Hot shots brave Baffin’s cold

MIRIAM DEWAR

Ranger Luke Airgut is pleased to observe that ice is beginning to form on the ends of his mustache.

Airgut, standing at attention with 15 other Canadian Rangers beside the runway at the Fox 3 North Warning site, expects to spend long hours outside in the cold, and, he says, the ice on his beard helps to keep his lip warm.

Airgut is one of four Rangers from Igloolik who travelled to the spot about 560 kilometres north of Iqaluit to participate in the first mass Ranger exercise to take place in the Baffin region. Ranger patrols in Arctic Bay, Clyde River, Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung also each sent four Rangers each to take part. The patrols were to meet by Feb. 13.

As Airgut and the others stand at attention, Col. Norris Pettis, commander of Canadian Forces Northern Area, carries out an inspection.

Pettis is here in part to present Queen’s Golden Jubilee medals to three Igloolik Rangers for their years of service, age and rank. Airgut is the first to be called in front of the group to receive his medal. He smiles and shakes Pettis’ hand before returning to his place in line. David Irnagut and E. Ipkarnak are also presented medals.

“I’m putting a hole in this,” Pettis jokes as he pins the medal to Irnagut’s parka. “I hope it doesn’t cause you to catch cold later. I don’t often get to hand out medals in below -20 C.”

Pettis says the Rangers have become more important with the ever-growing demands faced by the country’s military. The Rangers, an arm of the Canadian Forces whose members are situated in remote and sparsely populated areas, conduct patrols in northern areas to protect Canada’s sovereignty and check North Warning sites.

While this group will spend two or three days together swapping information and participating in a shooting competition, a major part of the exercise is simply getting to the meeting point.

On Feb. 15, the Rangers from Pangnirtung, the closest community to the meeting point, have yet to arrive. They ran into weather problems and a lack of snow on the ground, Pettis says, which can seriously hamper travel by snow machine. The group is running low on fuel and will have to have extra supplies brought to them.

Inuk Jaypatee, of Qikiqtarjuaq, says his group left their community shortly after 3 p.m. on Feb. 12. They were the first to arrive at Fox 3 at about 5 p.m. the next day. This is his first exercise in two years as a Ranger and he says the trip wasn’t too bad, aside from the wind.

The Arctic Bay quartet weren’t so lucky. It took 10 days for them to reach the site, Ranger Sgt. Sampson Ejangiaq explains.

“We would have gotten here faster but we had to find ways around all the rocks,” he says.

Mosha Tunraq ran into his own trouble when a track broke off his snow machine between Arctic Bay and Igloolik, requiring him to ride on the komatik the rest of the way. His mind was eased, though, he says, after he was told the Forces would take care of the track’s replacement cost.

Tunraq and his cohorts joined Rangers in Igloolik before continuing on to Dewar Lakes and the Fox 3 site.

“We Arctic Bay people brought white man’s food, but after we got to Igloolik we had lots of walrus and caribou,” Ejangiaq says, glancing around to the caribou carcasses and frozen entrails lying on the snow. The Qikiqtarjuaq and Clyde River Rangers had some time to go hunting.

As Ejangiaq speaks, loud pops and bangs fill the air, echoing off a nearby hillside. The Arctic Bay team, he explains, has already been scored for the shooting competition and so far he is the top shot.

“But that could change,” he says quickly.

Ejangiaq is awarded top honours, and presented with a coin by site exercise Commander Warrant Officer Kevin Mulhern.