Tibbit to Contwoyto Winter road

Actually, winter road season is almost over now, but I'll tell you about it anyway! Every year there's an ice road built that serves the mines, among other things. They rely on the road to truck in equipment that can't get there by air, and also use this time to refill their fuel tanks to get them through to the next season. Last year we had a record warm winter, so the ice road closed early, which meant a lot of things didn't make it. Diavik had it's Ice Road Recovery Plan which included bringing in a big plane and helicopter from overseas, and measures to conserve fuel. Anyway, this year the road is doing just fine, it starts at Tibbit Lake and goes all the way to Contwoyto Lake in Nunavut. The trucks go in groups of four, and the speed limit is very slow (like 30 km/h, I think) to help conserve the ice.

The pictures are of the dispatch place in town where the trucks leave from, the end at Jericho mine, and some places in between.

I should add that this isn't the only winter road that gets built, there are lots of communities that become accessible by road in winter. You even have to cross an ice bridge to get to Yellowknife from the south (in summer they run a ferry)