|
|
|
Winter
wonderland: Laurel
McFadden '06 carries on year-long Arctic adventure
documenting community life in Earth's northernmost
reaches.
|
 |
The dead of winter creeps closer every day. So, of course,
intrepid, ice-loving alumna Laurel McFadden '06 is heading
north. Far, far north.
Longyearbyen, Norway, is the next stop on her year-long
Arctic adventure. This outpost will be her northernmost stay
on the trip, unless she manages to find affordable passage
to the North Pole, which so far has proven too pricey.
|
|
Laurel McFadden '06's photographs document
life in Arctic settlements such as this one on the eastern coast of Greenland. |
|
|
|
|
With
her prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, McFadden set
off for Canada in August to start her photography project documenting life in some of the world's
most remote human
settlements.
She has already spent two months helping with research
aboard a Canadian icebreaker, which also afforded her the
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fly over glaciers and
icebergs aboard the ship's helicopter. From Canada, she set
off for Greenland, where she taught English to school kids
in a small village plagued by various social ills. All the
while, her camera has been clicking away, capturing not only
the breathtaking scenery, but also the hardy people who live
in the world's coldest climes. (She also is recording
her personal reflections in a
blog.)
On her last night in Greenland, her host father took her out
on a snowmobile, away from the lights of the small town, so
she could see the Northern Lights. "It was bitterly cold as
we raced along but there were waves and strings of green
light covering the entire sky – definitely one of those
moments that reminded me why I came to these places, even
though I didn’t even have my camera with me,'' she says via
e-mail.
McFadden's fascination with the Arctic started in the summer
after her junior year at Pomona, when she spent a month
living on a windswept Norwegian fjord, where she worked
freezing, 14-hour days helping Pomona Biology Professor Nina Karnovsky to research an obscure bird known as the
Little
Auk. McFadden loved the breathtaking views of glaciers and
the chance to spot reindeer running free.
School kids in
Greenland prepare
for Christmas. |
|
|
|
|
|
Landing the Watson fellowship allowed her to
return to the Arctic, providing $25,000 for her to pursue
independent travel and study. Now, nearly halfway through her
year-long trek, McFadden's fascination with this ice-bound
world has only grown.
"The Arctic is immense,'' McFadden says. "It's barren and
cold and beautiful. Flying into Greenland I looked out my
window to see massive icebergs dotting the ocean below – and
then the rocky land came into view. It is pure ice and rock,
totally empty and unforgiving. A few steps out of town makes
you realize what a tiny spot of land has been barely
conquered by the local inhabitants."
The lowest temperature she has experienced so far: minus 8
degrees, in Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland. "Not too bad,'' she
writes, "although it feels worse with wind chill." But she
knows an even deeper cold awaits: temperatures in Longyearbyen, Norway should fall to minus 40 degrees or
lower.
Still, McFadden is looking forward to her time in
Longyearbyen, located on an archipelago far north of
Norway's mainland. Much of the town's population consists of
graduate students studying at the local Arctic university,
where McFadden will be working as a research assistant to
one of the marine biology professors.
After Longyearbyen, she's off to Siberia, where she is
planning to work at a research station in Cherskii, in the
northeast, near an infamous Stalinist gulag and in the
vicinity of a number of reindeer herding communities. "While
logistically a daunting leg of my trip,'' she writes.
"Siberia is certainly one of the areas I am most looking
forward to."
|
|
McFadden spent two months aboard the Canadian
icebreaker, CCGS Amundsen. |
|
|
|
|
Daunting logistics are part of the package while traveling
the Arctic, and McFadden has had to adapt some of her plans
along the way. She has traveled via plane, snowmobile and
ATV, along with the aforementioned six-level icebreaker ship
equipped with helicopter. Just getting from northern Canada
to Greenland required eight flights and six days, including
a three-day layover in Iceland. (And McFadden has done all
this while lugging around 120 lbs. of luggage. You can only
travel so light when you need to be able to dress for
40-below weather.) But she has been fortunate so far on the
travel front. There is only one flight per week out of the
town she stayed in in Greenland, and she was lucky there was
good weather that day. "For all the horror stories you here
about getting stuck for weeks at a time,'' she says. "I’ve
only been delayed a few hours here and there."
The biggest surprise of the trip so far is that things have
come together so well. "I feel incredibly lucky – I’ve
gotten some amazing positions that both give me excellent
experience and the freedom to follow my project,'' she says.
"Also, I haven’t lost any of my luggage – a miracle in
itself."
The hardest part has been saying goodbye, even in Greenland,
where teaching English was a struggle and she thought she
was ready to leave. "But when I got on the helicopter to fly
away I found myself held to the land,'' she says. "It gets
inside of you."
Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Quick Links |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Explore Pomona's Web |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Find It |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Search |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
