The sight of an untouched natural ice surface creates a powerful urge to skate away. This is especially true if the conditions are good: not too bumpy, not too many cracks, not too much snow. And if the scenery is gorgeous—as it was on this day on Aarrujaup Qinngua, a Baffin Island bay—all the better. No wonder Arctic researcher Shari Fox couldn’t resist the urge to slip into her blades after she’d finished annual maintenance on a nearby weather station.
Skating away on a frozen bay or river is different than skating indoors or even on a pond or small lake because you feel like you can go forever. And it can feel almost effortless. Joni Mitchell nails that sense of freedom in “River,” where she sings that if the river she dreams of was long enough, “I would teach my feet to fly.”
Location: Aarrujaup qinngua, about 125 kilometres from Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River)
