This has to be one of the last moments of an ice camp. You can see the anchor chain attached to the ice and the dogs tethered to the chain. There are sledges and some gear to the left. But you can also clearly see how thin and patchy the sea ice is. If you look to the horizon then you can see two small grey dots halfway between the peninsular on the left and an island in the right. We’ll come back to them in a moment.

From this angle the ice actually looks okay, but rookies like me stopped walking and sleding on it at least a week earlier. The “crop circles” on the ice are made by the chains and the dogs walking around their territory. There are some pallets that they sleep on to stop them freezing to the ice. This is really is last minute stuff.

And then the “grey dots” arrive, plowing a channel through the ice to bring the first supply ship of the year to Uummannaq. If you look at the line of small grey dots in front of the bow of the ship… Yep, that’s a dog team, racing the ship to the docks.

Don’t do this at home, folks!

Makes the stars of ice road truckers look like weekend warriors! 😉

Chris