North on the Ice roads

Well I have done 2 trips on the ice so far, and it is interesting to say the least, before I start on the ice roads info I think I need to give you an understanding of how far north it is to Diavic Diamond mine.

To give all in Oz a point of reference I will use Hobart Tasmania.

Hobart is on the 42 latitude south, The equivalent latitude north passes through Pocetello in Idaho (due south of here) and Chicago on the Great Lakes.

If you were to travel 840klm (road distance) south of Hobart you would be on the 49th latitude, this is the same latitude as the Canada US border.

Another 620 klm south and you are on the 53rd latitude, the same latitude as Edmonton. (Macquarie Island is on the 54th latitude)

Another 1500klm south and you are on the 62nd latitude, the same latitude as Yellowknife.

Another 450 klm south and you are on the 64th latitude this is the same latitude as Diavic Diamond Mine. Approx 250 klm from the Arctic Circle.(Casey research station in the Antarctic is on the 66th latitude)

Or in land drive distances, If you were to drive the distance from Hobart to Townsville, south of Hobart, you will be as far south as Diavic is North.

The distance from Edmonton to Diavic is the same as from Peak Hill (south of Dubbo) to Townsville.

These trucks are actually parked on a small lake, it is only shallow and solid ice so is safe to park on till spring thaw.

A crack in the ice, there are a lot of these but they are not a safety issue

Moon over Lockhart lake as seen from the Lockhart Lake Camp

This is what it looks like from the cab, quite repetitive after a few hours as the loaded travel speed at 25klm/hour on most lakes, but does increase to 30Klm/hour on the more northern lakes. Travel speeds when empty are increased by 10 k /hour, and on designated express lanes for empty trucks 60klm/hour is allowed.

The weather was quite kind for the first trip according to the locals, only down to -37 but not much wind. I spun out (lost traction) on a portage, and had to put the chains on, it is surprising how adrenaline can make you oblivious to the cold, I had 8-12 trucks waiting for me to get mobile so we could all continue, ( no one could pass me where i spun out) in the rush to fit them i removed my gloves to do up the links, and I can tell you chains at -37 degrees and warm hands do not mix, Fortunately the was no moisture and my hands did not freeze to the chain links, and am I appreciative of that.

Though I did have a Dumb and Dumber moment the other day, it was in the -35 to -40 range and I unlocked the truck door with the key, i had a cup of coffee in the other hand, and instinctively put the key into my mouth so I could open the door with my free hand, the key at -35 immediately froze to my tongue and lip, luckily a key is small and the heat of my mouth warmed the key in a few seconds and i was able to free it without loosing any skin.

About the Ice Roads

This is a map of the location if the Ice Roads in the North west Territory, Canada. from Yellowknife to the Diavic mine is about 450 Klm and takes approx 15 hours to travel over the frozen lakes and portages (land outcrops), the longest lake is about 100klm 0f ice to drive over at a speed not exceeding 30 klm/hour, 3 hours non stop.
To leave Yellowknife we travel in groups of 2 to 4 trucks for safety, and we must travel as a convey, to the next checkpoint. Convoy dispatch times are 20 minutes apart. the first 70 Klm is along the Ingram trail, a narrow windy section of formed road, (speed limit 70klm/hour), the leader of the convoy has to call the direction of the convoy (on 2 way VHF radio) the number of trucks and the Klm marker he is passing, this allows others traveling on the road who is on the road, (you hear comments like 4 north at the 25k marker 1st 2 12 wide) if you are traveling


















south and are at the 27k marker you know you are about to pass 4 trucks and the first 2 are 12 foot (3.6 meters) wide. Overtaking is not allowed and each unit must space themselves 1 klm apart.
At the end of the Ingram trail the Ice Roads begin, there is a check in point called the Meadows, where the leader of the convoy calls security and reports the number of trucks, our direction(north or south) and the individual road user number of each truck, When all units have arrived and done a series of load and safety checks, clearance to proceed is requested and given if the previous convoy is far enough ahead. The Next check point is Lockhart camp about 150 klm over the lakes, expected time if travel goes well is about 8 hours. The speed limit and distance is decreased the max speed 25 klm at a minimum distance of 500 meters, no overtaking allowed. If someone has to stop for any reason you must call you have stopped and why, all traffic traveling the direction the stopped unit is traveling must stop when you are 500 meters behind the unit ahead. Security is monitoring the radio and come as soon as they here a call to oversee the situation, and get the traffic flowing as soon as possible.
There is no stopping on the ice except in emergencies, non emergency stops if required are allowed on portages with sufficient space to park safely.
Speed onto and off the ice is lowered to 10 klm/hour as the ice can be damaged if hit too fast.

