As I mentioned, the incentive for going out that way was to locate and ski over to Aklisuktuk “Growing Fast” Pingo…and here’s a pic of it from the road. It is interesting in that the paper on Aklisuktuk Pingo refers to the ability of one to see the pingo from the road at historical dates. Regardless it isn’t the biggest one around but is the largest one that is first visual when travelling north.
Also a few pix of the elusive and moving mirages that we encountered on the way back
Last Saturday we headed south on the Dempster as the forecast was marginal. For the first time in a long time Environment Canada got it wrong and skies turned clear all over the Delta. Since we were already heading south we stopped at the Campbell Lake territorial viewpoint and skied over to the official viewing area. Deep snow and trees all covered over. With the blue sky and snow laden trees it looked like skiing anywhere in BC that gets a decent snowpack. Without longer views in frame the pix could have been taken anywhere, instead of north of the Arctic Circle. Oh, and one bird that followed us around for a while.
Snow was in better condition with less areas of depth hoar where your skis went right to ground. Just below the viewing platform the cliff band was plastered over so I decided to chance a few turns on the steeper terrain. I did go through to the rocks initially but the snow pack on the run out actually was good and substantive and I was able to get some nice turns in, climbing back up the band to our start point was less fun mind you. – too steep to skin.
After skiing around a bit more we headed back to the truck and back to town as the sky looked good to the north. We stopped by the GIS Explorer before heading up the ice road to the Caribou hills, as it was Kat’s last full day here –so pix on the ice road by the barges and such.
We parked by the usual spot about 50 kms from town and picked up the trial that leads up the Hills and over to the gas plant. Some people were at their cabins nearby and came over to make sure we knew what we were doing as I get the feeling that not a lot of people ski out this way and it was a bit of a novelty to see us out there. The snow was really good with fresh on top of a reasonable base layer. The shallow draw we ascended was also very sheltered from the wind and made for good travel. In short order we made the ridgeline and followed it over to the plateau. Wind, of course was more pronounced on top. We hung out for a bit and then pulled the skins to ski down. In a huge breech of etiquette Katerpillar skied right over my lines and messed my pristine turns, ha ha. Snow was the best it has been out there thus far, albeit a little slow due to the cold temps.
On the way back down our visitor came back as promised to check on us – he changed skidoos as he was concerned about getting stuck if he got off track. Again, since they weren’t used to skiers out here he was concerned and had to make sure we weren’t getting into trouble –very normal response for out here – people tend to look out for others. I asked him about the last time he saw caribou in the hills and he said it’s rare now to see them. Surprisingly we crossed a fresh moose track on the way up and he spotted it as well when he came up to us. He wanted to know if we wanted to come back for muktuk and dry meat but time was a bit of an issue so that didn’t work out. Katerpillar didn’t know that muktuk is Beluga blubber and or skin
...and some shots on the way out, by Reindeer Station, windy day, -27
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