Survivor Ellesmere

Yesterday was yet another lazy Sunday in Eureka after staying up a wee bit too late the night before. (I would like to point out that I went to bed at least 3 hours earlier than the last group, unfortunately, this was still 2 in the morning.) It was another sleep-in Sunday morning, with brunch being at 11, so at least I got some semblance of sleep, unlike years past where I've stayed up just as late but gotten up at 7. In the morning I was rewarded, upon opening my window, by seeing a herd of musk ox right behind the station, just before they ran out of view. I got my over-wined ass out of my pjs, found Tobias, and headed out to see if we could get any closer. There was a group of five of them up a hill about a 10 minute walk away, and so we, as quietly as possible, made our way closer to them. Tobias took some hopefully great pictures with his old-timey film camera. We didn't want to get too close to animals that aren't used to seeing humans and have horns all the better to gore you with, but we got close enough to get a super look at them. Musk ox are awesome.

After brunch, we decided that there was no real need to go up to the lab immediately (those running non-automated instruments had gone up at 8 as usual), so after doing a bit of work on my close-to-being-finished Mantra 2004 paper (really!), Oleg and I decided to go ice skating. The water up here comes from a diverted creek, which I suppose in the end comes from melted glaciers and snow. There's an open reservoir with pipes going to the station. Water at the lab is trucked in from this supply. Once the reservoir freezes over, people can skate on it. This is normally more of a fall activity, since (a) there's not as much snow that needs clearing off and (b) it's not -40, but Oleg and and I put on our St. Petersburg/Ottawa brave faces and out we went. There's not much snow up here, but it's packed REALLY well. I am quite sore today after our clearing efforts. But it's sort of my climbing muscles, so I maybe won't be as bad when I get home? (Ahh...it's funny because I'm going to be so terrible.) Anyways, the Eureka reservoir is not quite the Rideau Canal, but super-fun nonetheless. Ice acts differently at -40 than at warmer temperatures - it makes this cool squeeking noise that sort of sounds like the ice is cracking beneath you. Once we get more Sun we'll be able to go without skipping out on work at the lab for the day. Eureka is fun.