Midnight at Bear Glacier

This carving was made following a trip that took me very close to the top of Ellesmere Island, well above the 80 dg north latitude line  and deep into the so called, “Land of the Midnight Sun.”. On the first night of a 10-day kayak trip through the waters of Ellesmere Island’s Cane Basin, we made camp at Bear Glacier. At the campsite, the glacier became “hanging,” that is, it protruded out over and off the cliff. As it moved imperceptibly forward millimeter by millimeter, another iceberg broke away Every 30 minutes or so. First came a horrendous dynamite-like cracking sound, followed by its countless echoes, and then the huge splash at the icebergs impact followed, and then the nearly continuous hiss of the hundreds upon hundreds of minisplashes created by each of the myriad protrusions on the surface of the iceberg as it spun round and round and turned over and over until reaching its floating equilibrium!

The icebergs activity soon became background sounds and the night spent beside Bear Glacier was one of the most serene and spiritual I have ever experienced. The sun filtering through the tent and warming my face at midnight magnified this fantastic and totally unique experience at least tenfold! Aw, the Arctic…