I was in Pangnirtung from April 29 to May 19.  It was another wonderful learning experience, with challenges on many fronts.

Things got off to an interesting start, with the annual Nunavut Municipalities meeting held in Pang on the first weekend of my visit.  This is where all the Mayors and Senior Administrative Officers from each community around Nunavut get together, along with other Nunavut bureaucrats (the Premier, the Member of Parliament, and many Members of the Legislative Assembly), to discuss  politics and various other pertinent issues at the municipal and territorial levels. It was an open meeting, so I attended several sessions and it was a very enlightening experience.   

Research work started out a bit slowly, as I had planned to work with Andrew but he was tied up with things related to these municipal meetings.  However, we conducted a few interviews during the first week, and things went quite well.   I was also looking forward to participating in a fishing derby on the second weekend of my stay, partly to see what it's like, and partly to get out on the ice!!  To get to the fishing lake you have to travel across Pangnirtung fiord and then inland into mountainous areas - it would have been quite an interesting trip.  However, there was an unfortunate local event that caused the derby to be postponed.  It was a sad time around town, so I just lay low for a while hoping to leave a respectful amount of time before attempting to resume interviews.  

After a quiet weekend, and several more days, we were back at it, only Andrew was still busy with other work so he kindly set me up with Eric, so it worked out well.  We ended up interviewing 6 other people, and 4 of them were interviewed twice because we couldn't fit everything in during one session. They all went very well...such an incredible amount of expertise regarding sea ice!
  
I was fortunate to get out on one sea ice trip.  I suppose I should mention that weather was again a factor in Pang.  Although, it wasn't bad weather hampering us this time, but good weather!!  When I arrived almost all the ground was snow covered, and the ice looked nice and white and solid (at least what I could see in the fiord from around town). However, after a week of nice warm sunny weather (up to 8 degrees - which many people commented as being unusual for this time of year), almost all the snow was gone.  This made inland travel very hard, and also created a blue sheen on the ice from all the water puddles that formed.  Ice conditions were deteriorating fast, so there was some concern about the safety, and challenge, of a trip to the end of the fiord (to look out on Cumberland Sound).  All of Cumberland Sound had already broken up, so that was about as far as we got.
   
Anyway, back to the trip...I did get out, with Eric and one of the hunters we had interviewed the day before.  It was an incredible adventure just maneuvering our way out past the rough ice around town, and then across the fiord, to get onto a small ice ledge that winds it's way out to a key lookout point at the end of the fiord.  Eric was a great driver though, and it was a very fun trip with lots of video and pictures.  On our way back, the excitement only escalated with a polar bear sighting!!  I soon found myself a part of a polar bear hunt.  While it was a bit overwhelming, I felt extremely privileged to have witnessed such a  traditional event.  Never had I even though I'd see a bear, much less participate in the whole hunt!  There are many important links to the ice as well, so it was truly fascinating.
  
So, I guess that one event really qualifies the trip as an adventure, among many others.  I also learned a great deal from the interviews, and met many wonderful people.  Each one was very valuable and I really look forward to having the time to reflect on the audio and video files once back in Toronto...When I arrived back in Toronto it felt like I just jumped right into summer - it seemed so tropical compared to the weather (even the warm times) up North.  It still amazes me to experience the diversity of our country.