There is a formula to determine the load capacity of the ice is 4 times the thickness squared, so if the ice is 5cm thick (5 X 5 = 25, 4 X 25 = 100) therefore the load carrying capacity is 100 kg, you can see on the chart above the load capacity for the thickness. The load capacity at the moment is 63000kg so the ice must be 125cm thick.























The cold is interesting, it is not as cold as I thought it would be, the locals tell me this is because the humidity is so low, the humidity affects the cold in a similar way like humidity increases the stress of heat, the higher the humidity the colder it feels.
When there is no wind , it is not too hard to keep warm if you wear enough layers, though, the wind is the hard element to take, it just increases the heat loss so much quicker, the charts beside and below allow you to see the difference in how the wind changes how cold it feels.
























For more info try this sight A field guide to ice construction safety

http://www.dot.gov.nt.ca/_live/documents/documentManagerUpload/Ice%20Construction%20Field%20Guide%20web.pdf

Just some more amazing photos!!

Wanted to show you some more photos of our week away but Clay has over 700 photo so these were just a few in the first 100 or so. The top photo is taken at Meligne Canyon at the beginning or ice walk. The bottom photo is also on the ice walk. We walked on a frozen river at the botton of the canyon. It was just amazing!
This is just a beautiful photo of somekind of bird. It is warming up here so the animals are coming out. This was taken at the top of the gondular in Banff.
Just to show you how big some pf the rockies are. Can you spot the 2 sets of ice climbers?? This is on the road between Banff and Jasper. The side of the mountain is called the weeping wall and it just weeps in summer but as you can see its not weeping now. We were amazed to see these guys climb so far up. Not for me Im afraid.
This is about as brave as I get walking on the ice. you could feel it moving under your feet in some places. Clay went through the ice in a few spots. The scenery was just beyond explaining. No photos can do it justice.

Tina

Yes Believe it or not Im back!!!

Hi all, Well finally I have done another entry into the blog. I have been so busy being a tourist guide and entertaining our family that I havent had much time. I have so many photos to show you all but find it hard to pick. Clayton allown took 700 photos while we were in the rockies this week and they havent been uploaded yet.
I hear Oz is green, wet and rather cold for summer, it will be lovely to see all the paddocks green and the grass for the cattle coming into winter.
I decided to put a few "texture" photos in, sort of. the first photo is of the snow on the outside of the window. Even my snowmen and bear were cold. The photo below is of ice crystal on the window. Windows have a double pane to keep the cold out. I thought this looks like winter wonderland.

Snowflakes are hard to picture and are so beautiful so below is an attempt to show different shapes. I would love to do a photo study of snowlakes. Perhaps draw my own snowflake quilt. I thought each flake was a different shape but Clay "burst my snowflake" by telling me this isnt true, so I will have to do my own investigations.
This is a photo Kylie took of a frozen waterfall whilst she was travelling with Phil in the truck. It is hard to imagine that waterfalls freeze but they do. Many of the lakes and waterfalls are frozen at the moment. Clay and I went on a ice walk into a canyon which is just a frozen river. It was just magical but you will have to wait for photos of that when we get them down loaded.

Most of you know that Phil is travelling the ice roads at the moment. He drives up to Yellowknife and then travels on the frozen lakes, several hundred Kilometres north. He will be doing this for about 6 more weeks. Some of you may have heard him speaking on Macca last Sunday morning. It will be interesting to see his photo if the camera hasnt frozen. it is about -30 ish up where he goes which is good as it keeps the lakes frozen.

All but Clay have returned to Oz. He will be leaving on Monday just a couple of hours after Gai arrives. What a fun month we are going to have. I will have to do the tourist guide thing and also convince her that -4 really isnt that cold. So looking forward to that.

Tim, Kate and Elijah have settled back to normal????!!!! Elijah gets excited when he sees the photos as if he remembers being here. I miss them so much, Elijah was so much fun to have and so good. Tim is still teaching and Kate is being a fantastic Mum, not long now till number 2 arrives.

