An Arctic Adventure

In exactly 24 hours, I'm hopping on a little plane to fly from Winnipeg up to Churchill, Manitoba. While I've lived in Manitoba over half of my life, I've never had the opportunity to travel this far north before. Not only will this be my first time visiting Churchill, but the way that I get to take in the tundra will be very different than the way most people get to experience northern Manitoba.

I've been asked to join Polar Bears International and Edmodo to assist with facilitating several days worth of webinars and video conferences. I'll be working alongside a panel of world-renowned scientists and researchers as they study polar bears in their natural habitat. We'll be witnessing, first-hand, the impact of global climate change as polar bears congregate along the shores of Hudson Bay to await the formation of the sea ice.

I know that there will be a lot of 'work' to do as this adventure unfolds, but this really is work worth celebrating! Connecting with hundreds of classrooms around the world to answer the questions of teachers and students alike. Connecting with zoos and universities to provide real-time updates about what we're seeing during this year's fall polar bear migration. And capturing every aspect of this adventure through lenses so that all of the details can be archived.

The morning after I arrive in Churchill, our team boards Tundra Buggy One - this is the same vehicle that streams live video of polar bears over the web via The Polar Bear Cam.  We'll roll about 40km over the icy tundra toward Cape Churchill.  This is where we'll find Tundra Buggy Lodge, a series of Tundra Buggy's that have been converted to a portable base camp that our team will call home for a few days.  Between Tundra Buggy One and Tundra Buggy Lodge, there will be nothing but a thin sheet of metal separating me from dozens of polar bears in the wild.

This is sure to be an adventure that you'll want to follow as it unfolds.  I've set up a website so that I can share my stories, pictures and videos as they are captured.  If you want to feel as though you're right by my side aboard Tundra Buggy One & Tundra Buggy Lodge, you'll want to check out Chilling with Nanuq. 

I hope you'll follow along :-)