Toonik Tyme continued

Sunday, the third day of Toonik Tyme, was a perfect day.  The sun was shining (having risen at 5:04am), and it was cool and crisp at -15 degrees celsius.  The next event on our list to attend was skijoring.  For those of you who don't know, skijoring is a sport where a skier is pulled by "something" across the snow.  The "something" can be a dog, a pack of sled dogs, a motorized vehicle, a horse, etc.  Here in Nunavut it almost always means a dog or snowmobile.  Today's Toonik Tyme race specifies a one-skier to one-dog ratio.  Participants provided their own dog and equipment.  Registration was held from 1:30 to 2pm, and the race took place behind the Unikkaarvik Visitor's Centre. 

Heading down to the skijoring event.

After a leisurely morning and lunch, we headed into town.  We arrived at the visitor's centre around 1:50pm, just in time to watch all the skiers and dogs lining up on the starting line. Due in part to the fantastic weather there was an excellent turnout, both in numbers of skiers and spectators. The flags along the starting line snapped and fluttered in the wind.

Participants lining up.

Spectators watched from both sides of the trail.

A snowmobile pulled ahead of the racers to lead the way. The driver was also there for safety: if anyone became injured they would be offered a lift back into town. An official gave a 3 minute warning, then a one minute warning. 

And they're off!

This dog really wanted to visit with the spectators instead of completing the race.

Happy sled dogs post-race.

The first place team (person and dog) took just over 10 minutes to complete the loop. Some skiers took much longer, especially a few beginners who took a few falls during the race. After the race we ran into Boomer.  If you don't remember, Boomer is the guide who took us on our Northwinds Expedition when we went dogsledding.  He is also a talented photographer whose work is used regularly by National Geographic. Boomer and his dog Stubby came in second place! The kids had a great visit with Stubby and a few of the other sled dogs they've gotten to know over the past few months.

JJ chatting with Boomer after the race.

On the way home from watching skijoring (with a quick stop for shopping at the museum), the kids suddenly noticed there were a lot of people on the hill in town. "What are they all doing?" They wondered.  We drove past tons of cars parked on the side of the road, and saw people standing on the flat tops of houses. A large crowd had gathered on the hill.  From our car we watched two snow mobiles travel almost directly up the steep hill together.  "Synchronized snowmobiles?" Shiree wondered.  Whatever it was, it looked more than a bit dangerous. 

Later (after reading through Facebook of course) I figured it out.  We had been watching the "Toonik Tyme Uphill Climb".  Two snowmobiles compete against each other to see who can get to the top of the hill the fastest (without tipping over). Apparently this event was stopped a few years ago after someone became seriously injured while tumbling down the hill. I guess after some time passed the organizers just shrugged and decided "What the hey, let's try it again!" This may have actually been a non-sanctioned event. It wasn't listed on the Toonik Tyme official schedule, and the post announcing the winners was deleted before I could steal any more photos. All trace of this race has disappeared from the internet. Its as though it never really happened.......

A few hours later this post appeared on Facebook:

It would appear that the race was NOT an official Toonik Tyme event after all, but is now being credited to the Iqaluit Racing Association.  Small town politics at its best.

On Monday we kept the kids out of school and took Shiree dog sledding! We went with the same outfitter as usual, Northwinds Expeditions. This time, we only had one guide instead of two because Sarah (who normally accompanies excursions) was camping out on the ice with another group. Because we are experts at this now (ha!), it was no problem to have the 5 of us rely on Boomer.  We all left the house at 8:45am dressed in our warmest clothing. At -15 degrees (and very little wind) the day seemed perfect for dogsledding: cold enough for us to travel quickly on the snow and ice, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable. 

Boomer showing Coraline some photos of North Pole and
South Pole adventures.

Once again, while we did pretty well with gear, JJ opted for a pair of
warmer Baffin boots. Shiree went with some insulated snowpants
and super winter boots as well.

Boomer gave CJS the once-over and declared
him fit for the expedition, no extra warm stuff
necessary.

Just some of the extra parkas, boots, bags, etc.
that Northwinds has on hand.

Captain Jack Sparrow saying hello
to one of the dogs.

Shiree greets one of the dogs.

The large qamutik we spent our morning on. Boomer made
it himself.

Coraline helping Boomer harness Polly.

Once harnessed, the dogs are required to stay "down" until the
dog sled guide instructs them to be "ready". Otherwise it
would be doggy pandemonium!

