Okay, let's go through the painful lesson I've learned over the last few days here:
The wind is no joke.
Most of us are used to breezy weather. The odd day where you get a chill from a stray gust. Up here, the wind roars most days. At first, pants and light long underwear go me through it. Same thing with light gloves and a light neck gaiter. The temperature has been dropping about two to three degrees per day over the last few days. Currently, it's -2C out, to which everyone will laugh.
Uh huh. Go right head. Yeah, you're soft, you have a tuque and gloves and a scarf, you should be fine.
The wind is going 80 km/h, making the wind chill closer to -18C. We're also getting 20cm of snow today, which will most likely be driving side to side, instead of down. So, critical point for people: prepare for the wind. Bring wind pants, no matter the season. Bring actual eye protection- ballistic-rated sunglasses in summer and fall, and full goggles in winter and spring. Sand and small rocks moving at those speeds can put you in a world of hurt.
My choice of footwear was rain boots, assuming there would be a wet period around now that would render the hamlet muddy for a few weeks before the freeze, like it says on wikipedia.
Nope.
At least I made sure they were rated for -40C and brought thick socks. There's another thing- don't cheap out on footwear or socks.
In the coming couple of weeks, I'll be doing a four-part series on preparing to come up.
Part 1: Deciding To Do Contract Work
Part 2: Setting Your House in Order
Part 3: Packing List, v 0.9
Part 4: D Minus 0 : Your First Day on the Ground
For now, I have four shifts left to go before I fly out. My boss is already on the hunt for my next contract. My internet is running low, so the picture upload project will have to wait until I'm back in Ottawa. If you've been enjoying the content, come back in a week or two and go back over my posts- I'll have added stuff, editted the content, and generally gussied the blog up.
The wind is no joke.
Most of us are used to breezy weather. The odd day where you get a chill from a stray gust. Up here, the wind roars most days. At first, pants and light long underwear go me through it. Same thing with light gloves and a light neck gaiter. The temperature has been dropping about two to three degrees per day over the last few days. Currently, it's -2C out, to which everyone will laugh.
Uh huh. Go right head. Yeah, you're soft, you have a tuque and gloves and a scarf, you should be fine.
The wind is going 80 km/h, making the wind chill closer to -18C. We're also getting 20cm of snow today, which will most likely be driving side to side, instead of down. So, critical point for people: prepare for the wind. Bring wind pants, no matter the season. Bring actual eye protection- ballistic-rated sunglasses in summer and fall, and full goggles in winter and spring. Sand and small rocks moving at those speeds can put you in a world of hurt.
My choice of footwear was rain boots, assuming there would be a wet period around now that would render the hamlet muddy for a few weeks before the freeze, like it says on wikipedia.
Nope.
At least I made sure they were rated for -40C and brought thick socks. There's another thing- don't cheap out on footwear or socks.
In the coming couple of weeks, I'll be doing a four-part series on preparing to come up.
Part 1: Deciding To Do Contract Work
Part 2: Setting Your House in Order
Part 3: Packing List, v 0.9
Part 4: D Minus 0 : Your First Day on the Ground
For now, I have four shifts left to go before I fly out. My boss is already on the hunt for my next contract. My internet is running low, so the picture upload project will have to wait until I'm back in Ottawa. If you've been enjoying the content, come back in a week or two and go back over my posts- I'll have added stuff, editted the content, and generally gussied the blog up.
Great post Chris. I need to buy some good boots and snow pants
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