The fishing spot at Kugarjuk lies in a low gentle valley, and our approach to the valley was down a small draw. But perhaps a bit of a primer on Komatiqs is in order first.
A komatiq is a marvel. The two runners sit angled on the surface to run straight, but well balanced it turns easily. The slats are all connected to the runners by rope, enabling the komatiq to flex as it goes across rough ice. While some people tow their komatiq with a rigid tow bar, most up here use rope. Using rope makes it easier to start moving a heavy komatiq, the jerk frees it from snow. Plus a rope can be lengthened for different conditions, such as in the spring when there are leads to cross.
Our komatiq is 20 feet long, and normally ladened is probably well over 1000 lbs. I built it along with one of Leah's brother, and it pulls to side a bit. But it glides very well on the plastic runners, better than many. They have no brakes. It requires a bit of practice to stop with them. If you stop quickly, the komatiq glides along under its inertia. So you have to ease into a stop. They have no brakes.
The first Spring we had our komatiq we were coming back from an aborted trip out on the land. As I reached a rivulet of draining water on the ice, my skidoo got hung up on the channels edge, and I stopped. As I gunned the engine to try and free myself, I heard Leah scream from the Komatiq, and looked back just in time to see the Komatiq hit the back of the machine. The runners went on either side of me, narrowly missing me, and easily bent the back rest on the machine. It pushed me instantly out of the channel, freeing us. They are easily the biggest danger in travel up here.
But back to the story. As we got to the top of the draw Leah, who had been traveling on the machine with me, got off and got into the iglutak (the shelter on the komatiq). I started slowly down the draw, knowing how easily my komatiq slides, and not wanting to build up any inertia in it. It didn't work. As I looked back I saw that the komatiq had built up speed and was rapidly gaining on me.
I gunned the engine to try and take it down on my terms, but it was too late. As I tried to increase the distance, the komatiq passed, pulled the tow rope taut and dragged the machine around, flipping it on to its side. Nothing landed on me and I was pushed along by my snowmobile, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing as it would offer protection from what I was madly thrashing around trying to find, the thing that could do the real damage, the komatiq. As I saw it I saw it was going by wide of me and wouldn't hit me. It spun the machine away from me and everything dragged to a stop. I was, to put it mildly, extremely happy that Leah had decided to get off the machine, into the iglutak.
No injuries, and no damage to anything, so all in all it wasn't bad. Some anxious moments followed as the machine following me had to stop, and stalled, and as we were getting it going other machines were coming down the draw, committed to coming down and working hard to avoid us.
We were quickly on our way, and we only had a short distance left before we arrived at the camping spot. It was 1:30 am. By the time we picked our spots, set up camp, got some supper cooked, drilled the first holes so the die-hards could get fishing it was 4:30 when we crawled into our sleeping bags.
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One year I went out and went to quickly over a lead in the sea ice. As I started to slow down I remember looking to my left in amazement as the komatiq I was pulling actually passed me. I ended up going for a dive in the snow. You sure learn quickly how to handle those sleds!
Can you show us a photo of yours?
They do take more practice than I get with them Darcy.
A photo of my what Cathy? Komatiq? There’s one on the previous post in this series. The link is in the above post, or just scroll farther down. If something else, let me know.