A poster on another board asked about 'Break Up' and thought it might be of interest to some my fellow NOTs. While winter is by far the preferred time to drill in the McFaulds Lake area spring is around the corner and it will have to be contended with. I suspect some of the drilling order for the DE anomalies is based on them being easier to drill in the winter than in the spring.

.... Been There

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Break Up refers to the period of time in spring when it starts to get up to or above freezing and the ice on the lakes becomes unstable and 'breaks up'. Since most remote exploration camps are support by planes equipped with skis to land on the frozen lakes they tend to worry about getting the planes stuck in slush or worse falling through the ice on landing.

As it warms up the snow on the lakes start to melt making them very slushy underneath the snow cover. Then the snow melts off the ice but the ice loses strength and it can't support a plane. Finally the ice 'breaks up' but you have chunks of ice floating around the lake that prevent you from landing on them with pontoon equipped planes (the summer mode of transport).

In the McFauld Lake area there is about 3-6 weeks starting in late March early April where you can't use planes. You can use helicopter support to ferry men, equipment and supplies into/out of camps but it is much more expensive. So unless the project is very important everyone tends to go home until the float planes start flying or you stock up in advance and make do. The opposite period in the fall is called 'Freeze up'.

Even though it can get to -40 degree in the winter it is a much better time to drill as you can move across frozen swamps and lakes. After break up the mobility of heavy equipment is much more restricted or not possible. The same goes for people doing geophysics than can no longer 'walk on (frozen) water'. If you are working in a really wet area a drill program would have to be done with helicopter support (about twice as expensive) after break up.

Hope this helps.

... Been There