In case you may have missed it. Hell has in fact frozen over; it’s an annual occurrence that happens roughly this time each year except in 2004 when I was in flight school. It’s mobile too. That Satan likes a change of scenery. I almost managed to avoid it in 2005 but when I decided that I wasn’t cut out to sling G&T’s for the Little Billionaire I managed to catch front-side of the return to the inferno.
Anyway, seven days ago I was a normal human boy, now some million plus shovel loads later I am but a poor representation of my former self. A broken, babbling incoherent wretch, truthfully not too different from how I present myself down south save for the extra 4 inches of clothing.
The record of the inquisition began well enough but then just turned into stream of consciousness, or is that semi consciousness?
By the time the satellite is set up and the porn machine… err I mean my portal to the World Wide Web, is up and running again I will soon return to the well informed socially conscious gentleman that I once was.
Until then…
The Horror:
April 29, 2006
At some point I have to wonder if it is all worth it? Is it for the money, the experience or to see something new? Or am I just a masochist? I can’t so much as look at a shovel without getting tendonitis in my elbow and just the idea of wind is enough to give me a migraine.
Pictures can only do so much to give any sense as to how bad conditions are here. When packing up this place last September there was considerable thought given as to how best to protect the infrastructure both from the weather and any possible visitor. In the end it was to good for the visitor and not enough for the weather. I am not convinced that anything short of removing everything down to bare floors would have prevented the snowdrifts from accumulating as much as they did. But the extent of the burial was incomprehensible. 
Now after a solid week of digging all the tent frames have been uncovered and skinned with canvas, and not a moment too soon. Currently all six of us are holed up in our individual abodes and we are all armed with buckets to deal with natures call and shovels on the inside of the tents to help get us out in the morning. It doesn’t require too much traditional knowledge to realize when the shit is going to happen, just a keen awareness of the sudden shift in wind direction. It changed twice in the last 24 hours and none of them were any good.Originally we had crew of three contracted from Yellowknife to open the camp. 9 hours of digging just clean out one sleep tent for them and a call was made for re-enforcements. Four more guys were brought in from Rankin Inlet to help out, 2 days later there were 2 tents up and functioning. Conditions were such that the wind would blow in snow almost as fast as it could be dug out.
We were fortunate to have been allowed to bring in an excavator to help with the removal, one bucket full from the Cat was pretty much the equivalent of an hours digging. Within 24 hours of the machines arrival 7 tents were cleared out and covered up, spirits were tremendously lifted… for about 8 hours and then a good system blew through and many of the through ways that had been cleared between shelters were filled in again and when the weather was good enough to leave the comforts of “home” half a day was spent just digging out the Cat and the rest of the day reclaiming the lost ground. That’s when I showed up, last Monday, more than happy to help all I asked for was a smoke free tent.
I was fortunate that all nine of the sleep tents had been finished but that still left the five worst: the office, TV and core tents that are the same size as the sleep tents
as well as the kitchen and dry which are more than twice as big. The three recruits from Rankin were beginning to show signs of exhaustion and by Tuesday we were down to two. If you’re paying attention you may be wondering about the fourth, well it seems that our old buddy George (you may remember him from last year) had a hernia operation a few months ago. A few days of digging and he wanted out, so badly in fact, rather than waiting a couple of hours to hitch a 30 minute ride in the helicopter he opted for the extra bouncy really cold and windy four hour ride with a group on snow machines back to town.
By Thursday the last the last of the original crew had given in and we brought in one new piece of fresh meat in to help with the last two tents. Before the first of the two was completed Friday morning he was looking to get out on the plane we had booked for the afternoon. Last night we were down to the original crew of three that began the ordeal: our cook, the boss and myself.
We have been quite fortunate for the past five days. The sun has shone and the temperatures have been neither too cold nor too warm. We have had plenty of wind but not strong enough to deposit any fresh snow to hinder progress and for the two biggest tents it was near dead calm. And then there is today…
The wind stopped sometime last night and stayed that way long enough to lull us into some sense of comfort, roughly one cup of coffee, abruptly changed 90+ degrees from the south and increased to about 80+ Km/h. Strong enough to whip up any snow that hasn’t already packed itself solid send it all at us in the form of freezing rain, and to add insult to injury taunted us with blue skies the whole time.
