Iqaluit (Mar 21/05) - Henry Evaluarojuk basked in the warm weather last week, recalling memories of hunts on the land and collapsing iglus.

The warm sunshine and blue skies had Iqaluit residents thinking spring could come early.

Henry Evaluarojuk enjoys the sun's heat on his head.

Highs of 0.2C broke 50-year-old records and Evaluarojuk, an 82-year-old who lives in the Iqaluit elder's centre, was quite happy to share his stories.

"March was the season when baby seals were out," he recalled, translated by his step-daughter, Denise Nutarariaq. "It needed to be nice for them to be out."

When Evaluarojuk was a young man, he spent spring hunting between Arctic Bay, Pond Inlet and Iglulik, travelling by dogsled.

He says spring has always been his favourite time of year. "I'd never want to sleep. I'd want to be out," he said.

The unusually warm weather last Monday didn't phase him - he's seen far stranger. Evaluarojuk recalls hunting a polar bear one January years ago, about six hours towards Cape Dorset by Ski-Doo, when it began to rain.

He returned to his iglu and discovered it had collapsed. He had to abandon the hunt and return to Iqaluit.

"I got soaked," he said.

If he could, he'd be out right now. He says he knows a good spot nearby, and he remembers all the good rivers on his old hunting grounds.

"I'd like to take a fishing net up there," he said.

As it is, Evaluarojuk goes outside about twice a month. A week earlier he went on an eight-hour snowmobile ride with relatives, who needed his help building an iglu. It also collapsed, and the next day it was gone.

He wasn't surprised -- he's learned not to expect much from the weather.

"It was never the same. It was always different."