BAK

There is no extreme cold in New Hampshire.

Extreme cold is when the tires are flatsided and thumb for an hour before they warm up enough to be round. Extreme is when there is a quarter inch of inc inside the windshield when the defroster is on full blast for half an hour.

If you want to go to the Arctic Circle, come back in the summer.

All the survival equipment in the world does not save you when the rescue team can't travel because the winds are too great and the show is too thick.

The western Arctic in the winter kills people.

And it is too cold to go out and see things, too.

Check out past weather history, and you'll see that a lot of Alaska is balmy compared to Canada, because the ocean is along the Alaska coast.

You could fly to Yellowknife -- that is not completely nuts, but trying to drive north of there may not even be permitted by the mounties.

You can see snow and ice and take pictures and be cold, but probably not die, in Banff and Lake Louise and in the mountaians of British Columbia.

BAK

laverendrye

Gemelli: You got it! In addition to evoking the great explorer, my name reflects that I once lived on a rue Laverendrye, and that I now live close to another one.

For AnnaW:

Your quest for arctic adventure puts me in mind of your intrepid British forebears such as Sir John Franklin and Scott of the Antarctic. I wish you success.

For hockey, rather than seeking out college hockey, look for junior hockey games, which you will find accross the country. The top league is the Canadian Hockey League (http://www.chl.ca/CHL/home.html ) or Major Junior A consisting of the QMJHL in Quebec and the Maritimes, the OHL in Ontario, and the WHL in the West. The standard of hockey is very high, and you will see many future NHL stars, if that league ever gets started again. But there's also lots of good junior hockey across the country at a level below the CHL (Junior A), and you should find a game in most towns you travel through.

taggie

I'm with BAK. Any cold you experienced in New Hampshire is NOTHING compared to northern Canada (maybe even not-so-northern Canada during an extreme cold snap).

Judy_in_Calgary

I know a Calgary geologist who used to work in the far north. He said that in the camp where he was based they used to keep a couple of vehicles running 24/7. This was because when the temperature (without wind chill factor) was down around - 50 deg C, the engines would not start if they had been left off. In those circumstances having a block heater and leaving the vehicle plugged in meant nothing.

laverendrye

AnnaW

To provide an optimistic note after all our warnings, weather this winter in Canada will be affected by the El Nino phenomenon. In very rough terms, this means that it is likelier to be colder than normal in the East and warmer in the West. So you may not see the real extremes of cold in the NWT and Yukon, but I wouldn't count on the ice bridge melting.

You can check the Environment Canada website for details.

rkkwan

I am with BAK and others - I don't think you get it. We fodorites here are not trying to scare you, but the reality is much harsher and dangerous than you think. For example, you put "mobile phone" as one of the item in your survival kit. Well, I think a satellite phone is more like it.

And what kind of vehicle are you going to drive? Rent it at an agent? I will not do anything like this without two full-size spare, even in summer. And what tires will you have on these wheels?

Hey, if you want to do this in the winter, that's fine. But you'll need to do it in the summer first, maybe a couple of times, to make preparations for that winter adventure. The way you're presenting your plan here, we all feel like you're going to get killed, or have your trip ended in a tragedy.

laverendrye

rkkwan raises a good point regarding mobile telephones. In BC, for example, there are sections of major highways, including the Trans-Canada, that have no coverage. Northern Ontario is the same, with gaps in coverage even on main highways. As for the Yukon and NWT, outside of Whitehorse and Yellowknife, there is virtually nothing. A satellite phone would be the only means if one wanted to maintain communications.

rkkwan

Oh, just want to clarify another thing. There actually is extreme cold in NH - at the top of Mount Washington. But not anywhere else. Yes, you may see some pretty low temperatures in New England, but that's usually for only a day or two, and you may find yourself above freezing soon later.

Having such cold for a short period of time can be interesting, but not when you're in NW Canada when it's like that for weeks.

And, in New Hamphsire, even if you get stuck in a blizzard on the mountains, if you can call for help by phone, they can still come rescue you as no towns are more than a couple dozen miles from anywhere in NH. That in contrast to up to hundred of miles of nothingness in the Arctic. To put it bluntly, I really hate to see Canadian rescue teams risk their lives (not to mention cost) to pick a couple of newlyweds from England who're there just to have fun.

travellingteacher

I lived most of my life in Calgary and now live in Vancouver. I've driven between the two cities many times in the winter. It can be okay but many, many times it is very difficult if not deadly.

One time the usual 10 - 12 hour trip took two days (we had to stop over in small town because of road closures). We drove about 10km per hour, the wipers full blast and the visibility was almost non existent. The passenger had their window open looking out to ensure we were still on the road and not going over the side of the mountain. The roads are at high elevations and believe me there is the possibility of plunging off the road. Many times throughout the trip the road was closed and reopened. We waited for hours at times for the road to open. We were stuck in our car in -25C weather - nothing around. No place to eat, go to the toilet - nothing. Canada is a big country and distances between towns or cities can be quite far. It was very scary. Happily we made it.

Black ice is also an issue. You can't see it and if you hit a patch and particularly if you happen to be going down hill you could be in trouble. You are required to have snow tires and chains are recommended for your tires.

My brother in law did the trip once and he was a nervous wreck. He has never done the trip again in the winter.

Hopefully you won't experience these conditions but it is not uncommon. Minus 35C is not unusual.

I'd just hate someone to take the trip not knowing what they could encounter.

Your trip sounds exciting! Good luck with whatever you decide.

PS Love the Ice Hotel idea.

BAK

Flipping through a Canadian atlas in Costco yesterday I found the January temperture charts for Resolute and Dawson -- minus 30C in both places for January.

Northern winter travellers need to find a web site that lists the daylight hours, too.

Toronto today has fog and I was driving in it for an hour this morning, thinking about winter driving in this country.

At night, with headlights hitting swirling snow, while the road is white, and the shoulder is white, and the ditch is white, and the field beside is white, winter travel ain't always a joy.

Here is the south of the country, I remember a winter drive to Ottawa one Christmas day with lake effects snow (not the same problem in the arctic, but similar) I got behind a big truck. My goal was to go where his tail lights had just been, as long as the lights remained horizontal. As soon as one taillight got higher than the other, I would know he had found the ditch.

I followed him for about three hours, at about 40MPH, until we turned off at a service center.
BAK

BAK

Curiosity, and a desire to not do real work, got the better of me.

Next January 5 in Yellowknife the sun will rise about 10 a.m. and set about 3:30.

Over the past four years, the low temperatrures were, from 2001 to 2004, minus 32, minus 24, minus 22 and minus 30. The highs, 2001 to 2004, were minus 28, minus 13, minus 8, and minus 24.

On January 5 in High Level Alberta, about two thirds of the way from Edmonton to the Northwest Territory border, low in the same order were minus 17, minus 23, minus 16 and minus 9. Highs, from 2001 to 2004, were minus 13, minus 26, minus 8 and minus 6.

I looked up Mayo in the Yukon, on the road to Inuvik, south of Dawson, and lows ranged from minus 21 to minus 39 and highs got all the way to minus 12 one year. The other highs were all minus temperature -- 25, 27, 32

And New Hampsire, since we are curious?
Last year in Berlin, the low was minus 6 and the high was minus 2 (centigrade)

BAK