Josh started uni this week and has move to a new house. He is having centrlink hassels but hopefully we can resove that this week. Jane started uni today and is enjoying the warm back home. It was so much fun to have them around, I miss them so much, I just got used to them being here and hoped they would stay longer. So many things we didnt do in the three months they were here.

Kylie has moved to Perth and is still looking for accommadation and a job, but I'm sure she will settle soon. Selwyn is back to work and both of them will attend a wedding in April in New Zealand. Little did I know that when Kylie went to Spain nearly 10 years ago that she will never stop travelling.

Clays contract finished mid January so he has moved from Tassy and planning to go back to Brisbane. He is looking for a animation job and will actually go anywhere for the right Job. Watch out for "Pixel Pinky" later in the year.

I have been finding the "cabin fever" quite difficult, which has made me annoyed because I feel that getting down is a waste of time. The week in the mountains was helpful and hopefully having Gai around will help me "thaw" (sorry that was so bad) out of it. Well until next time, which will be much sooner, Enjoy the warmth and dont forget to smell the roses.

Love Tina

Touring in the Rocky Mountains again.

Hi all in the land down under. I believe you are having a very mild summer, we also are having a fairly mild winter, not to much snow, yet! We are in the Rockies with Tim, Kate Elijah, Josh and Jane. As you can see in the above photo there is plenty of snow here. This is actually a photo of Simpson Lake near the town of Banff. Every turn is a photo opportunity and a quite hard to describe. Photos don't do the magnificent scenery justice. The guys and Jane have got a fair bit of skiing in over the past week. The skied at the Famous Lake Louis ski resort and I think that was a high light for them. No injuries and lots of new skills learnt. Josh has been snowboarding and has mastered it quite well. Jim, Crystal, Erin and Carly joined us for the weekend which was lovely. Pity they had to go home and back to work and school.
This photo is taken in the Fairmont Hotel in Banff. I think this hotel is on every tourist brochure advertising Canada. How cute is Elijah. He has been so good it is really unbelievable. He is happy all the time and happy to go to anyone. He didn't like the snow at first but today he had a little play on his own in the snow. Maybe he did this because Phil and I wanted him to keep walking.
Yes you read this right. This was on the way to drop the guys of skiing in Lake Louise. Cold isn't a word to describe -30. It was a clear, sunny day and the skiing was fantastic, though.
While skiing was happening Kate, Elijah and Myself went shopping in Banff and had lunch at the spaghetti factory. Elijah was just a delight as the photo shows. I am going to miss them so much. We have had a great holiday and will never forget the beautiful mountains, frozen lakes and amazing picture opportunities we have enjoyed.

The girls also managed a trip to the Patchwork shop in Canmore. Didn't we have fun and I think they will have to restock the shop after we had been there. The shop is call the Sugar Pine Company in Canmore, take a look as it has some beautiful fabrics. We even got Jane interested and she brought some beautiful things.

Tim, Kate and Elijah go home on Monday and Clayton arrives on Thursday, I suppose I have to take him to the mountains as well. Its such a hard job!!!!
Well till next time, enjoy the warmth in Oz.

Lots of love Tina

Winter is so much fun

Elijah and Grandad (Phil) checking out the truck. What a great photo, not real clear but the moment was certainly grasped in the photo. This photo was ment to be last but Im still trying to sort out this blogging. So forgive me. The blog actually starts after the ice fishing photo. Ha ha

Hi to all in the land down under! I hear it is hot and that there has been a bit of rain in varies places. Fantastic!!!!

Tim, Kate and Elijah arrived the day that Kylie left. There were lots of tears at the airport that day. I am so loving having the kids visit, Clayton is coming on the 1st of February, how fantastic is that. I am already wondering how I am going to say goodbye to Elijah. He is so gorgous and so happy. Kate and Tim are having their 2nd baby in June. How exciting.

We went ice fishing last weekend. It was a perfectly beautiful day. Around -8. The above photo is of Tim drilling a hole in the ice and the black tent thingys is what you sit on top of the hole to see the fish swimming below, you sit in them to fish. Egg shells are put in the hole and as they sink you can see how deep the water is. The photo below is of the actual hole, as you can see the ice is around 12 inches thick. We were walking on a huge lake where we also went snowmobiling. Tim was so excited he got to drive a pick up truck on the lake.

