Survival Tactics for the Arctic
Mar. 8, 2007— -- Educators and explorers Will Steger, John Stetson, Elizabeth Andre and Abby Fenton joined four Inuit hunters on a 1,200-mile, four-month-long dogsled expedition across the Canadian Arctic's Baffin Island.
The expedition is traveling with four Inuit dog teams over traditional hunting paths, up frozen rivers, through steep-sided fjords, over glaciers and ice caps and across the sea ice to reach some of the most remote Inuit villages in the world.
Elizabeth Andre, a team member of the expedition Global Warming 101, got frostbite on her fingers while setting up tents. She is now recovering well and plans to rejoin the expedition in a couple of days when it's in Pangnirtung. While disappointed to miss part of the trip, Elizabeth knew that leaving the field was the right decision, and she needed to protect her fingers from any further damage.
One Inuit elder told Elizabeth that she believes that the unusually warm weather in Iqaluit the week before the team's departure could have contributed to her frostbite. The elder said that the warm temperatures didn't allow the team members to acclimate. During the team's preparations in Iqaluit, temperatures were 40 degrees Farenheit warmer than they were in Minnesota.
It was so warm in Iqaluit that people could go for walks without hats and gloves. The day the team departed, however, the temperatures dropped well below zero degrees Fahrenheit and the wind gusted up to 40 miles per hour.
The elders told Elizabeth that Inuit people have learned over many years how to travel safely in these harsh conditions.
They told her that as the climate changes, however, some of their knowledge is no longer relevant. For example, hunters who travel over sea ice know how to read the surface of the ice to determine if it can hold the weight of a human, a dogsled or a snowmobile. With changing currents and water temperatures, however, sometimes the ice can look safe on the surface but can be eroding underneath. Several hunters have fallen through the ice in tragic accidents.
The loss of these hunters greatly affects the villages. Country food (seal, walrus, fish and caribou) comprises a large proportion of Inuit community members' diet. Inuit hunters provide meat not only for their own families but for the whole community.
Elizabeth believes that her experience with frostbite gave her new insight into just how harsh the weather conditions can be in the Arctic. She is beginning to appreciate how much skill and knowledge of the environment the Inuit people possess. Here she shares 10 tips on how to survive in subzero temperatures:
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