SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
It is not how hard it is to deal with the cold - it's how hard one works to embrace it. It's a common adage to those living in the North.

Canadian Armed Forces members Capt. Ryan Collier, left, and Sgt. David Chafe take a momentary break from their duties during Operation NUNALIVUT on Saturday. - John McFadden/NNSL photo

But it really rang true during the Canadian Armed Forces Operation NUNALIVUT, which began on April 1 and will continue until April 22. The operation has been ongoing at three different locations in Nunavut's High Arctic: Resolute Bay, Little Conwallis Island and Alert. Soldiers from the army, navy and air force are involved in the operation which is commanded by Yellowknife-based Joint Task Force North, also known as JTFN.

Yellowknifer was given the opportunity to join 35 Yellowknife-based soldiers for the operations at Resolute and Little Cornwallis Island. Soldiers and media were flown more than 1,500 kilometres northeast from Yellowknife to Resolute last Friday aboard a Hercules C-130 transport plane.

Once they arrived in Resolute, everyone settled in a comfortable dormitory-style facility on the community's outskirts, adjacent to the hamlet's airport.

The building is shared by the Canadian military and Natural Resources Canada, which operates what is known as the Polar Continental Shelf Program, where scientists conduct all types of Northern research, including climate change analysis.

The comfortable surroundings including dorm rooms with hot showers, a fully stocked cafeteria and a lounge with couches and a big-screen TV, offered little insight into what the media members were in for the next day.

On Saturday, reporters and photographers were flown by Twin Otters about 100 kilometres further north to Little Cornwallis Island. There they met up with more than 100 soldiers who had travelled to the camp by snowmobile and Argo amphibious vehicles from Resolute in the previous days.

None of the soldiers that Yellowknifer talked to had a thermometer with them. But according to Environment Canada the high temperature on the Saturday was -21.7 C with wind gusts up to 67 km/h. Soldiers who had to remain outside were well bundled while those spending time inside their tents had stripped down to T-shirts in some instances.

When they had to be outside, soldiers were working on staying warm, avoiding frostbite and making sure all their equipment was working properly in the extreme conditions. They were being guided and helped by several members of the Canadian Rangers who had come to the site on Little Cornwallis Island from Resolute Bay, Pond Inlet and Clyde River.

The soldiers all shared common goals - number one was not to freeze but also to be main players in the operation designed to assert Canada's sovereignty over its northernmost regions.

During media briefings, officers explained that the purpose of the operation has less to do with engaging a potential invading enemy and more to do with gauging readiness to respond to civil disaster events like a plane crash or a sinking ship.

There were not a lot of exercises going on while Yellowknifer was there.

Military officials explained the main operation was the deploying to the site, setting up sustainable camps and eventually heading home with all the equipment they had brought with them.

There was a little excitement on Saturday afternoon when soldiers realized a rifle had been misplaced but after a short search it was located.

Although officials said some military personnel had been forced to return to Resolute with minor frostbite, the soldiers who remained at the camp seemed to be coping with the cold quite nicely.

They had pitched their tents and built snow walls around them to block the wind.

The Yellowknife-based soldiers did not seem to be fazed by the wind and the cold.

Sgt. David Chafe, a reservist with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment in Yellowknife, said that his three years with the Canadian Rangers had prepared him

well for this mission.

"I like the Arctic. I like the cold and I like the people up here," Chafe said as he watched fellow Yellowknife solider Capt. Ryan Collier work on a snow wall to keep the wind off his tent.

The two soldiers were not surprised with the flat, windy cold conditions where their camp had been set up. Chafe and Collier and had already been in the area this winter on a recognizance mission, surveying the area where they would be making camp.

The Canadian soldiers were joined on the operation by the 109th Airlift Squadron of the New York Air National Guard.

Its officers were working with the Canadian soldiers on building a ski way - a landing strip for planes on skis, including aircraft as large as a Hercules.

There were also members of the Danish army taking part in the operation on the island.

Yellowknifer asked the commander of JTFN to to comment on whether Operation NUNALIVUT was also designed to send a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin or anyone else who was thinking of challenging Canadian sovereignty in the North.

However, Brig.-Gen. Mike Nixon said that was not a stated part of the operation.

"I think any country, Canada included, that has sovereign territory has to be able to deploy, operate and sustain itself in that territory and that's what we are doing," Nixon said.

"You saw the snow machine out there with the great big Canadian flag flying on it and we do that because we are proud of our flag and we show it."

Officials estimated to cost of staging Operation NUNALIVUT at about $1.5 million.

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