Inuvik, meaning "place of man" is Canada's northernmost town. It has a population of about 3,500 and is on the Mackenzie River, the longest river in Canada. The Mackenzie flows into the Arctic Ocean 97 kilometers away and the town is 200 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Surprisingly, I am 10 degrees west of Vancouver, although I am in the Alberta time zone. Inuvik was created by the Canadian government in the 1950's to replace a small town called Aklavik that was subject to flooding and offered little room for growth.
Inuvik is the traditional land of the Inuvailuit, Gwich'in and Metis aboriginals. The Inuvialuit live further north than any other aboriginal peoples in North America. They are still firmly attached to living off the land eating and utilizing seals, beluga, caribou, fish, birds and berries. Their craftwork and beading is remarkable (and expensive) as I discovered at the Christmas Craft Fair at the Community Center. It's all hand done so worth the money but a pair of beaded mukluks would have cost me $500-700 and pretty useless in wet Vancouver. Everything up here is remarkably dry. The snow is light as air and fluffy and makes a distinctive crunching sound when you walk on it. Inuvik is also home to several hundred Muslims. The Midnight Sun Mosque made a 4,000 trip from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Inuvik and is known as the "little mosque on the tundra". It is one of the northernmost mosques in the world. My friend's partner Greg was the editor on a documentary called "Arctic Mosque" made on the Mosque's journey north.
A youtube trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ERuUMhkao
There is also a distinctive landmark of a Catholic Church in town. It shares something in common with Paris in that it bears the same official name as Notre Dame: Our Lady of Victory. It is 75 feet in diameter and the cupula is 20 feet in diameter. The inside is apparently beautiful and acoustics amazing. I will check out the Christmas concerts.
We are at the end of the Dempster Highway, the only route into town from the south. Although there are ice roads all around to the communities to the north, when people talk about if the "road is in", they are referring to the Dempster Highway. It starts in the Yukon Territory and is 736kms to Inuvik. The road is unique for several reasons. For one, it sits on a gravel pad up to 8 feet deep to insulate against the permafrost in the soil underneath, otherwise the road would sink into the ground. There are two main river crossings and in the summer months you use a ferry. For a month or so in the winter and spring there is an impassible hiatus where it is too icy for the ferry but not icy enough to drive across. Once it gets cold enough and the ice thick enough you can drive straight across the river and hence the "road is in". Due to global warming this event is getting later and later. Apparently typically "road is in" in October or November and here, at the beginning of December the river crossings are still not drivable. In fact, rumour has it 14+ trucks of mail are stuck at the south end of a ferry crossing and the ferry is stuck in the ice and has been for several weeks now, but the ice is not thick enough to drive across. No parcels (just letters) have come into town since early November. I guess Canada Post has finally rerouted these 14+ mail trucks back to Edmonton and is chartering a plane to fly up the parcels. The town post office is nervous as to where they are going to put all the parcels once they come in, but as it is Christmas time, many in town are getting antsy for their goods to arrive. Mail is really the only way to get most things up here, including Christmas presents for your kids. How would they explain about Santa missing them? He's basically in the backyard! And as the town is reliant on foods to get driven up from the south, you can't always rely on things like...dairy. And when it is flown in milk goes up to $14/2L.
Inuvik has a distinct feature called "utilidors". They are above ground insulated conduits that carry water and sewage. There is a whole network of them around town. They are necessary because the town (as is much of the Northwest Territories) is on permafrost. Apparently Inuvik has some of the worst conditions for building infrastructure. All of the buildings and homes are built on pilings drilled through the active layer of the permafrost and into the continuous layer of permafrost beneath. During the summer when the permafrost thaws the ground can shift and the buildings sway and lean. And during the winter in the wind, as the houses are built on stilts, you can feel them sway and move with the wind. 
Still so far so good with the weather. The sun will go below the horizon for the last time on December 5th and not rise again until January 6th giving us the aprx 30 polar nights and the noon moon! I'm back on December 18th so will experience about 3 weeks of total darkness. The weekend the sun returns is a big party with lots of events and I'm scheduled off so pretty excited about that. Right now the sun is only up for a few hours (*note the time on the forecast pic) and when it is rising and setting it is beyond beautiful. The contrast and colour up here is so striking. 
I'm finally back to work after the eye infection and have done a few fun things. I've bought a yoga matt and gone to yoga at the community center a few times. I've spent a few nights at the Legion which is the big thing to do in town. There is a lot of gambling and draws up here. There was a $30,000 bingo pot a few weeks back and every Friday at the Legion they have a 50/50 draw where you can win $800 +/- and an ongoing draw called "chase the ace" that involves playing cards. The pot will continue to go up until the person with the winning ticket draws the ace of spades. The pot last week was almost $9,000. Sounds like good enough odds to me that I should have a few beers and buy a few tickets. I have learned you NEVER wear a hat in the legion. Toque included. I came close to having to buy a round for the entire bar. Sheesh.
I've seen my first case of frostbite. I said to someone it was the worst case I've ever seen, but realized it was the only case I've ever seen. It can happen pretty fast. Apparently the person was only out for an hour or two. I think the wind... and alcohol made it worse. And one of my patients was a trapper! He said he sold mainly to The Hudson's Bay Company. I can not believe that still exists. That is so 300 years ago!
I have a list of things to do when I come up for round 2, December 19-January 31st. I need to do the drive on the ice road to Tuktoyaktuk and see a pingo (land formation), go dogsledding and experience the Return of the Sun Festival. I'm working Christmas and New Years but off for the festival weekend so pretty excited about that. Stay tuned!
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