In my ten years in the North this is bad as I have ever seen the weather and currently without the sat system set up no way of knowing how long it may last. All we have left to do is inside work and conditions are so bad that we have to make sure that everything is still functioning outside before we can do any of it. And if that wasn’t demoralizing enough there is going to be a hell of a lot of digging to do in the morning.I must be doing this for the money because it surely isn’t for my health.
April 30, 2006
8:30 AM
Couldn’t have seen this coming:
The winds shifted of course, the sun is shining and temps have dropped about 10+ degrees. This would all be decent news if the shit that blew through last night didn’t punctuate its finale with about five minutes of honest to goodness rain. Not only do we have to resume the big dig but now it has a thick crunchy coating with a glassy sheen of death.
Tried to quit again this morning. I’ve tried four times already. The boss won’t accept my resignation. I am sure that there is a law against such cruel and unusual punishment.
1:00 PM
Half drunk with exhaustion.
4:00
Got a visit from a big group of the Cold Cousins heading North by snow machine. Complained that they had been going for 4 hours and had no water.
“Don’t you have any tea or coffee?” Asked one of the women. Her name was Bo Derek, the only Bo Derek in Nunavut. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t picture her running down the beach with a head full of cornrows.
No. No coffee and no water either. Now scram unless you got shovels in those kamatuks and are willing to use them. Then maybe we will discuss coffee or tea.
I believe that the same words might have been uttered during the Franklin Expedition. Right now it feels as if our journey could have the same conclusion.
5:00
Mostly drunk with exhaustion, wind has died and it is good and warm outside, don’t want to sit out there for fear that I might be accused of slacking off. Too hot to sit inside, my only option is to go and dig out some furniture.
Saw a shotgun in one of the tents. I get to wondering how a fat hunk of lead would go down right about now… thinking it may be tough to wash it down with ale though.
I might hold off for another day.
9:01
The wind changed again, southeast now, the only thing out that way is Hudson’s Bay Another front on the horizon too. This can’t be good. I walked down the end of tent line, any of them that didn’t get the door hung after the skin was put on have a thick layer of the white stuff on the inside as a result of the weather event we had yesterday. I have pretty good idea where the next Mexican backhoe adventure with will be.
Pro: Sheltered from the elements for this next slate of excavation
Con: More shovelling.
Caught another glimpse of the shotgun… Gonna lick a pencil before I go to sleep and see how I like the taste.
May 1, 2006
9:08
For once it feels like spring, definitely going to have to break out the sunscreen. Mother Nature Pulled a fast one on us last night threatening us with eminent doom only to relent a little.
Today hopefully marks a milestone for the camp running water. Seven whole days since my last shower, that puts me in fourth place in the how dirty are you camp mobilization Olympics. Two Newfies and a Frenchman have taken the medals with a whole week more endurance than me. It wasn’t exactly a contest I was hoping to participate in.
All going well we may even have some form of communication by the end of the night or first thing the next morning.
2:04
How’s this for irony?
Having spent 10+ days shoveling snow out of the tents, I get to pick one to put snow back into. The boy’s decided they needed a tent in which to service all of the oil stoves. They chose the First-Aid tent. The floor is black as the ace of spades and covered in carbon and soot. In the absence of a Home-Depot to purchase some green sweep I have to use the next best thing… White sweep.
4:48
Telecommunications technician arrived a couple of hours ago. Might have phones and the Internet by nightfall. Amazing how the mood of the southerners picks up. Spring has been with us for almost a whole day. The tundra on the other side of our castle walls has browned up tremendously today.
So far very limited use of the shovel today, feeling much better about that.
May 2, 2006
4:10
As expected… We achieved connectivity before the showers were installed. Still a good 3+ hours from cleanliness, a few of us are pretty excited about that. The cook is just happy to be able to get her email.
Good news… Low shovel usage day again, though I was given the bad news that the back-up generator is under about 6 feet of snow in the general vicinity of the shit house.
People arriving on a daily basis now, the heli crew arrived lastnight(without the much needed plumbing supplies) and a drill crew arrives tomorrow(Wednesday). We are almost in regular operation.
7:33
The much needed plumbing supplies arrived, well almost all of them. Someone(me) neglected to order ABS cement for the drain lines. I should be back in campguy mode by sometime tomorrow.
I hope
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