In the past 30 years, geographers from all over the world have been debating where the northernmost human settlement is on the earth. Some say that it is in NorwayLongyearbyen, which is only 1,300 kilometers away from the North Pole; others say Let’s talk about Tromso, Norway, where the sub-zero temperature lasts for 5 months every year and the snow season lasts for more than 6 months.
In fact, the northernmost human settlement on the earth is in Alert, Nunavut, Canada. It is located at 82°28′N, which is not only further north than 78°13′N in Longyearbyen, but also farther away. The distance to the North Pole is also closer (817 kilometers), and its climate is even more severe than Tromso . It snows 10 months a year. Only the summer period of July-August can reach above-zero temperatures, and the average temperature It only stays between 3-4℃.
Why does Canada allow the outside world to compete for the "northernmost residential area" and remain indifferent? Because allert is crucial .
In 1969, the U.S. Navy, which had set up bases and monitoring stations around the world, suddenly announced that it would voluntarily withdraw from the naval base in Alert, and its sovereignty officially belonged to Canada. It was said that "the base's huge income and harvest are extremely inconsistent." But it was not until a year later that the last US soldier packed up and prepared to leave. Before leaving, he left a message to the Canadian officer: Please do not block Alert, because my lover and her eight comrades are still buried here. .
All this starts from the end of and during World War II.
In 1945, Colonel Hubbard of the U.S. Army was transferred to the Weather Bureau to be responsible for the development of "weather attack weapons." The first step was to propose the establishment of two weather stations within the Arctic Circle , and finally selected Greenland and Alert, which could be supplied by sea. . Canada later joined in, but due to technological and economic factors, it was only responsible for providing transportation, communications, logistics, etc. to the US military.
In 1946, in order to prevent the Soviet Union from crossing the Arctic, the US military decided to expand the scale of the Alert weather station to collect experimental data such as extreme climate evolution processes to a greater extent. However, Canada was worried that the United States would "occupy the magpie's nest", so it proposed the establishment of a two-state Joint Arctic Weather Station and sent the first staff to Alert in 1949.
Since the Arctic sea lanes had not yet been explored and there were no docks nearby, the US military sent the aircraft carrier Edisto to transport personnel and supplies nearby and then dropped them off by helicopters, including a Royal Canadian Air Force Lancaster helicopter. .
Later declassified documents show: On July 31, 1950, in addition to the two Canadian pilots, the helicopter that took off from the US military aircraft carrier also had 4 Canadian climatologists and 3 American engineers carrying equipment. It arrived as planned. Alet weather station dropped personnel and equipment at low altitude. Unfortunately, the helicopter exploded 500 meters away from Alert, killing all nine crew members.
For the US military, the deaths were only a few insignificant engineers, but it was a huge loss for Canada. These four climatologists already had all the "family wealth" Canada could provide. From then on, Canada never mentioned participating in the project again and concentrated on logistics and security, dispatching hundreds of female soldiers and more than 100 firefighters.
In 1969, the Soviet Union deployed millions of troops on the Chinese border, and the atmosphere was on the verge of breaking out. However, the U.S. military received intelligence that "the Soviet Union had stagnated and become rigid." After many rounds of discussions, the United States and Canada concluded that the Soviet navy at that time was no longer capable of intervening in the Arctic. , and the Arctic Joint Weather Station's development of "weather weapons" was very slow. Coupled with various reasons such as huge costs, harsh environment, and personnel injuries, it was unanimously decided to abandon this plan.
However, a US soldier strongly opposed the evacuation and even asked to stay behind after the large troops evacuated, until he had to evacuate in 1970.The Canadian military officer who took over at the time immediately launched an investigation after receiving the request "not to blockade". It turned out that after the Canadian Navy was unable to participate in the "weather weapons" research, it turned to Alert as a "polar training ground" for female soldiers, and later participated Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, who came in, also used Alert as a training ground. At its peak, there were 215 soldiers stationed there, of which Canadian female soldiers accounted for about 1/3.
