Dylan Couper
May 21st, 2005, 02:37 PM
A few people here may know that two weeks ago I took a trip up to the Arctic circle to do a promotional video for a diamond mining company. Here is the story...
The day of my departure, I was wrapping up a short film competition. We finished at 7pm, and my flight departed at 9:30, I had two hours to rush out to my home in the suburbs from downtown, pack all my video gear, and rush an hour back to the airport, to get on the plane.
Packing under pressure has become one of my skills in the last few years. That, combined with excessive speeds in a borrowed mini-van, got me to the departure gates right on time. I met with one team member and co-videographer, who was also flying out of Vancouver that night as well. Two things began to relax me from a hellish day. First off, I did not realize they were flying us out to Edmonton business class/first class on Air Canada. That was a nice. Secondly, complimentary alcoholic beverages to business class. Beer should never be substituted for a meal, unless you haven't eaten since 10am.
With the time zone difference, we landed in Edmonton at around 1:30am, and I was considerably less stressed than four hours before. We made our way to the taxi roundup to get a ride to the hotel, but the taxi drivers decided that our fare wasn’t big enough, so they pointed us at the free shuttle. I’d rather have paid the taxi double and gotten there an extra 15 minutes early for some more sleep, but oh well…
Check in happened at 2am. I hoped to have a nice sleep in, followed by a swim in their indoor pool in the morning, but our flight to Yellowknife had a 6:30am departure. Which means we had to have a 5am wakeup call. Do the math, yes, 3 hours of sleep. The adventure in exhaustion begins.
Morning came in the blink of an eye, and we soldiered out to the shuttle launch site (Ok, the parking lot) with our gear and a bad hotel coffee. Here we met a few more members of our expedition team. Their suits and gold Rolexes contrasted nicely with our PortaBrace and Pelican cases and we loaded up into the shuttle bus for the hop to the airport.
Fuel came in the form of a lump of grease wrapped in paper, molded in the shape of a breakfast sandwich. Ok, I like Harvey’s burgers, but their breakfasts not so much. The rest of the airport fun went by quickly, and before I could fall asleep in an uncomfortable chair, we had boarded the plane and were in the air.
Canadian North provided our next flight, but alas, no business class on this bird. Still, the breakfast they served was the best I’d had on any flight ever. Quiche, perogies, and ham, with fruit salad and muffin on the side, but closer to restaurant quality than airplane quality. Good airplane food is always a nice surprise.
We landed in Yellowknife. They opened the door and we deplaned. This marked the last time I would use the word “warm” on the trip.
There were no fancy gates that took you right into the plane from the airport. We just walked down a ladder onto the tarmac, and then walked into the airport. This was a nice introduction to how cold it was. Now really, it was only –3 in Yellowknife. Now that’s not too cold, just that it was supposed to be +8 so it was a bit of a surprise. It would only get colder, and fast.
From the airport, we got a ride to Matrix Expeditions, who run the charter flights out to mining camps. We left the majority of our gear there, taking just the camera essentials. They provided us with any arctic gear we needed, although I had brought my snowboarding gear with me, so I took only a pair of boots, as well as grabbing some essential gear from my backpack.
We squeezed into a classic DeHavilland Turbo Beaver ski plane from a bygone era of aviation, and took off for the great white north. It was close to a two hour flight, and the terrain changed drastically, from forest and frozen lakes in Yellowknife, to absolute barren frozen tundra, with the only signs of man being oversized trucking roads plowed through frozen lakes. Landing in a ski plane on a frozen lake covered in snowdrifts in gusting wind was unlike anything else I’ve landed. It was more like racing a speedboat over crashing ocean surf. One second you are on the ground, the next back up in the air, the next plowing through snow, the next bouncing back up in the air. It really was more like a controlled crash than a landing. Still any one that you can walk away from…
Prying ourselves out of the Beaver yielded another level of cold. Not the Yellowknife “dang, it’s cold”, but a more serious –18, “wow, I’d better put my gloves on before my fingers freeze” cold. We trudged through the snow towards the camp, and I was immediately thankful for taking the arctic boots.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3552asm.jpg
Base came was fantastic, right out of a movie. The entrance was a small gate adorned with a pair of antlers, with electric fencing to keep bears and wolves out. One of the dozen or so people that work there told me a grizzly bear got into camp the day before, so apparently it isn’t that effective. I didn’t test it out.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3641asm.jpg
The camp itself consisted of two 40’ long corrugated steel barns, one for storage, one for the mess hall. There were about a dozen prospector tents, which are large 20’x20’ tarp tents with plywood walls. Each ran its own continuous diesel burner to keep heated. To make our way to the mess hall, we had to climb down into a series of trenches dug into the snow, that ran between buildings. I had a wonderful flashback to the battle on the planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3630asm.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3597asm.jpg
The mess hall had a cheery “café” sign above the door and we entered. It was dark and moody, lit with a strip of fluorescent shop lights along the ceiling. The smell of stew made my mouth water instantly. Mining camps (technically, this was an expedition drilling camp, since they were only looking for diamonds) are well known for having excellent foods. The pilot explained to me on the way up that morale is completely dependent on good food, so the camp managers try to bring in the best chefs and best food they can. I was eager to see if this was the truth, and wasn’t disappointed. The stew was perhaps the best I’d had, and beyond that they put out a buffet spread, with several salads, meats, cheeses, and homemade pies and cookies. More than a few cookies made it into my bag, but didn’t make it home.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3604asm.jpg
The day of my departure, I was wrapping up a short film competition. We finished at 7pm, and my flight departed at 9:30, I had two hours to rush out to my home in the suburbs from downtown, pack all my video gear, and rush an hour back to the airport, to get on the plane.
