It was pretty much a blizzard for the first week I was in Pang, especially over the weekend. I was holed up in the house transcribing, and shoveling myself out of the house when I needed to leave. A notable outing was the first Saturday afternoon where I attended a local “penny sale”. This name is kind of misleading, as there are no pennies involved, and it’s not really a sale. It is quite neat though, and they are run as very successful fundraisers. I bought $5 worth of tickets and put them all into one prize bag – a tea and coffee package that caught my eye (could come in handy for meetings). I sat with Andrew, and it was neat that he offered to translate what was going on. It was also great to see so many friendly faces in the community hall. Lots of “how are yous”, but too bad I can’t go much past that in Inuktitut. Anyway, as it happens, I did win that prize, and had to get up in front of everyone! It was even more funny because the person announcing the winners was an elder I had interviewed twice, and traveled on the ice with. He introduced me as “sikuliriji” (ice lady, or person studying ice) which confused a lot of people, and I met the new Mayor unofficially at that point as well. That coffee and tea did come in very handy after all, as we managed to organize a focus group the second week (including the elder who announced me that day) to go over sea ice pictures and link up terminology to visual ice conditions. It was certainly a good deal, where large tins of coffee up north cost just under $20!!

 

Things got under way in terms of interviewing the second week. We had one interview a day, and they were all excellent. It is getting to the point where I hardly ask any questions, where people just talk and talk about the sea ice, and pretty much cover all the topics I had hoped. It is quite incredible, and I am always fascinated by the detail and extent of their knowledge.

 

Overcast and near-whiteout conditions continued through the week, so while we were discussing a sea ice trip and options of who to go with, we didn’t have much opportunity. When we finally set something up for the second Saturday, plans fell through because our guide had to drop off gas to one of the operational outpost camps (a three day trip). This was disappointing, but worked out because the weather was near-blizzard again over the second weekend, so we wouldn’t have gone anyway (it was probably travelable, but quite dangerous and not at all photo-friendly!). So, I continued with the interview revisions, and the seemingly never-ending transcribing efforts (still from the fall interviews). Monday morning, Valentine’s day, I showed up for our interview and found out that there had been a local suicide the previous evening. I cannot believe how hard it must be for the families and relatives around town, who deal with this type of tragedy far too frequently. Of course this also changes a lot of research plans, and is always a stark reminder of how research can (and has to) take a back seat to local activities or events – daily life. Our main goal for the final week was trying to get out on the ice. The forecasts were promising sun, although this didn’t last long. There were actually only three days in the last week where a trip was feasible, and plans continued to change. Two hunters had been stranded far down the east side of Cumberland Sound (out of gas and oil due to the very deep snow), and the hunter we were going to travel with had left again to drop off gas to the two. Andrew was so great at trying to find others, but it’s not always that easy with many different things going on around town. As it turns out, the two that went to drop off gas also got stuck as one of their machines broke down so they never even made it to the two who were stranded. So, after two weeks of being out there, a helicopter had to drop off food and supplies to the two hunters. Amidst all this were several blizzards, high winds, and a lot more snow that fell. As we heard that the storm was coming our way faster than anticipated, I became a bit antsy and Andrew was very efficient at finding us two machines for an impromptu afternoon trip (we decided to try at 11:45am on February 16 because it might be our only chance, and he had two snowmobiles arranged and ready by 1pm!).

 

So, Andrew and I headed off, to just outside Pangnirtung fiord. We couldn’t go far in the afternoon, but I figured it was our only option, and even a short trip would be great just to see what the ice is like out in Cumberland Sound. According to most people it was still very broken up (due to all the winds and blizzards). Ironically, my main reason for the February trip was to see the commercial fishery in operation in Cumberland Sound, but because of the poor weather there were hardly any fishermen out yet – in what would normally be the coldest month and most active fishing month. And despite Andrew’s best efforts to secure two snowmobiles for our use – so I would finally have the responsibility/experience of driving myself around – his machine broke down not 5 minutes out of town so once again I was a passenger and we continued on with just one machine after all. It was beautiful weather, calm, and not too cold (around -20 degrees C) so I could freely manipulate cameras without my fingers going numb within minutes. We got to the mouth of the fiord to see the annual tidal crack that forms right across – where it also tends to break off in the spring, greatly restricting travel route options. We saw a seal net set up in that crack, and also marveled as the “ice wall” along the shoreline created by the low tidal stage. We continued on from there, past where our May trip had taken us, and it was much easier going since we didn’t have to stick to the ice ledge along the land. We could travel quite freely in that area of the Sound (the northern end), and couldn’t see open water, but we could see the darker sky and clouds in the distance indicating open water. Andrew was great, stopping to point out unique features, and telling me some of the stories of place names and reminding me of places or stories that we had heard in interviews. We ended up stopping to walk into an inlet and up into the mountains a bit, as Andrew wanted to see if there were any ptarmigan around. So, not only did I have the experience of clambering over large chunks of rough (slippery) ice and shadowing a ptarmigan hunt, but we ended up climbing a hill right on the coast to get an incredible view of Cumberland Sound in a setting sun (around 3pm). We had coffee and a snack just after sunset, and headed back to Pang to retrieve the problematic machine – and lucky I didn’t have to drive all the way because we would have been MUCH slower, and also in the short drive back to Pang my hands were freezing. People keep saying it’s warmer if you’re driving, but I have yet to experience that!!

 

And amazingly, after all that bad weather it was clear and cold and calm on my departure day.