah & I sledded along side the team out into the middle of Hourglass Bay before the wind proved too harsh for Keziah & she asked to turn around. We said our goodbyes to husband & father, knowing the time ahead would be difficult for our little family, seperated after constant contact for the past 8 months. It was time to leave Hourglass Bay for all of us, in one way or another.

For Keziah & I, coming back to a hut void of the familiar family of 3, it was a stark reminder that our time here in Hourglass Bay is ticking down as well. We will take a qomatiq ride to Grise Fiord in two days time & from there fly south to reunite with family & friends. It is sad to be leaving without Graeme, & certainly hard to tear ourselves away from the beauty of the arctic with the promise of even better as the spring unfolds. We will be back. Keziah has requested a visit in May next year to see the flowers she has so patiently watched in the last few weeks, hoping they might start to emerge much earlier than they usually do here. She will miss Hourglass Bay & the wonderful world she has come to love playing in outside on the tundra & ice. It has been an incredible experience to have been so close to the land & each other as family. It does seem that the cliche "all good things must come to an end" holds true here. So goodbye Hourglass Bay, & thanks for the memories!

What's New April 01, 2000 - The Hourglass Bay team are hunkered down in the hut and boat waiting out the second big blow since the equinox. The normal pattern of northerly winds seems to have been shattered by a strong south easterly flow bringing very warm temperatures (-11C ), snowfall and high winds. The resulting confinement has it's silver lining though; the warm temperatures make it much easier to keep the "moat" open at the rear of the boat and there is much packing and organising to do for the start of the spring sledging trip. The wind generators are providing plenty of "free" electricity too. The imminent event though is the arrival of the University of Minnesota psychologist Gloria Leon and companion Liv Dahl aboard the spring re-supply flight from Resolute on Friday. Gloria will be conducting interviews with the team members related to living in confinement and isolation for long periods as part of her studies for the NASA space program. As always when visitors are expected there is a big restructuring to do to the boat to accomodate the new arrivals and a change of mental gears with the expectation of somebody new to talk to. Getting the Twin Otter turned around on the ground here will also take a bit of forward planning but the bonus there is that the plane can land right next to the boat on skis instead of on a beach twenty miles away as happened in autumn. * Late flash - visitors from south plus many parcels arrived safely at Hourglass Bay mid-day April 1.