I'm not sure how to word this so forgive me if it doesn't make sense. I was born 'up north' in a very remote community where my parents had to drive two hours (down awful roads) to reach the hospital where I was delivered. It is far enough north from where I live now that I could not drive to that community in one day.
However, when I look at where that community is located and compare it to Grise Fiord, it is very far south. Heck, it is so far north of where I was born that if you went to where I was born and went a comparable distance south, you would end up in Mexico...
Canada is so big that I have trouble imagining how big it really is.
This seems like a fun math game. Grise Ford is at 76.4 deg north, and the northernmost point of Mexico (near Yuma, AZ) is at 32.7 deg north, for a difference of 43.7 (45 would be half the distance from the equator to the pole). Round up to 44 and split in half, add 33+22, and your hometown is at most 55 deg north.
I guess it depends on what part of Canada. In Ontario and Quebec, 55N is the middle of the Canadian shield, a maze of lakes with no roads and almost no settlements (looking at satellite view, because I don't know the area). But out west on the prairie, Edmonton is 54N and while as a USian, I consider it the great white north, it has roads and towns all the way there. And settlements continue further W and N into BC. I have a friend in Ft St John at 56N. Ultimately, there are several roads (more recent) going up to the arctic Ocean (69N at Tuktoyktak, NT, and 71N at Barrow, Alaska).
I do get your point though, Canada stretches far north and has lots of empty areas and small communities with low connectivity to the rest of the country. After all, Canada is the second largest country by land area.
My spouse had family from Holland come visit us. They told us they wanted to see Niagara Falls and the Rockies. When we explained it would take a week to drive from Niagara to the Rockies they boggled. It's hard to conceptualize just how vast Canada is when back home you can drive for an hour and pass through three different countries.
I live in northern Canada, have been to most communities up here in both Nunavut and Northwest Territories. It's GREAT, life is extremely different, but it's extremely rewarding and fulfilling.
Most people move up and either move away within 2 years, or they end up staying for a long time. I've found it to be very binary -- either you love it or hate it.
Hmm, i'm going to have to disagree with you on this:
"-40C feels warmer than +5C"
I've been outdoors in both, plenty of times, to hike or to engage in my hobby of landscape photography.
At +5C, it's perfectly possible to hike for hours in light pants and a t-shirt, with a sweatshirt or light jacket in your day pack in case it gets cold. At -40C, I was wearing multiple layers of wool, fleece, and a gore-tex parka, just to stay warm.
I grew up in Alaska and no. Absolutely not. -40C is so cold that your face hurts when you walk. Your pants get insanely cold in the places where they are away from your skin and then chill you when they touch again. It's miserable.
True. Northern Ontario here. I was born and raised in Toronto, where a damp -10C + moderate windchill feels orders of magnitude colder than dry -40 and no windchill.
The coldest I've been in was -52C (off an alcohol thermometer) and I was fine beyond my eyelids and nostrils crystalizing. That being said, I've been frost bitten a handful of times, each time, the temperature has been near freezing and damp.
But at the end of the day, I'd gladly exchange locales down to the North Carolina/Tennessee area on a permanent basis.
Haerbin in China is typically at -40C or worse in the winter, and it isn’t that bad...except my digital camera battery died really quickly. I wonder how a modern smart phone would fare (that was...2005, we only had normal cellphones). Of course, Haerbin is a huge city with central heating, so its quite different from being in a small community or in the wilderness.
I'm a moderate-temperature Vancouverite most of the time, but - does windchill factor in here?
In my limited experience, negative X is one thing, and usually quite manageable if, as you say, you bundle up properly. Once windchill gets involved, though, things can get miserable quickly.
> a -40C day is usually much more enjoyable than a +40C day
I can't believe I just read this :)
With an appropriately-sized and designed HVAC system, home, and fans, 40C is completely comfortable indoors. If your home is designed well, you probably don't even need a whole lot of energy to achieve this.
The difference is, in 40C you can also be outside at any part of the day, for any duration (especially in the shade). I haven't spent a great deal of time at -40C, but I can tell you my experience is that it was pretty miserable to be outside in, even bundled up.
I was curious to see whereabout this was, and while it is incredibly remote, google maps actually showed me another place that is even farther north: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alert,_Nunavut
You are correct: Alert and Eureka are both further north. However, I believe that they are both research or defense installations. While I believe that they are both occupied year round, I don't believe that they qualify as "community" because people are assigned there; nobody is "from" there.
> Adventure Canada expedition leader Jason Edmunds always works with communities to develop a plan that’s about “connections and what they want to show us” instead of just what we might want to see. The company only goes where it is welcome.
I was under the impression that Alert was the most northernly, permanently inhabited, community. It is approximately 800kms from the North Pole, while Grise Fiord is approximately 1,500kms away.
I sometimes go on Google Maps and explore remote areas and I always wonder what life is like in the bleak wilderness; and I think how helpless I'd be if I lived there. I grew up in the SF Bay Area and the thought of being so remote scares me. I crave being near humanity, or at least having a good enough internet connection to pretend I'm near. It's a fault, for sure, but I am what I've been made to be.
You might want to check out the nat geo show "life below zero." it follows people living mostly off the land near the arctic circle. the first few seasons are quite good before the producers started interfering.
Can anyone give insights into the written language used by the Inuktitut, which appears in the first photo? Can it be adapted to other languages/dialects? Is it used in Greenland or Alaska?
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuktitut_syllabics About the written language. It seems to have been adopted from Cree by a missionary, which itself was another missionary devised script with an influence from India Indian Devanagari.
