Sunday, April 21st, 1985 (Log Day 4)

We arose to a cold, clear morning of 25 degrees below zero Celsius (13 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) with the wind chill making it 50 degrees below zero Celsius (60 degrees below zero Fahrenheit). After a hearty breakfast, we waited for word about our departure. Bezal called and said that the weather was poor at Eureka and that we would not leave today unless there was an improvement. We spent the morning sightseeing around Resolute. We visited the M1 site, a Thule Eskimo winter village occupied in the 12th century A.D. A brief talk on the Thule occupation of the Canadian Arctic, and the winter houses at the site, was given by Bezal and myself. We also drove up to the water tower which supplies the town, and toured through the village. We returned to the Narwhal for lunch, and at 3:00 PM when it appeared from the weather reports that we would spend another night in Resolute, an hour and a half slide lecture was given on the prehistory of the Canadian Arctic. At Earl's request, we had another session on Arctic health hazards such as frost bite and snowblindness. Today's weather gave everyone a good indication of what we would likely experience on our travels farther north. We learned that several attempts were in progress (in addition to ours, of course) to attain the true North pole and the Magnetic North pole. A Japanese actress was attempting the geographic pole by snowmobile (at this writing, she had withdrawn), and an American two-man group calling itself the McGuire Polar Expedition had reached a point not far off the north coast of Ellesmere Island as of April 21; they were traveling on foot and on skis. The third group, a team of journalists from Edmonton, were still in Resolute awaiting weather good enough to leave on skis for the Magnetic pole. After another excellent meal prepared by Dan Harris, the innkeeper at the Narwhal, Bezal and Terry showed us home movies of various trips they had taken to Lake Hazen and Grise Fiord. We were informed that the weather was improving farther north, and that we would likely leave early in the morning. Peter, Bezal's assistant, managed to get a flight up to Hazen this evening to get the camp ready for our arrival in the morning.