Going Nowhere

Our bags and sledges packed and my first cooked breakfast in months. As we were about to head for Iqaluit Airport we were told that our plane had been cancelled due to the blizzard. Apparently, we could probably have taken off okay but the landing would have been tricky. We were holed up in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. The Arctic is unpredictable, we were told, we would just have to sit tight and wait for the storm to pass. Dressed from head to toe in all our layers including Father Christmas outfits we decided to go for 'a little walk' to Frobisher Bay where the huskies hang out. We were told to follow in each other's footprints. I stuck my foot in the snow and it disappeared up to my knee. "Is this sea ice?" someone piped up. "Yup, just go nice and slow." I was walking on sea ice. I had a feeling that I was on the moon - white everywhere and people walking in slow motion in large space suit type outfits. I could barely see as the blizzard worsened. Next minute, our group's leader, David Hemplman-Adams, slipped over and fell flat on his back. I didn't see how this happened as I was too busy trying to concentrate on breathing through a black SAS style face mask. One minute he was walking and the next minute he was lying on the ice. Ouch. He got up before I could blink. "Are you okay?" I asked. "No problem. The funny thing is, I walked all the way to the North Pole and not fallen over once." He shook his head. This walking on ice is going to take some getting used to.