Aboard the Amundsen
WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Scientists watch the northern lights move through the sky from the roof of the bridge on the icebreaker Amundsen.
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Data-gathering requires time we may not have
CAPE LAMBTON, N.W.T. -- Viewed from the bridge of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen, the Arctic panorama at the southern edge of Banks Island is a scene of almost unfathomable beauty.The sheer white expanse of the partly frozen Amundsen Gulf is broken by the stark grey cliffs of Nelson Head, which rise up 725 metres to the flat summit of Durham Heights, the highest point in the western Arctic archipelago.
Add in a brilliant blue sky and a few wispy stratus clouds and it's tough to think of this stunning place as a landscape in peril.
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Arctic physicist road-weary
Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, NWT -- Next time you sit in a long line at the U.S. border after a weekend shopping trip, be thankful you don't have to declare a $250,000 laser. <Continued> -
Creativity, patience, good sense of humour needed
By Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- Arctic scientists are a lot like jazz musicians ¬ -- if they don't know how to improvise, they're doomed. <Continued>
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Scientists in Arctic go with the floe
Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- If you think walking out on thin ice on the Assiniboine River is crazy, imagine creeping to the edge of a newly formed Arctic ice floe in -35 C weather above waters more than 350 metres deep. <Continued> -
Arctic symbol in jeopardy?
Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- The polar bear bounding along the frozen surface of the Arctic keeps looking over his left shoulder as he puts distance between himself and the 8,000-tonne icebreaker plowing through the ice. <Continued> -
Arctic comfort zone
Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- The meal started with an avocado salad, followed by medium-rare veal medallions and garlic-seasoned shrimp accompanied by steamed asparagus and linguini in tomato sauce. <Continued> -
New theory in North's mercury woes
By Bartley Kives 'We don't want to let the industrial polluters off the hook, but we now think climate change is the culprit' -- scientist Gary Stern <Continued> -
Dynamic world under Arctic ice
Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, NWT -- After chainsawing through solid ice, lowering 350 metres of fishing line and exposing themselves to a -35 windchill for several hours, Louis Letourneau and Alexis Burt seem surprisingly happy to haul up a few cupfuls of inedible crustaceans. <Continued> -
Hole in the hull inspires a lot of pride
By Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, NWT -- The weirdest thing about the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen is how well it floats despite the massive hole in the hull. <Continued> -
Red Amundsen our flag in white Arctic
By Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- As a bright, red ship perched in a patch of snow-white sea ice, the Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen stands out in the Arctic like a visual embodiment of the Canadian flag. <Continued> -
Research done amid amazing Arctic scenery
By Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- A spectacular set of sundogs makes the Western Arctic look like an alien landscape, as it appears as if three equally brilliant stars are rising above the eastern horizon. <Continued> -
Icebreaker handles Arctic with care
By Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- You know that scraping sound when you drive your car over a badly cleared road and the chassis bottoms out on the ice? <Continued> -
Journey ends on a very high note
By Bartley Kives AMUNDSEN GULF, N.W.T. -- I'm standing in a metal cage, dangling above cold, blue Arctic water while a crane hoists my quivering body up to the deck of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen. <Continued> -
Muslims adapt to life in Canada's north
By Bartley Kives INUVIK, NWT -- Driving outside one of Canada's largest towns above the Arctic Circle, cabbie Ali Ahmed shudders when he hears we're from Winnipeg. <Continued> -
Wacky weather worries South Florida
By Bartley Kives LOSTMANS FIVE BAY, Fla. -- Huddling inside a tent while a supercell thunderstorm raged across Everglades National Park, I had to wonder whether there's a difference between the rainy and dry seasons in South Florida anymore. <Continued> -
Northern exposure
Bartley Kives FOR 27 straight years, University of Manitoba geoscientist David Barber has studied Arctic sea ice, originally staying in tents and packing a gun in case a polar bear decided to wander by and chow down on a professor. <Continued>