Let's go!

Heading out for the morning.

I turned around to take a shot of CJS and JJ
on the back of the qamutik.

CJS and Coraline would periodically hop off the qamutik and run,
then time it so they could jump back on while it was still moving.
Each of them fell off the qamutik at least once.

We stopped near an igloo for snacks.

I made hot chocolate while Boomer watched the dogs and kept them from getting tangled together.

Shiree, CJS, and me on the qamutik. (As you can
see, we all have sunglasses on. Snowblindness
this time of year is quite common, so these are
a necessity.)

Doggy bums.

Captain Jack practices the whip, Indiana Jones style. (Note: the whip is not to whip the dogs. It is
a soft whip meant only for getting the dogs' attention to indicate direction.)

While we were dogsledding, the seal hunt competition was happening:

Photos courtesy of Toonik Tyme Facebook page.

That evening the cross-country snowmobile race was held (check out the upper left corner of the photo).
Photo by Susie Baines

Wednesday we sadly said goodbye to Shiree. While she was visiting I learned that, yes, it is certainly possible to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle in Iqaluit. At least for a short time. As long as you don't mind eating a fair amount of arctic char, even the local restaurants are OK. The stores have kits for making sushi, and other non-meat based meals (Shiree brought up some fantastic Vimal ready-to-eat Indian food, then found the same food in Northmart, albeit for a lot more money). I don't think it would be realistic to do it long term here, but for a few weeks or even months you would be OK. Unfortunately, since she had to get back to Vancouver, Shiree did not get to join us in watching the igloo building competition. She is also going to miss out on the seal skinning contest. (I don't think she was upset to miss that particular Toonik Tyme event.) 

Which brings us to........the igloo building competition! Yay!!!!!  The contest started at 5:30 Wednesday evening.  It was quite cold and blustery outside:  -25 degrees with the windchill and wind gusts of up to 65 km/h. We bundled up in our warmest threads and headed out. (The wind gave me a great chance to try out my new Finn raccoon fur parka hood.  It was amazing how much warmer I felt once I snapped the bottom buttons closed. With my head completely surrounded by fur, I was snug as a bug in a rug. Totally worth voiding the warranty on my Canada Goose parka.)

Yup, I'm in there! This fur is
amazeballs in super cold weather.

 JJ and I stood watching various contestants try their hand at being the fastest to make a proper igloo according to the contest rules. One elderly Inuit man (dressed entirely in sealskin) called out regularly to motivate his fellow contestants into going faster. "You almost done?" he shouted at the man closest to him. "Get a move on!" he called to another.  Despite the cold, everyone was having a blast proving the worthiness of their arctic survival skills.  If you have never seen an igloo built from the ground up, it is fascinating. There is considerable art in carving out the snow blocks so that they are perfectly angled and lined up against the others. I later learned that there are usually many more spectators at this event, but because of the cold there wasn't a huge crowd.

Sawing snow blocks to use for the walls.

Watching one of the contestants. Can you spot JJ?

About an hour into the competition.

Captain Jack built his own little igloo.

It was quite cold outside, and very windy, so after an hour we went to Tim Horton's to warm up. Yes, there is a Tim's here, but it's not like any Tim's you've been to before.  For one thing, it is "serve yourself". You pour your own coffee/hot chocolate and take out your own donuts (there aren't usually very many to choose from). Then you carry everything over to the counter to pay. One of the shop window has been replaced by a sheet of wood (it was smashed), and the vinyl seat cushions have been torn to shreds.  Still, it is a coffee shop, and it has nice hot chocolate.

They even have a special donut for Toonik Tyme.

The man JJ and I were watching won the competition!
Photo from CBC Nunavut.

Not only did you need to build your igloo quickly, it had to be strong enough
for this kid to stand on it.

Inside the winning igloo. (CBC Nunavut)

Also, I learned a little bit more about the history behind Toonik Tyme this week.  Many years ago the Inuit were nomadic. Every spring, before there were real "communities", the people would all come together in a pre-arranged location to celebrate the return of the sun. After the Inuit settled into permanent locations the tradition stopped.  It was brought back in 1964 by the Niaqunnguurmiut Katutjiaqatiit (a particular group of Inuit).  It has since spread to most communities in Nunavut, with the epicentre being Iqaluit.

Up next: see if we attend any more Toonik Tyme activities (the seal skinning competition and community feast are coming up), and its JJ's birthday this weekend!