I was in Yellowknife for 8 days and when I came back it had stormed enough to shut the school for 2 days. During my absence my colleagues had dug out my porch twice but it still looked like this when I came back. The snow here sinters very tightly and it becomes extremely hard consequently shoveling it involves a fair deal of cutting and a sharp bladed shovel is a coveted item.

The next day I did a bit of skiing by the North Warning site. This was December 8; the last sunrise for 2007 was December 7. There was about 4 hours of twilight to ski in – less now.