The ocean soon sealed over. We'd had very little pack ice drift into the fjord this summer. Freeze-up was good and formed hard flat land locked ice.  But within ten days fierce overnight storms swept all this ice out to sea. By sheer chance I was walking on shoreline rock when it happened the second time. It was very unnerving to imagine I was on that ice as it broke away.

We have a gunshot code:

• two shots – break – followed by two more means I have caught or shot something, come;
• three rapid shots followed by three more means come, I need help;
• rapid frantic volley of shots is someone warning that the ice is breaking up.

30 years ago radio stations here were manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Morning and night for three minutes after 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock the airwaves were kept silent for Mayday calls. Here’s one of the original clocks. At 9 and 3 the three- minute segments were once painted red, they’ve long since faded.

A month after freeze-up, to keep them in great condition, I wormed my dogs with their twice-yearly dose of Bayer’s Drontal Plus.

On 24th I started running my dogs, a small team of six, a maximum three conditioning runs a week. The idea is always is to build early season strength slowly.

There was the usual fuss and flying guts to start. On that first outing of the season I slammed into the side of a dog kennel with my sled and the roof came clean off. I came back to five dogs fighting because of a broken stakeout. Snow around them was crimson.

By the end of the month the ice edge was thick enough to hunt from. Even though daylight barely existed, hunters hunted. Lots of seals were not going to celebrate Christmas.