Day: 67

First Air - The Arctic's Airline

Location: Baker Lake

A storm has come in at Baker Lake, there is a southwest wind blowing, and a lot of snow. We continued our interviews with some of the elders here, and we’ve really got a lot of great stories once we leave here at the beginning of the week.

Jerry Stenger, who is our webmaster, and the person putting together the video (he has been filming my projects for the last dozen years or so), flew up from Minneapolis on Tuesday. I’m often asked if there are airlines that offers service up here in the north, and there is a very good airlines called First Air. I first worked with them 25 years ago when they first started up, and we chartered Twin Otters with them to the North Pole in the mid-1980’s. We also chartered a jet with them from Minneapolis to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1995 for the International Arctic Project. So we have a very good relationship with First Air. They fly our gear around the Arctic, and they will be flying us and our dogs back.

They also work with a magazine called “Above and Beyond,” which I have also written for over the last ten years. Above and Beyond is Canada’s Arctic journal. It is extremely popular magazine up here, especially in the south. People are always asking me for extra copies. They are doing an exclusive series of articles on the Arctic Transect, and the second one just came out.

They have been most supportive of our education over the years. They really represent the north in a very good way. Jerry Stenger’s ticket up here was given to us complimentary of First Air. First Air flies to all the communities in Nunavut. There is regular daily service into some of the communities, for the more isolated ones perhaps two or three times a week.

We are continuing to talk with the elders here in Baker Lake, and it looks like we are going to push our departure back until Wednesday. We’ve got so much to do here that we decided to take a few extra days.