A dissertation on cold

You know it's cold when you start having serious discussions about what exactly 'absolute zero' means. For the record, we're not even close - it's -273°C. But we're getting there. This morning it's currently -58°C (-72°F) wind chill. This is by far our coldest day here. I can't really tell you what it feels like, because I've decided I won't be leaving the house until Binda is knocking down the door to go out to pee. Ashifa should be home for lunch soon. If she's still able to move after the five minute walk, I'll assume it's safe to go outside. Yesterday was one of our best days here. It was around -24°C (-11°F) and sunny with very little wind. Actually, it's almost always sunny here; right now -58° looks beautiful. I think it's a trick.

Yesterday, we took a nice walk and climbed a ridge on the west side of town where we could get a birds-eye view of the whole town and vicinity.
The hamlet of Kugluktuk:

Up the ridge: That's the Arctic Ocean beyond Ashifa: Binda goes exploring. Our little half-husky is loving the Arctic.

Normally, these extreme temperatures are fine for walking around, as long as you're dressed properly. Ashifa already had cold-weather gear from her previous trips to the Northwest Territories and northern Ontario. I had to do some shopping before we left. I had located my -100°F Sorel boots before we left for India. I didn't have time to look for a parka then, however. We were a little concerned about waiting until February to look for a serious winter coat in Toronto. We'd heard the selection was pretty minimal by then. We did some last-minute shopping and lucked into a great parka that was on sale.

I opted not to spend $600 on the ultimate "I have a lot of money and I don't like to be cold" statement, the Canada Goose parka. Canada Goose is the chic parka favored by real Arctic dwellers, and actors and film crews in Toronto. I found a North Face coat on sale for less than half that price.

I really don't like to be cold, so I was a little concerned that $300 difference was going to leave me sad and frostbitten. Not to worry. The first couple days, I was walking around comfortably and thought "maybe it's not really that cold". However, I realized how very effective my coat and boots are the first time I had to take off my gloves outside. The toasty jacket gives you a false sense of security. My hands started failing to move after about 20 seconds of fiddling with Binda's leash. Later, I tried to take some pictures and could barely take one - bare hand on metal camera - before I had to give up. Things like that remind you that hypothermia is serious business. So, I've learned to be very efficient at anything that involves skin exposure and otherwise keep well-bundled.

We both have good gloves, but unless it's really warm, we usually keep our fists balled up inside. My 5-minute walk home from the grocery store yesterday required at least three finger-warming stops because I had to have my fingers in normal glove position to carry the grocery bags. I've been hoping to buy some real Inuit sealskin mittens while I'm up here. I think I need to get on that.

Since you have to keep your face covered most of the time, glasses are pretty much useless when you're outside because they get fogged up. And since walking in snow with a five-pound parka and giant five-pound moon boots is always a workout, there's a lot of heavy breathing. So after any lengthy time out, we usually end up looking like this:

Ashifa said that in previous winter trips to the Arctic, she had her own way of telling the temperature by certain milestones - you know it's a certain temperature when your otherwise-soft parka starts to make crinkly noises, or the temperature at which your eyelashes freeze together when you blink. We've definitely reached both points here in Kugluktuk. When it's really cold, my parka feels like I'm wearing a sheet-metal skirt. And you learn to blink really fast.

You know how they say the Inuit (the ethnicity formerly known as Eskimo) have forty words for snow? The Weather Network is obviously trying to keep up. I usually check the weather online every morning to see what I'm up against. I've seen them describe the conditions on various days as "light snow grains", "frozen fog", and "ice crystals". Today, it's just "clear".

This was "frozen fog" day:
Did you know -40°C = -40°F? This trip has done a lot for my further education in the metric system.