One of the female soldiers had a secret affair with a US soldier, but she was buried in an avalanche with her teammates during a field training. The soldier's search for the soldier was unsuccessful for three consecutive years, so after leaving, she applied to return again.
After listening to the story told by the guide, I became very interested in Alert, but the guide poured cold water on me: Although the US military has left, Alert is still an important place for military and scientific research. It is directly under the Canadian Army Communications Department and is stationed with three naval and air force barracks and two communication stations. One of them is the longest-distance early warning radar station in North America. It has collected data on a large number of Soviet sea-based intercontinental ballistic missile test launches.
couldn't resist my request, and the guide finally agreed to try through the Nunavut Territory administrator to see if he could enter Alert as a tourist or photographer. Surprisingly, the female congresswoman in Iqaluit, the capital, readily agreed to issue a letter of recommendation, and also contacted her cousin, the correspondent stationed in Alert, to guide her throughout the process (actually, she was monitoring her).
While waiting, the Iqaluit City Government notified the interview twice, once to hand over the drone and telephoto lens for custody, and the other time to sign a confidentiality letter "not to be disclosed for 5 years" (so the Nunavut series has not been released until now) can write). In the end, although the notice had been reviewed, there were no corresponding flights or cruises to depart. Fortunately, the working group of the Alert Snowmobile Race departed on the fourth day, and we were able to take a flight with them (free of charge).
On the plane, a staff member introduced to me: This competition was initiated by a Chinese Ph.D. in environmental science named Hong Haili (transliteration), aiming to increase people’s understanding of the Arctic Circle and the urgent need for Arctic environmental protection. Especially the Arctic temperatures that have been rising in recent years.
also holds a "Relay for Life" charity walking competition every December. It is said to have been initiated by a cancer patient in 2011, and then quickly detonated the North American charity community. The number of participants has skyrocketed every year. In 2016, there were more than 3,000 participants. , the donations raised have also increased year by year to the current 270 million Canadian dollars.
If I had any yearning for this place before arriving in Alert, my answer might be more inclined to the love story, but after landing, I realized: This place is so desolate that it is unacceptable. No wonder the US military took the initiative to withdraw its navy. base.
When the small plane staggered and landed at the airport, I couldn't even see clearly whether there was a runway under my feet. There were only two sled dogs that looked like Arctic wolves wandering near the plane. The guide pointed to the houses behind the Canadian flag and said: When you get there, you can only see the outline of the runway by looking back at the airport. In fact, even if you climb halfway up the mountain, you can't see the runway clearly, so there are very few flights to Alert. Is it because there are only a few pilots who dare to fly and land?
While I was still silently cheering for the pilot, the guide suddenly said something else: The reason why Canada does not compete with other countries for the title of "Northernmost Residential Area" is not only the military significance and scientific research value of Alert, but also There is a very important reason why Alert has no permanent residents, not even one.
In fact, Alert has been inhabited since World War II, but it was not until the 21st century that non-military personnel entered. After the first female commander of Alert took office in 1996, the place was officially opened to tourists. Although the threshold It is very high, but it basically remains above 3,000 people every year.
Outside the airport, the guide (tentatively called my cousin) had been waiting for me on a snowmobile for a long time. Hearing that my camera had an insulated bag, he even drove to the snow slope to take a few photos. According to my cousin, the temperature in Alert from October to April next year is below -20°C, and -30°C is the norm. If electronic products do not have thermal insulation bags, they will not survive for half an hour outdoors. The product wouldn't even start, even the snowmobile had to be paired with an electrode heater to start.
The first stop of Alert's itinerary is the coordinate points on the north and south sides. Whenever an official team visits, a corresponding landmark distance board will be added, such as 22,720 kilometers from Toronto, 22,680 kilometers from Victoria, etc. Since I landed as a tourist, I am not eligible for the increase, which is a big pity.
"It snows ten months a year, so isn't the amount of snowfall in Alert scary?" My cousin was immediately happy when she heard my question. She took out her phone and showed me the photo: This is the Arctic built by Canada in 1984. At the greenhouse gas sampling station, there was no snow three days ago, but now only a small part can be seen, which is equivalent to a snow thickness of 1.8 meters in three days.