Packing under pressure has become one of my skills in the last few years. That, combined with excessive speeds in a borrowed mini-van, got me to the departure gates right on time. I met with one team member and co-videographer, who was also flying out of Vancouver that night as well. Two things began to relax me from a hellish day. First off, I did not realize they were flying us out to Edmonton business class/first class on Air Canada. That was a nice. Secondly, complimentary alcoholic beverages to business class. Beer should never be substituted for a meal, unless you haven't eaten since 10am.
With the time zone difference, we landed in Edmonton at around 1:30am, and I was considerably less stressed than four hours before. We made our way to the taxi roundup to get a ride to the hotel, but the taxi drivers decided that our fare wasn’t big enough, so they pointed us at the free shuttle. I’d rather have paid the taxi double and gotten there an extra 15 minutes early for some more sleep, but oh well…
Check in happened at 2am. I hoped to have a nice sleep in, followed by a swim in their indoor pool in the morning, but our flight to Yellowknife had a 6:30am departure. Which means we had to have a 5am wakeup call. Do the math, yes, 3 hours of sleep. The adventure in exhaustion begins.
Morning came in the blink of an eye, and we soldiered out to the shuttle launch site (Ok, the parking lot) with our gear and a bad hotel coffee. Here we met a few more members of our expedition team. Their suits and gold Rolexes contrasted nicely with our PortaBrace and Pelican cases and we loaded up into the shuttle bus for the hop to the airport.
Fuel came in the form of a lump of grease wrapped in paper, molded in the shape of a breakfast sandwich. Ok, I like Harvey’s burgers, but their breakfasts not so much. The rest of the airport fun went by quickly, and before I could fall asleep in an uncomfortable chair, we had boarded the plane and were in the air.
Canadian North provided our next flight, but alas, no business class on this bird. Still, the breakfast they served was the best I’d had on any flight ever. Quiche, perogies, and ham, with fruit salad and muffin on the side, but closer to restaurant quality than airplane quality. Good airplane food is always a nice surprise.
We landed in Yellowknife. They opened the door and we deplaned. This marked the last time I would use the word “warm” on the trip.
There were no fancy gates that took you right into the plane from the airport. We just walked down a ladder onto the tarmac, and then walked into the airport. This was a nice introduction to how cold it was. Now really, it was only –3 in Yellowknife. Now that’s not too cold, just that it was supposed to be +8 so it was a bit of a surprise. It would only get colder, and fast.
From the airport, we got a ride to Matrix Expeditions, who run the charter flights out to mining camps. We left the majority of our gear there, taking just the camera essentials. They provided us with any arctic gear we needed, although I had brought my snowboarding gear with me, so I took only a pair of boots, as well as grabbing some essential gear from my backpack.
We squeezed into a classic DeHavilland Turbo Beaver ski plane from a bygone era of aviation, and took off for the great white north. It was close to a two hour flight, and the terrain changed drastically, from forest and frozen lakes in Yellowknife, to absolute barren frozen tundra, with the only signs of man being oversized trucking roads plowed through frozen lakes. Landing in a ski plane on a frozen lake covered in snowdrifts in gusting wind was unlike anything else I’ve landed. It was more like racing a speedboat over crashing ocean surf. One second you are on the ground, the next back up in the air, the next plowing through snow, the next bouncing back up in the air. It really was more like a controlled crash than a landing. Still any one that you can walk away from…
Prying ourselves out of the Beaver yielded another level of cold. Not the Yellowknife “dang, it’s cold”, but a more serious –18, “wow, I’d better put my gloves on before my fingers freeze” cold. We trudged through the snow towards the camp, and I was immediately thankful for taking the arctic boots.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3552asm.jpg
Base came was fantastic, right out of a movie. The entrance was a small gate adorned with a pair of antlers, with electric fencing to keep bears and wolves out. One of the dozen or so people that work there told me a grizzly bear got into camp the day before, so apparently it isn’t that effective. I didn’t test it out.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3641asm.jpg
The camp itself consisted of two 40’ long corrugated steel barns, one for storage, one for the mess hall. There were about a dozen prospector tents, which are large 20’x20’ tarp tents with plywood walls. Each ran its own continuous diesel burner to keep heated. To make our way to the mess hall, we had to climb down into a series of trenches dug into the snow, that ran between buildings. I had a wonderful flashback to the battle on the planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3630asm.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3597asm.jpg
The mess hall had a cheery “café” sign above the door and we entered. It was dark and moody, lit with a strip of fluorescent shop lights along the ceiling. The smell of stew made my mouth water instantly. Mining camps (technically, this was an expedition drilling camp, since they were only looking for diamonds) are well known for having excellent foods. The pilot explained to me on the way up that morale is completely dependent on good food, so the camp managers try to bring in the best chefs and best food they can. I was eager to see if this was the truth, and wasn’t disappointed. The stew was perhaps the best I’d had, and beyond that they put out a buffet spread, with several salads, meats, cheeses, and homemade pies and cookies. More than a few cookies made it into my bag, but didn’t make it home.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y202/the_klenzer/IMG_3604asm.jpg