We don't...that's the first time I've ever seen it spelled like that. The name of the town is Norwegian
>The second comes from Norwegian explorer Otto Sverdrup and means “pig fiord” for the grunting sound that walrus herds make and the fact this spot is tucked between cliffs at the mouth of a gorgeous fiord.
I don't know why the author spelled it like that throughout the article when talking about the landform.
[+] [-] hluska|6 years ago|reply
However, when I look at where that community is located and compare it to Grise Fiord, it is very far south. Heck, it is so far north of where I was born that if you went to where I was born and went a comparable distance south, you would end up in Mexico...
Canada is so big that I have trouble imagining how big it really is.
[+] [-] 205guy|6 years ago|reply
I guess it depends on what part of Canada. In Ontario and Quebec, 55N is the middle of the Canadian shield, a maze of lakes with no roads and almost no settlements (looking at satellite view, because I don't know the area). But out west on the prairie, Edmonton is 54N and while as a USian, I consider it the great white north, it has roads and towns all the way there. And settlements continue further W and N into BC. I have a friend in Ft St John at 56N. Ultimately, there are several roads (more recent) going up to the arctic Ocean (69N at Tuktoyktak, NT, and 71N at Barrow, Alaska).
I do get your point though, Canada stretches far north and has lots of empty areas and small communities with low connectivity to the rest of the country. After all, Canada is the second largest country by land area.
[+] [-] na85|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BareNakedCoder|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] northern_ta|6 years ago|reply
I live in northern Canada, have been to most communities up here in both Nunavut and Northwest Territories. It's GREAT, life is extremely different, but it's extremely rewarding and fulfilling.
Most people move up and either move away within 2 years, or they end up staying for a long time. I've found it to be very binary -- either you love it or hate it.
Any questions, ask away!
[+] [-] agota|6 years ago|reply
Genuine question, not saying that it isn't, just curious what exactly makes it great for you.
[+] [-] phonypc|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] grecy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bendbro|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flyGuyOnTheSly|6 years ago|reply
I'm Canadian too, and I was surprised to read that line.
I've spent winters in Northern Quebec where the temperature regularly hovered around -40C and it was glorious.
Everything sparkles. Everything.
In fact, -40C feels warmer than +5C because there is no humidity in the air to make your skin feel the cold.
If you are unprepared for the weather, trying to get by in shorts and t shirt, you're absolutely going to have a bad time.
But so long as you're bundled up and your house has good insulation, a -40C day is usually much more enjoyable than a +40C day.
[+] [-] sib|6 years ago|reply
"-40C feels warmer than +5C"
I've been outdoors in both, plenty of times, to hike or to engage in my hobby of landscape photography.
At +5C, it's perfectly possible to hike for hours in light pants and a t-shirt, with a sweatshirt or light jacket in your day pack in case it gets cold. At -40C, I was wearing multiple layers of wool, fleece, and a gore-tex parka, just to stay warm.
[+] [-] weeksie|6 years ago|reply
It is quite pretty though.
[+] [-] bungie4|6 years ago|reply
The coldest I've been in was -52C (off an alcohol thermometer) and I was fine beyond my eyelids and nostrils crystalizing. That being said, I've been frost bitten a handful of times, each time, the temperature has been near freezing and damp.
But at the end of the day, I'd gladly exchange locales down to the North Carolina/Tennessee area on a permanent basis.
[+] [-] seanmcdirmid|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] singingboyo|6 years ago|reply
In my limited experience, negative X is one thing, and usually quite manageable if, as you say, you bundle up properly. Once windchill gets involved, though, things can get miserable quickly.
[+] [-] jly|6 years ago|reply
I can't believe I just read this :)
With an appropriately-sized and designed HVAC system, home, and fans, 40C is completely comfortable indoors. If your home is designed well, you probably don't even need a whole lot of energy to achieve this.
The difference is, in 40C you can also be outside at any part of the day, for any duration (especially in the shade). I haven't spent a great deal of time at -40C, but I can tell you my experience is that it was pretty miserable to be outside in, even bundled up.
[+] [-] trianglem|6 years ago|reply
This is extreme rationalization.
[+] [-] lhorie|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] daveslash|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Blackthorn|6 years ago|reply
> Adventure Canada expedition leader Jason Edmunds always works with communities to develop a plan that’s about “connections and what they want to show us” instead of just what we might want to see. The company only goes where it is welcome.
If only more companies would operate that way.
[+] [-] dblohm7|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notkaiho|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wavefunction|6 years ago|reply
https://foe.org/cruise-report-card/
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/04/729622653/carnival-cruise-lin...
[+] [-] randomdata|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] na85|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shaggyfrog|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mmanfrin|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yummypaint|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ilamont|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seanmcdirmid|6 years ago|reply
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuktitut_syllabics About the written language. It seems to have been adopted from Cree by a missionary, which itself was another missionary devised script with an influence from India Indian Devanagari.
[+] [-] chadlavi|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] grawprog|6 years ago|reply
>The second comes from Norwegian explorer Otto Sverdrup and means “pig fiord” for the grunting sound that walrus herds make and the fact this spot is tucked between cliffs at the mouth of a gorgeous fiord.
I don't know why the author spelled it like that throughout the article when talking about the landform.
https://wikidiff.com/fiord/fjord
Apparently fiord is a New Zealand spelling? >Alternative forms * fiord (New Zealand
[+] [-] rsendv|6 years ago|reply