This is not the worst. What is even more terrifying is that blizzards usually come with storms. The maximum wind recorded in history is 64 meters per second (a super hurricane is only 51 meters). Most of the time, it is between 12-13 meters. (between 32.7 meters per second and 41.4 meters per second). Fortunately, there will be a safe transition period after each storm.
You can basically see the aurora during the safe period after the storm. This natural phenomenon caused by the solar particle flow and the earth's magnetic field is very common in Alert, but the aurora is more obvious after the snowstorm purifies dust and impurities, and The arcs are longer and more elegant, and sometimes pale pink auroras appear.
Although we have seen aurora many times in Northern Europe, the aurora in Alert is indeed very rare. It even floats at a speed visible to the naked eye. The camera can easily capture it by simply setting the shutter speed.
Snowflakes started to fall early the next morning, and the wind speed was about 10 meters per second. My cousin took us to the place where the helicopter crashed in the snow. We thought it was still more than 500 meters away when the incident happened, but we didn’t expect that it had been moved to the place long ago. The neighborhood is convenient for tourists to visit, and you can get there with just a kick of the accelerator. Because the wind and snow were so heavy at the time, I didn’t take a clearer picture until the afternoon when the snow stopped.
According to my cousin’s description, the helicopter remains not only represent a tribute to climatologists, but also remind future generations of the importance of Arctic scientific research. Of course, I did not reveal the true purpose of "they died because of the development of weather weapons".
The next step is to experience the hunting project of "nomads" in Alert. Since Alert prohibits civilian settlement, there are no permanent residents within hundreds of kilometers, leaving polar bears, arctic wolves, arctic fox, and seals in this area. Wait, wild animals are extremely dense. After every large-scale snowstorm, these animals will hide in safe areas for safety, and then come out to look for food collectively when they are safe. This is what the hunters who have come from thousands of miles away are waiting for.
According to the regulations of the Nunavut Rifles Association, any wilderness belonging to the archipelago is not subject to hunting laws. As long as you have a hunting license you can hunt without applying. For example, we saw a pair of Inuit father and son hunting a car full of seals in one day and one night.
The fur of arctic creatures is very important to the Inuit people. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the only "magic weapon" for them to survive in the Arctic Circle. First of all, it is warm, and the wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant seal skin can be made into shoes. Boots not only keep you warm when walking in the snow, but they also prevent water leakage or the soles of your feet being cut by hard objects.
The furs of polar bears, wolves, and foxes are more expensive. In addition to coats and cotton coats, they are also used for Inuit bedding. Only the excess furs will be sold on the market.According to my cousin, semi-finished products can easily start at 10,000 Canadian dollars.
In order to survive in the Arctic Circle, the Inuit people can be said to have exerted human survival will and wisdom to the extreme. After hunting whales, they buried whale meat and blubber in snow cellars to store food for the winter, and cut marine fish neatly and hung them up. When air-dried, it can be kept for ten years without deterioration.
Due to the lack of fruits and vegetables to supplement vitamins in the Arctic Circle, they also invented " pickled puffin ", stuffing the hairless puffin into the seal skin after the meat was removed, and then taking it out for consumption after natural fermentation to produce vitamins. All the skinning and meat removal steps can only be solved on the spot, so when the Inuit hunters arrive at Alert during the peak season, the whole sky seems to be filled with the smell of blood.
Although Alert’s travel experience was not good, when he was about to leave, he encountered the sun magic that he had seen for the first time in his life. This natural phenomenon that can only appear in winter and morning and evening is very rare. The conditions are very strict. It will only appear after meeting various conditions such as early morning/evening, after snow, winter, sunshine, ice crystals, humidity, clouds, etc. Even my cousin who has worked in Alert for more than two years has seen it for the first time. .
However, I personally prefer the aurora that can be seen frequently. Whenever I watch the aurora from a distance, it is as elegant as a green ribbon, which always makes me feel calmer.
Perhaps, this is the meaning of travel.
