That three hours was later deemed the hardest part of the trip. For those new to the arctic, I think that the wind comes as the biggest shock. There is nowhere in southern Canada that experiences winds like in the arctic. The wind can go from zero to more than one hundred kilometres per hour in a few minutes. As a guide, it is my primary concern.
Winds kill many more people in the arctic than polar bears.
Today at the Eureka weather station twenty kilometres away on the other side of the Sound, they will measure the wind at 96 kilometres per hour. The ice of Nansen Sound is covered with wolf, polar bear and a few muskox tracks. May 16 we round Skraeling Point and start up the riverbed, where Lorraine finds the ancient wood. Candace finds amber-coloured rock that we mistake as amber. Only after the expedition did we learn that it was quartz not amber.