Toby Benham

This one shows TJB in front of our trusty Borek Twin Otter ‘KBC’ at Grise Fiord during a brief refuelling stop there. Co-pilot Kevin Bretherick is at the rear of the plane. Twin Otters are known as a workhorse of the Arctic: Mike describes the engines as "the closest thing to perpetual motion"! The airstrip at Grise is fairly short ..... with a sharp rise of hills intimidatingly located behind.

And here are the other members of the team at Grise. From Left to Right: Mike Gorman, Julian Dowdeswell, Steve King (Pilot), Robin Bassford.
Grise Fiord is Canada's Northernmost community (although there are bases further north at Eureka and Alert), a short hop from the north of Devon Island, over Jones Sound, perched on the south of Ellesmere Island.

An Arctic Fox: one of a pair which came to visit whilst we were staying at the Weather station at Eureka. Wildlife sightings also included Musk Oxen (from the air) and an Arctic Hare. Although we kept our eyes peeled for 'white furry things' (as Steve referred to them), and saw plenty of tracks from above, we didn't see any Polar Bears. Eureka is known as the 'Garden Spot of the Arctic', and lies at very nearly 80N.

'Eureka International Elev. 256' reads the sign on a building beside the airstrip at Eureka. The becalmed windsock is indicative of the good luck we had in terms of flying weather. Due to its remote radio transmitter location, Eureka staff have over the years held a number of R/T conversations with airline crew seeking to while away the time spent crossing the Arctic on a polar circle route over to Europe.

Flying up or down the outlet glaciers of Prince of Wales and Agassiz Ice Caps on Ellesmere Island at a height of 1000 to 1500 feet afforded some superb scenic views such as this one.

Working away inside KBC, the final team member: our radar kit and data acquisition PC. The rugged industrial rackmount PC has gained the colloquial appellation 'the Beastie' among those who've made use of it. A souped-up interior with new Pentium III board for this trip belies the antiquated outer looks!

Robin and I took the opportunity of hopping on a Twin Otter making a fuel barrel drop at Polar Bear Pass on Bathurst Island. We landed on wheel-skis in the snow, with a fairly stiff wind whipping up the surface. Just time to snap this picture before hopping back in. There is a wildlife observatory just behind us. I took some good-natured stick for naively expecting that we would be landing on a 'prepared' section of snow runway, providing some amusement for the PCSP staff back at Resolute! On leaving, the pilots pointed the plane into the wind, and within three or four seconds, we were airborne once more.