We are on the ice at the Northwest tip of King Christian Island.
Outward Bound has a double meaning for today. This trip is part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Outward Bound in Canada. If you do not know what Outward Bound is you should check out the website. OB is where I got my start as an outdoor instructor 30 years ago.
Outward bound is also the term used for a ship leaving port and leaving the safety of the harbour as we have done today.
As is typical, our departing flight was off and on several times this morning based on high winds. We got the call at 11:30 to be at the airport and ready to go for 12:00.
The first group took off at 12:45 for a 90 minute flight to our drop off. Unfortunately due to rough ice conditions we could not land where we wanted and were forced to land about 20 km further away.
When we landed we set up both tents and I taught the group how to cut snow blocks to build a wind break for the tent. It was a beautiful sunny day with a light wind and lots of sun. It was about – 24C but felt warmer with the
sun.
We got in the tent and started the stoves to make water and wait for the second group to arrive. We had hot drinks, snacks and then dinner and the second group landed at 7pm.
Now we are all together and everyone is settled into tents for the night. Since we have a longer distance to travel than planned we will wake at 6:30am so we can get on the trail early and hopefully make some good distance. However the ice does look pretty rough so we will see how fast we travel.
It is quite beautiful out here. There is nobody in any direction for hundreds of kilometers and everyone is excited about the adventure that lays ahead.
Over and out from the Arctic ice.