Five experienced ACE Validation Campaign team members arrived in Eureka on Wednesday: Emily, Dan, Joseph, Paul, Tom. Travelling with them were three new team members: Sham, Sophie, and Zahra. The temperature in Eureka was a chilly -45°C, but the team was warmly greeted by familiar and friendly faces from Environment Canada's Eureka Weather Station.
The Sun started to rise above the Eureka horizon a week ago. The pre-campaign team, Mike and Pierre, were at PEARL to greet the first sunlight of the year, start setting up equipment, and begin measurements. The intensive phase team aims to hit the ground running tomorrow morning.
After disembarking the plane in Eureka, the first order of business was to unload our gear. It had been a long three-day trip to get from Toronto to Eureka (a four-day trip for Emily and Sham, who started in London a day earlier than the rest of us). Thankfully, dinner was ready when we arrived at weather station: what great timing!
Our trip from Toronto started (very) early Monday morning, with the team arriving at the airport around 5:15 AM. From Toronto we flew to Edmonton for a 2-hour stopover, then onwards to Yellowknife. Once in Yellowknife, the team checked into the hotel, and walked down to a lookout point on a small hill near Great Slave Lake with the new team members. We headed out to dinner and exchanged stories of past Arctic trips, and excitement for the trip to come.
Tuesday morning began with a 6:00 AM breakfast at the hotel, and anticipation that our 6:20 AM taxi rides would take us to a Eureka-bound plane. As breakfast began, however, we received word from Air Tindi: bad weather at Resolute meant that our flight was postponed, perhaps cancelled. We were advised to remain ready to depart at the hotel in case conditions improved. Since we had our hotel rooms until noon, most of us returned to our beds for a few extra hours of (much appreciated) rest.
At 11:30 AM, Paul gathered us together. We wouldn't be travelling to Eureka that day. Weather wasn't looking good. Apparently Cambridge Bay was also experiencing bad weather, and many other groups were unable to fly out of Yellowknife. Hotels in Yellowknife were booked solid. We were able to hold onto one of our rooms for a second night, and get the only other room available in the hotel. With four of us in each room (one for the men, another for the women), accommodations were cozy.
We spent the afternoon showing the new team members a bit more of Yellowknife. We dropped into a few galleries and shops, and saw the Ice Castle, which was still under construction on the lake. After dinner, the team headed to bed early. We had to rise early for our flight. Wednesday's planned trip to Eureka thankfully went well. Weather cooperated.
The team flew on a small Beechcraft 1900D airplane. Each of us had a window seat, which allowed for wonderful views of the passing landscape, which turned from snowy trees to just ice and snow. We stopped briefly at Cambridge Bay and Resolute to refuel. Once on the ground at Eureka, our bags were unloaded, and the team spoke briefly with Pierre and Mike about their pre-campaign work. Pierre and Mike boarded the plane and headed back to Yellowknife.
After dinner, a safety briefing, the much-coveted distribution of Wi-Fi access, and room assignments, the team settled into their rooms for a much needed rest. Tomorrow (Thursday) will be a big day. We are excited to finish getting the instruments set up and to take measurements! Keep checking this site, and our photo page. We plan to post updates daily.