What a beautiful photo of Jane with a fish she had caught. How exciting!!! No she didnt keeep it not quite big enough!! Jim also caught one, and has a "one that got away" story.

The boys and Jim's toy. Tim, Josh, Phil and Jim, next to the pick up Tim drove on the ice. What an adventure for everyone. The girls went home early to put Elijah to bed. He doesnt like the snow too much. It is like one big white beach to him and he doesnt like having to put on the snow gear.
Josh and Tim went skiing and snowboarding yesterday to keep there hand, or legs in for the ski trip to the rockies. Yes once again I have to sacrifice a week of my time in the Rockies, sigh. We are going to Banff for a week. Crystal, Jim, Erin and Carly are coming with us for the weekend. Which will be a lot of fun. Then we will stay on till the end of the week. We are all excited to have a week together in such a beautiful place. Phil has taken a week off as well. I am certainly taking time to smell the roses and am thankful for the days we can have together in such a magnificent place. God is so Good.

Well till next time. Enjoy the warmth and remember to smell the roses!!!

Im sorry to most of you that I have sent you Christmas cards and to some gifts, but it appears nothing has arrived in Australia yet. I sent some in early October but they havent even arrived. So hopefully you will get them before next Christmas. ha ha

Lots of love Tina

Happy New Year

Hi all in the Very Warm Land down under. Hope you enjoyed the Holiday break we were thinking of you as you greeted the New Year 18 hours earlier than we did. No we didnt stay up, we were too tired after our trip to Jasper.

The above photo is of Josh and Jim, yes we had a Barby in the snow. Delicous steak and salads, so we wouldnt get home sick. Josh even managed to share a beer with Jim, no ice cubes needed.
(okay guys I know you dont put ice cubes in beer but it justs adds to the story) After supper and a quick round of cards we headed off ice skating on the pond in the night time. Off course I didnt skate, someone had to mind the handbags. Everyone was quite good on the skates except poor "old" Phil, who hasnt skated for at least 15 years. Phil is the one on the ice it is called "bum skating" a new craze that he started. ha ha Actually he did fantastic and there was something special about skating in natural surroundings. It had snowed so that made it even more perfect.

Okay, this one is of the Kylie, Jane and Phil on there way up to a higher skiing hill. Note the amazing rockies in the background. Josh missed this ride. I warned them not to put their toungues on the metal poles. ( Tim we did remember that stupid movie). This is the ski hill at Jasper called Marmot.
Too many heads together doesnt make light work!!! They are trying to take a photo of a snow flake. Some of the flakes are as big as 10cent peices or bigger. They are standing on a frozen lake called Patrica Lake. I have photos of the lake on earlier blogs. It is so incredible to think this was a large lake and now people cross country ski and ice skate on it now. You can see the snow falling in this photo.
This is Athabasca falls. Well it is actually Athabasca frozen. Sorry bad joke. It was the most beatiful site I have seen. (well since the last one anyway). There is still a little water coming over the falls but the rest is frozen. It is almost unbelievable to think that a waterfall can freeze up so much. There are lots of stalagtites of ice, making a winter wonderland.
It is back to work for Phil this week after having 9 or so days off. Kylie has gone with him to experience the Truckie world. They are headed to Vancouver which is a breathtaking drive on the other side of the rockies. They will enjoy having this time together.

Josh and Jane are back to work this week. Tim, Kate and Elijah arrive on the 10th Jan. just half and hour after Kylie flies out. Really bad timing, but Edmonton airport doesnt give too many choices for available flights to the USA.

Have a great week and I look forward to sharing the hundreds of photos already taken just over the weekend.

See ya Tina

A Canadian Christmas

The Canadian Esky!!!!!
These are our dear friends Willie and Andy where we had coffee (imagine the Canadian accent) after Church on Christmas morning. What a beautiful photo. Kylie was feeling rather jet lagged at this point but we had a beautiful morning together.
At supper time we went to another beautiful family Bert and Hendrica. They provided us with a beautiful traditional supper which we shared with some of there family. Dave and Leanne have 5 children and it was such a pleasure to enjoy all there company and the children were just beautiful. What a lovely time we had. I made "traditional" pavlova which none of them had ever had, and ice cream, which we stored in the garage till it was time to eat. Bert had stored the turkey in the garage until it was time to thaw, how funny is that.

