Eli is, quite literally, at the top of the world.
Until the end of the month, Eli is in Alert, Nunavut, which is the northernmost permanently inhabited place on Earth by humans (and not elves).
Alert is on Ellesmere Island, which is a little hard to imagine as an island because the ice around it is a polar ice cap.
The permanent population is 0, however, it is a military and scientific base, and so there is always some personnel up there.
All of the Canadian territories boast of being North of latitude 60.
Yellowknife is precisely 62°30' North, and we are about 400 kilometres from the arctic circle, that invisible line where the sun is up for exactly up for 24 hours on the summer solstice and down for exactly 24 hours on winter solstice.
Right now, Eli is above latitude 80 (and just so you know, 90 is as far as the scale goes).
Alert is at latitude 82°30'05" north, and is 817 kilometres from the geographic North Pole and Santa Claus, although Alert is actually North of the geomagnetic North Pole, meaning that compasses would behave oddly there.
The girls are beside themselves because Eli is SO close to the North Pole!
Right now, the sun never sets in Alert (from April until September!). Eli will get to be there for the summer solstice, which is a pretty special thing.
The midnight sun is an amazing thing in Yellowknife, too! The sun circles the sky instead of rising in the sky up here.
Conversely, in October, November, December, January, and February, the sun never shines in Alert.
It's been a consistent temperature around 0 degrees since Eli has arrived.
Eli was in a small twin otter plane to make the two-day flight to Alert from Yellowknife, and he took some pictures en route with the new travel zoom camera I bought for just such an occasion.
I couldn't part with my DSLR, but this is a wonderful step down.
It has enough creative functions that you can get really sharp pictures without lugging all the gear.
So, these pictures are of the arctic sea ice between Cambridge Bay and Resolute Bay.
Eli had to spend an extra day in Resolute while they waited for some weather and fog to calm in Alert.
Yes, it was snowing mid June.
It is possible that this is all there is there.
I really do not know very much about D'Iberville except that Eli was there and got these pictures for me. Thanks, Eli!
Until the end of the month, Eli is in Alert, Nunavut, which is the northernmost permanently inhabited place on Earth by humans (and not elves).
Alert is on Ellesmere Island, which is a little hard to imagine as an island because the ice around it is a polar ice cap.
The permanent population is 0, however, it is a military and scientific base, and so there is always some personnel up there.
All of the Canadian territories boast of being North of latitude 60.
Yellowknife is precisely 62°30' North, and we are about 400 kilometres from the arctic circle, that invisible line where the sun is up for exactly up for 24 hours on the summer solstice and down for exactly 24 hours on winter solstice.
Right now, Eli is above latitude 80 (and just so you know, 90 is as far as the scale goes).
Alert is at latitude 82°30'05" north, and is 817 kilometres from the geographic North Pole and Santa Claus, although Alert is actually North of the geomagnetic North Pole, meaning that compasses would behave oddly there.
The girls are beside themselves because Eli is SO close to the North Pole!
Right now, the sun never sets in Alert (from April until September!). Eli will get to be there for the summer solstice, which is a pretty special thing.
The midnight sun is an amazing thing in Yellowknife, too! The sun circles the sky instead of rising in the sky up here.
Conversely, in October, November, December, January, and February, the sun never shines in Alert.
It's been a consistent temperature around 0 degrees since Eli has arrived.
Eli was in a small twin otter plane to make the two-day flight to Alert from Yellowknife, and he took some pictures en route with the new travel zoom camera I bought for just such an occasion.
I couldn't part with my DSLR, but this is a wonderful step down.
It has enough creative functions that you can get really sharp pictures without lugging all the gear.
So, these pictures are of the arctic sea ice between Cambridge Bay and Resolute Bay.
Eli had to spend an extra day in Resolute while they waited for some weather and fog to calm in Alert.
Yes, it was snowing mid June.
This is the twin otter CC138 in Grise Fiord.
Twin otters are virtually the staple plane of arctic transportation.
You can put skis or floater on the bottom so it can land on ice or on the water.
Yes, just like the Ice Pilots... it's not just a TV show... In fact, I just took the Kindergarten kids and Miss A on a tour of Buffalo Air for a field trip last week.
We get to see lots of twin otters at work up here.
On Father's Day, Eli had the opportunity to do some more arctic exploration and visited D'Iberville.
I really do not know very much about D'Iberville except that Eli was there and got these pictures for me. Thanks, Eli!
Woah. That's a whole lot of frozen.
Have a safe time way up North, Eli. And, hurry back.
Oh, and if anyone else feels the temptation to complain about any weather this summer, it might be helpful to imagine living up in the North Pole!
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