Tuesday is plane day!

On tuesday the 737 arrives from Montreal with a load of new people, and a hold full of supplies. Here the supplies are being off loaded from the Unimog.

Moving tent.

On tuesday this tent bacame vacant as the GL Geoservices crew moved out, So terry and I moved in, this gives us space to store and charge out gear without bothering anyone elce. 

Ibsley common?

Well I thought it looked like the east side of Ibsley common on a misty morning. The lumps are not ant hills tho, they are rocks. the fog is fog and the wet bits are wet bits. 

Waiting...

Our rides, DLY and DKD waiting for the fog to lift so they can ferry field workers into the field. 

Call a lumberjack!

While wandering around the tundra in the fog I found a tree, it was almost 3 inches tall! 

Fogbound

Fog has been a problem recently, keeps the choppers grounded until late in the morning. 

Tundra Tough guy!

This is terry, my helper having a smoke while waiting for the chopper to pick us up from our surface grid at Lac Rinfret. 

Arctic Cotton again

I decided to have another go at the cotton with the 300mm tele, to give a shallow dof isolating one head in a mass of others. sort of worked. 

A poppy in the tundra

I found this little poppy growing in the fen behind the camp, I didn't have the macro lens on, so this was shot with the 300mm tele. 

Flying South

and off they go, guess winter will be here soon. Apparently the Caribou will be next to pass through as all the sensible creatures head south before the winter sets in. 

Winter is comming

These fellows flew in on the 12th, going south, apparently a sign that the winter weather is on it's way. 

Just a view

I view looking north. I think the red is part of the Gossan (rusted rocks) that is associated with the Minerals they are mining here. The snow seems to collect on south facing slopes here, the wind blows from the north all winter. East Lake camp is on a sout hfacing slope and when they opened the camp in June it was apparently still under about 7 feet of snow. 

The mine

This is the main mine site, wit hthe accomodations, workshops and storage areas. I have been impressed with how tidy everything is kept up here. Very little rubbish blowing around, the mine waste seems to be well controled. A nice change.

Here is a sat photo of the same areathe buildings are the white spot in the centre. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=61.68743,-73.681183&spn=0.042011,0.161018

Off to work again

Where ever we work up here it is a fly job. It is quite fun riding in a chopper every day, but I hate loading and unloading it, very loud - you can't communicate and you can't let anything blow away. Planning ahead if key. 

Arctic Cotton

Looks like bog cotton to me. This grows in one of the slightly green areas clost to the camp.
FBG FEN for Seth. 

The Unimog

Still looking for a truck Dad?
This is the Unimog, a tundra trundling truck. I havn't had a ride in it yet. 

Where am I ?

I am somewhere here, http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=61.670979,-74.034119&spn=0.078853,0.2314&t=h&om=1
Not shure quite where.

East Lake Camp

3rd try to post this one.
Here is the east lake camp, a mix of weather haven tents and "home made" canvas covered wooden tents. It is a bit of a moonscape up here, no trees to get in the way! 

Home Sweet Home

My and 3 other guys will be living in here for a month. It is a timber frame with a canvas cover. It is insulated and has a propane heater, eletric and WiFi!. 

Climbing, sorry no pix.

A great day climbing at flat rock today, Michelle, Lewis, Me and Neil spent most of the day relaxing on the rocks and climbing. Lewis and I climbed an "Yellow Fever" and ~80 foot 5.8, that was hard work!
We also climbed a new route called "Candy" it is adout ~50 feet and is a 5.7. This was my first outdoor lead, there are 3 rock bolts in place and I had to place two peices of gear (a cam and a tricam), so I guess that would nake it a mixed trad / sport route. I set up a top rope and Neil, Lewis and Michelle followed. Then we all rappelled (Absieled) down. I had my camera, but decided just to enjoy the climbing today.
I am off to Raglan tomorrow - so keep an eye on my blog for images from up there (probably as far North as I'll ever go).