Gary Rolfe

Sunday 5th March 2006
Tragic News Over the last decade I’ve travelled over 11,000 miles by dog team, mostly alone, all successful trips resulting. Something was bound to go wrong one day, and it did on Sunday 5th March 2006, despite careful planning and listening to route suggestion advice for this journey. 400 miles into the trip we were moving over Amundsen Gulf sea ice between the Canadian Arctic communities of Paulatuk and Kugluktuk when ice gave way. Everything was in the water: my dogs, sled and me. A nightmare. My dogs tangled underwater. Most like me were submerged under a pan of ice. I punched and grappled to the sea surface as water saturated clothing weighing me down like concrete. We all kicked desperately to stay afloat. Ice and sea hit my head and blurred vision. With colossal effort I freed Cream. The cold was killing. Blitz was the first to drown, and floated. Saxon looked at me for the last time with absolute fear in his eyes. I knew my life might be over very quickly. Blood in my hands was freezing. It turned to icy sludge and crunched like grit in a bag. Physical pain will pass, crushing mental stuff takes a little longer. It took weeks before I could hold a conversation without breaking down. To lose eleven loved ones, raised from puppies, has taken me places deep inside my head I hope none of you ever have to endure. Recovering from frostbite in all my fingers has been slow. I’ve still months of physiotherapy ahead. Thanks again to the Canadian Arctic community of Paulatuk, Inuvik Hospital Acute Care Unit, the UK’s Chelsea & Westminster Burns Unit staff, family, friends and for the hundreds of emails and letters of condolences from people all over the world. My dogs touched the hearts of many, making friends everywhere we went. I miss my dogs terribly. They meant the world to me. I’ve cried so hard my body ached. For now I’m taking the first steps to what I once had, a greatly loved team of dogs. From impossible circumstances Cream and I survived. Saxon and Tuki were used as studs before heading out on their last journey and the Thule X Twizzle (the Twizlets) litter is doing well. Onward. Gary.
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