Weather forces Nunavut Quest to take rest on Day 4

Slideshow | Whiteout conditions, risk of crossing trails with hockey players bound for Pond Inlet led to decision to stay put on Friday

Dogs take a break from Nunavut Quest racing on Friday. Weather conditions forced mushers to take a rest day Friday in their 250-kilometre race from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet. (Photo by Dylan Kayotak, special to Nunatsiaq News)

By Dylan Kayotak<br and Shanshan Tian,
Special to Nunatsiaq News

The wind picked up overnight Thursday at Pingualuk Ungataa, the location of the Nunavut Quest’s Day 3 camp. On Friday morning, high winds and low visibility surrounded the camp.

Shall we stay or shall we go, was the main question at the morning meeting.

It was the start of the fourth day of racing for the 10 dogsled teams racing from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet. Nunavut Quest is an annual race with $54,500 in prize money up for grabs, including a $20,000 first prize.

Mushers from Arctic Bay spoke up and said that the trails into the valleys in this area can be easily mistaken and some can lead to surprise cliffs. For those that are unfamiliar with the trails, travelling in these conditions may lead to dangerous situations, they said.

Whiteout conditions combined with tracks made by hockey players headed to Pond Inlet for a tournament led Nunavut Quest mushers to take Friday as a rest day. It was the fourth day in the 250-kilometre race from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet that started Tuesday. (Photo by Shanshan Tian, special to Nunatsiaq News)

Elders Moses and Zipporah Oyokuluk from Arctic Bay talked about the weather systems in the area. Quest participants had camped in the worst weather in the surrounding area. The decision to stop here at the end of Day 3 was due to crossing trails with hockey players headed to Pond Inlet for the Qamutik Cup in Pond Inlet, due to start next week.

The Qamutik Cup is hosted annually by the community that the Nunavut Quest race competes in. Crossing trails and incoming Ski-Doos can distract the dogs and add unpredictable factors to the race.

A second meeting was held at noon to see if the weather conditions would change through the day or if mushers were getting antsy to keep moving. A vote took place among the mushers and the decision was made to stay the night. The whiteout could lead to trails being covered by the blowing wind and snow and lead to lost mushers.

Elder Charlie Inuarak talked about rest days being good days to do some maintenance for the dogs, trimming nails and fur in the paws, a good feeding, and to work on racing qamutik. The race had cached dog food along the trail and mushers are provided dog food for the race through the Ilagiiktunut Fund.

Donovan Qaunaq from Arctic Bay announced that he might be dropping out from the race because he’s down to six dogs.

Even though sometimes the same trail is used, with ongoing climate change, annual snowfall and varying weather conditions, every year’s Nunavut Quest is different from the years before.

  • Whiteout conditions combined with tracks made by hockey players headed to Pond Inlet for a tournament led Nunavut Quest mushers to take Friday as a rest day. It was the fourth day in the 250-kilometre race from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet that started Tuesday. (Photo by Shanshan Tian, special to Nunatsiaq News)

This article and the accompanying pictures are the result of a partnership between Nunatsiaq News and Igloolik youth participating in the Nunavut Quest Field Course, a project sponsored by QIA and the Ilagiiktunut Fund.

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