This is Kylie and Josh Christmas morning outside our Church, they had a beautiful ice sculpture done of baby Jesus in His manger and the Star of bethlehem, which is sort of in the background.

We had a lovely day together and were thrilled to share it with such beautiful people. Boxing day was spent in the Mall which was so busy it was hard to move.

Today we are having another Christmas night with Jim and Crystal, Erin and Carly. We are going ice skating on one of the outside dams then having supper together. Jane is working today but Josh is off. He brought himself a snow board and is keen to try it out. We are off to the Rocky mountains tomorrow for a few days before Phil has to go back to work. Oh no not the tour guide bit again!!! Guess I will have to suffer. It is snowing outside just a little as I write, how beautiful.

Enjoy the rest of the Christmas holidays and remember to take time to smell the roses.

Lots of love Tina

Thinking of you as you celebrate the birth of our Savour

Just thought I would throw in some more photos of the freezing Edmonton, while the Land Down Under is hot and wet, so we believe.
We went tobogganing for the first time on Sunday. We firstly had lunch and a game of cards with Jim, Crystal, Erin and Carly, then all of us ventured onto the slopes. Yes even I had several turns, but the hills seem much bigger here/or is it that I am getting older?
Josh and Jane also had some newly acquired friends come along so 11 of us enjoyed out doing each other, or getting as many to go down together as possible, races. Im sure weight has one advantage at this point because I reacon I go faster, or that is my story and Im sticking to it.

This photo is of Phil and Jim admiring the beautiful city of Edmonton. Phil went down the hill a few times head first and ended up with icicles hanging from his mo. Jim was the photographer and took some great shot of our adventures. I just have to learn now how to get them of the CD onto the blog page.
This is the city of Edmonton. For a city of nearly a million people there are not many high rise buildings. There are tunnels underground which you can walk to many places without getting out into the snow and that is fantastic as the weather gets down in the -20s during winter.

The Church we are attending puts on a nativity display for 3 nights this week. They display over 400 different scenes, and have different kinds of Christmas music ( choirs, pipe organ, recitals etc etc) playing. They offer free hot drinks and open the church up to the people of Edmonton. Folk from the Church welcome people in and are on hand to talk with the visitors. Thousands of people come to see the display each year. There is a street connected called "Candy Cane Lane" which has the biggest display of Christmas lights so people can park in the church car park and walk, then come in to see the display. Over the past years it has been a great outreach to families in Edmonton. Last year out of the 400 displayed there was only 1 with baby Jesus on his stomach. Interesting!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a great time with your families over the Holiday break. Take time to reflect on the Birth of Jesus and what He has done for us. Whilst opening presents and enjoying Christmas treats remember the greatest gift to us and remind each other and our children of the real reason for this Celebration.

Love to you all Phil and Tina

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!!!

Hi to "ye who is much warmer than thou". As you can see our -20 somethings have stayed most of the week. It is -22 this morning. Last night we went walking down town to the provincial building, which is a beautiful, old building where the city has put an amazing display of lights and ice sculputers. They also have choirs singing in the building for the next few weeks leading up to Christmas with free hot chocolate, with refills. The ice sculptures are just out the front and just amazing. I will have to learn ,when Phil gets home how to use the camera at night.
In Edmonton they have sleigh rides through out the city you can even take a sleigh ride to look at the street lights in different neighbour hoods. It is quite strange to be walking in the snow at Christmas time.

Josh is just sampling something "on the rocks". Josh and Jane both got work the first shops they walked into. Jane has been working in a costume jewelery/assessories shop since Wednesday. Josh starts work today in a Sports store selling skies, snow boards etc. Both are very happy and have easily ajusted to the jet lag.
We have Erin-May visiting till Tuesday, from Australia. She got stuck in Banff for a few days with a snow storm but has managed finally to get to us. What a great photo! The family who invited us to share the evening with them brought a snow mobile thingy???? yesterday, so that has created a fair bit of excitement in our household. We may get a go in the next few days before Erin-May goes. Phil will be home tonight (saturday) so that will also be fun to enjoy this beautiful weather with him.

I have finally finished all my Christmas sewing and card writing and now have to concentrate on packing, as we move next weekend. That also will be a first, moving in the snow. Once you get rugged up like the abominable snow man its not too bad out.

Have a great week, "and take time to smell the roses", maybe I need to change that to "take time to throw a snowball!"

Lots of love Tina