The Nunavut Quest dog team race ended here in Arctic Bay yesterday. The race itself ended but there are still festivities going on until the weekend. The final leg was won by Moses Oyukuluk of Arctic Bay and he may have won the overall title but the winners won’t be announced until a dance on Friday or Saturday. The race consists of a series of legs and the combined times of all the legs determines the winner.
The start and end points change from year to year, rotating through the communities of the North Baffin. This years race, the 10th anniversary, was from Iglulik to Arctic Bay. Just to give an idea of the distances they traveled, as the Raven flies Iglulik is over 400 kilometres away from here, their route would be longer than that.
Most of the images on this post were taken by Leah. Tuesday she went out to the final camp. Most of the town heads out to the final stop when the race ends here. Yesterday I was present for the arrival of the support teams, but Hilary was far too tired and cranky to stay out there and I missed the arrival of the dog teams.
There are a lot of images here, and I’ve posted them below the fold. For more pictures stop by Way Way Up and Kennie’s two blogs, Tales from the Arctic and Views of Canada’s North.
This handsome sled dog is a wolf/husky cross…
A view of part of the camp with some of the 195 dogs that participated…
The race is an opportunity for friends and relatives from other communities to get together…
Another view of the camp, there were twenty teams and their support crews…
It gets crowded out there…
After the teams stop for the day there are usually games. This race involved making five arches of snowblocks that then had to be crawled under…
Another participant…
Comments
2 responses
That looks like so much fun! I’m fascinated by dog sledding — not enough to get out in the cold and try it, mind you but fascinated nonetheless! That ice block building looks fun too!
Come on up Liza, it’s not that cold, and you can dress for it.