Japan comes to the ice road

The ice road was a busy place this weekend as crews were busy flooding sections and plowing others. Heavy truck traffic has started now that the capacity has been raised to 32,500 kgs, though the ones I saw were only hauling light loads. Saturday morning just before sunrise, i.e. 11 AM I was heading north to go skiing and watching the temp drop from -19 in town to -25 when I came across someone walking. He was pulling a sled so I had to stop as I surmised that he was a kindred spirit. As I suspected he was heading to Tuk and camping along the way. He told me he was from Japan had flown over to Inuvik and was intending to take 2 weeks to walk to Tuk then 2 weeks walk back. He had a pack and a sledge, similar to the one I had in Cambridge Bay only smaller.
He had spent a few nights out already and from some reason was wearing snow shoes – on the bare ice of the road. I tried to get him to stow his snow shoes but he seemed insistent on wearing them even though it was costing him some extra calories with that needless weight on his feet. It did not appear to me that he has enough fuel to cook with and melt water to last the 10days or so he was taking to get to Tuk. Realistically he could do the 180 kms in 6 days. I also asked him why he came now as opposed to a month from now when there would be morel light but I suspect we had a communication breakdown as he simply stated “adventure” – which I took to mean the essence of the trip itself not the timing. He looked cold on Saturday morning but he was fortunate that the wind, which picked up considerably, was coming from the south and hence was at his back.
I saw him again on Sunday and he looked OK but I think he may be in for a bit more adventure than he anticipated if he ends up doing much walking into a strong headwind. Actually with your hood up (he had a decent jacket with a fur hood, Mont bell) if you are walking directly not the wind you set up a bow wave that actually does a good job of deflecting wind from the hood – face. It’s obliquely angled winds that hit you from the side that is the worst. It sneaks in around the edges of everything and blows the hood in obscuring your vision – way fun.
I gave him my number and told him to stop in when he got back.

I carried on and stopped by the north end of the Caribou Hills as I wanted to check out a spot on Topo Canada where the terrain looked to be a bit steeper – by a lake East of the Ikhil plant. A strong wind was blowing where I parked and the temp was showing -23. I headed up the hill and onto the barren land in bright sunshine but heavy winds that were gusting due to venture effect along the hills / scarp. Things were significantly colder than last week and I utilized the walking into the wind trick to deal with the gusting. Sundogs were showing around the sun indicating ice crystals aloft. I skirted the plant to its south and found the lake and of course the terrain did not live up to expectations was a much gentler gradient that I was looking for. Surprisingly it was cold enough and windy enough to shut down the one little camera I had, and the GPS as the batteries weren’t entirely fresh – which was a bit of an annoyance, not safety wise but seeing where I went wise. Spent about 4 hours out and stopped art the gas plant on the way back. Windy the whole time. I skied down the snowmobile track that the workers use to get to the plant when they need to and it made for a nice kilometer long gentle turn and occasional double pole ski back to the river. This was the longest continuous slope I have skied in the Arctic thus far. Having a strong wind from my back helped matters along.

Back at the truck there was no wind and I truly though the temp was around -7 as the forecast for Inuvik was supposed to be that for the day. When I finally got into the truck and started it I could tell it was cold, -23 still. After being in the wind all day at -23 the calm conditions felt balmy. Nice drive back into the sunset and past the flooding crew who were still working by Caribou hills