🥶 -33°C chasing Aurora at Yellowknife

✨ Aurora Borealis – an incredible light show in the sky and 🇨🇦 Yellowknife is one of the best place to see it. 3 of us made a 3D2N trip just to see it. Weather was crazily cold and 🥶 we thought we were well prepared. 🧥 Packed the thickest jackets, multiple layers, winter boots etc… and not until we stepped out of the plane, that was when we felt the real cold 🌡️-21°C.

We stayed at 🏨 Chateau Nova hotel and aurora tour 🚐 picked us up at our hotel each night. We rented full gears with them as well, as thick as our cloths were it wasn’t enough for 🌡️-20°C+  

🌙 Night time
Aurora chase started at 2130, first night was chasing on a snowmobile. YES❗We drove it ourselves and it was so much fun racing? it around the frozen lake before we got to the camp. 🥶 Practically half frozen as we got to the camp, but a 🔥 camp fire was already set up for us to warm up or we can hide inside the cabins. The atmosphere was really nice. Although 🇨🇦 Yellowknife has higher chances of seeing northern lights, we only saw it the last night as first night was too ☁️ cloudy. Tour package included free photos so that was great. We brought our own 📸 DSLR (Canon EOS60d) and took some as well.

On our last night, chased the aurora in a van and drove for hours to a few places until we stopped at a lake at ≈0030. Waited, waited, waited… then it emerged in the sky❗It was 🌡️-33°C 🥶 and that didn’t stop us. Warmed up in the van here and there, ended up the night at 0300.

📸 Few snapshots below, click here for trip album or feel free to continue 👀 reading.

When the aurora intensity level is high, you can definitely capture it with a cell phone or go pro and I had a friend who captured it at Norway. Otherwise, DSLR would be best. our DSLR settings❓
1. use a tripod
2. set to manual
3. ISO 1600 or more
4. Aperture = f-stop28 or lowest
5. Shutter speed 20sec

☀️ Day time
Day time was short, sunrise at 0900 and sunset at 1500. We didn’t plan any activities for day time until we got there. So we decided to go to Dettah Ice Road at Great Slave Lake and dog sled❗ Dettah Ice Road gets up to 4ft thick between January to March each year. I guess it wasn’t ready when we were there, ❄️ snow were still covered. It was freezing cold at 🌡️-21°C but we still took very stunning photos there. ‼️‼️‼️

Most fun, epic and unexpected part of this trip was 🛷 dog sled. We signed up for a dog sledding tour and had a choice to either 🚗 self drive or with a guide. Of course, we chose self drive. 🤩 Most thrilling ride of all times, most epic accident ever ended up abandoned by our dogs 🐕🐕🐕 Package included 2x dog sledding, and I guess the first time was too epic for us, we only ride once.

📹 A video and few snapshots below, click here for trip album.