OK, all the talk of snow and ice reminded me; here's another Sondrestrom
tale:
TENDER AMERICAN & A TOUGH GREENLANDER
By Wilton Strickland
One evening at dinner in early December, 1978, while I was Director of
Engineering at Sondrestrom Air Base, Greenland, a friend reminded me that a
popular movie was playing at the base theater. Because it was very cold
outside (chill factor about -85° F) we rushed to the theater hoping to get
in without standing in line outside, but we were too late; there was already
a line of about 25 people. Though I was wearing thermal underwear and
boots, regular pants and shirt, a down ski jacket with hood and gloves, I
was worried about getting frostbite on my uncovered face. (I had gotten
some frostbite in Michigan about 5 years earlier - I knew I had to be
careful.) While standing in line a few minutes before getting to the ticket
booth, I hunched down behind my friend trying to shield my face from the
wind. I also covered my face lightly with my hands and, for some additional
heat on my face, exhaled my warm breath into the space between my hands and
face. The line moved along reasonably well, and I soon got inside and
enjoyed the movie.
Before getting up the next morning, I could feel my forehead tingling and
itching, and when I looked into the mirror to shave, I saw a red, vertical
streak about ¾" wide down approximately the middle of my forehead - I had
frostbite again! As before, the skin on the frozen area came off, and the
area itched for years. 'Til just a few years ago, I could still see the red
streak on my forehead occasionally.
At Sunday lunch a few days after the theater incident, somebody mentioned
that some sled dog teams were down at the port, seven miles away. (Tourists
from Europe would occasionally fly in and charter native Greenlander sled
dog teams for two-week trips from Sondrestrom to a small village on the
coast or out onto the ice cap a few miles away.) After lunch, a couple of
friends rode down to the port with me to see the dog teams.
When we arrived at the port, only one team was still there. The
driver/master was busy rounding up his dogs and hitching them to the sled.
(In Greenland, the 12 to 14 dogs forming a team are hitched to the sled
individually in a wide, fan pattern; in Canada and Alaska, the dogs are
hitched in pairs to form two straight, narrow rows in front of the sled to
facilitate passing between trees.) One-by-one, the driver attached a rope
to each dog's harness and placed the dog in position in front of the sled.
As he would turn away to another dog, those already in position would watch
the driver/master closely, and when the master was looking away from them,
they would hurriedly dig into certain cardboard boxes on the sled. The
driver caught them doing this two or three times and scolded them harshly
while kicking them back to their places in front of the sled.
During the few minutes the driver was getting the dogs in place, I stepped
outside my truck several times to take photos. The chill factor was still
about -85° F. Because I could not operate the camera wearing gloves,
though, I removed them, focused as much as possible from inside the truck,
then stepped outside, quickly refined the focus, took the shot and got back
in the heated truck in just a few seconds. Before I could finish the photo
each time, though, my fingers, nose, etc., were tingling and hurting from
the cold. I'm certain that, if I had been outside for a few more seconds, I
would have had frostbite on my fingers and nose. During the entire time,
however, the Greenlander was wearing nothing on his head, face, ears and
hands. What under garments he may have been wearing I don't know, but his
outer clothing was blue jeans, a plaid shirt and boots/mukluks - no
additional parka, etc.
He suddenly had all of his dogs in place, made one final and quick motion to
attach all of the tow ropes to the sled at a single point, and flopped
quickly down on the sled as the dogs took off. In a flash, they were down
the sloped shoreline and moving rapidly down the frozen fjord, the driver's
head, face, ears and hands still exposed to the extreme arctic conditions.
The mystery to me in all of this: How could my exposed skin freeze so
quickly and the Greenlander's not under the same conditions at the same
time? Had the Greenlander's blood become so acclimated that it contained
some type of "anti-freeze" factor, allowing him to tolerate much lower
temperatures than I? I still don't know the answer to that question, but my
simple explanation, meanwhile, is that I was an extremely tender American
and that was one VERY TOUGH Greenlander.
Wilton
----- Original Message -----
From: "Curt Raymond" <curtlud...@yahoo.com>
To: "Diesel List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 12:59 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] BLIZZARD!!!! AHHH!!
Standing Randy, I was standing...
I'd just replaced the main gas line and had to have the seat off for that.
You don't sit in deep powder snow anyway, you stand and carve steering by
shifting your weight.
The seat is in my basement drying out, apparently the tarp over the
machine was leaking, the "padded seat" was full of water and frozen hard
as a rock!
-Curt
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:57:10 -0600
From: Randy Bennell <rbenn...@bennell.ca>
To: Mercedes Discussion List <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Subject: Re: [MBZ] BLIZZARD!!!! AHHH!!
Message-ID: <511914d6.1060...@bennell.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
I assume he is tough as nails too. Did you note that he has taken off
the padded seat on the sled and rides it sitting on the cold hard body
of the machine!
Randy
On 09/02/2013 8:15 PM, Dieselhead wrote:
Sir, You are a true connoisseur of old iron. Wankel panther, 240D,
IHC M, Snappers, Cub cadet, tons of colemans. You need a
Versatrailer. Got a 45-70 Springfield trapdoor?
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To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
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