| Canadian Arctic
Experience |
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Sunday 5th March 2006
Tragic
News
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Winter 2005/2006
The whole point of this winter was to culminate three years
training and effort to reach a starting point for a 2006 Arctic
spring journey
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Summer 2005
Entire Arctic summer
With another long winter behind them this summer was important
for maintaining a minimum level of fitness for Gary’s
dogs. Gary walked them out as a pack, not a traditional method
given the time and effort it takes to have the breed walk tolerantly
amongst one another.
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March/April 2005
400-mile, twenty-two day round trip from Inuvik to Mason River,
Liverpool Bay (Amundsen Gulf) in Canada’s western Arctic.
Gary was alone with nine dogs, evaluating them for future journeys.
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Winter 2004/2005
An entire winter logging over 3,000 training miles in Canada's
Northwest Territories Mackenzie Delta region alone with his
dogs and last year's puppies. Six weeks without daylight and
forty below zero temperatures.
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August/September 2004.
From the Horton River in Canada's western Arctic, Gary and two
huskies successfully completed a 400 mile coastal route east
into Nunavut to the central Arctic community of Kugluktuk (Coppermine).
Using the only maps available (those drawn up from aerial photographs
taken 43 years ago) they set foot on terrain few, if any, people
have seen since the ancient nomadic Inuit followed the migratory
pattern of the caribou.
 Gary's
journey was similar to the way ancient Inuit travelled throughout
Arctic summers. His pack contained supplies, the dogs carried
their own food and together they negotiated hundreds of river
crossings. The dogs also acted as vital deterrent against
six predatory grizzly bear encounters.
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Winter 2004.
Solo journey. Unsupported. 190 miles upstream over the frozen
Mackenzie River with team of eight sled dogs. Gear and material
testing. Temperatures fell down to -51°C. Moose encounters.
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Spring 2002.
Solo expedition. Unsupported. 600 miles with nine huskies. Built
own sled. Set out from Inuvik in the western Arctic and reached
Herschel Island out on the Arctic Ocean. Returned via the Yukon
North Slope. Rabid fox and bear encounters.
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Spring 2001.
Solo expedition. Unsupported. 520 miles with eight huskies.
From the frozen Mackenzie River to the sea ice of Mackenzie
Bay in the Beaufort Sea crossing the tundra of Ellice, Pitt
and Olivier Islands.
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Winter 2000/2001.
Trained through entire 24-hour darkness of the Arctic winter
in Canada's Northwest Territories, while based in a 13' x 8'
trapper's cabin on the mighty Mackenzie River. Wolf pack and
moose encounters.
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Summer 2000.
Trained through entire Arctic summer based in Mackenzie Delta,
western Arctic. Bred sled dog team litters and carried out expedition
reconnaissance flights.
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Spring 2000.
International expedition. As UK team member covered 3,470 miles
with 21 huskies, through the Yukon, the Northwest Territories
and on to the coastal plains of the Arctic Ocean's Beaufort
Sea ice.
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Winter 1998/1999/2000.
Thousands of varied ice condition-training miles with huskies
in Minnesota and the Canadian Wilderness Boundary Waters. |
All
photographs copyright © Gary Rolfe