How the Canadian and U.S. militaries turned a frozen lake into an airstrip for the first time — in just days

Harsh and cold conditions as well as a lack of infrastructure are just some of the limitations Canada's military faces in the Arctic. W5's Jon Woodward reports.

This is the third part of a multi-part series by CTV W5, embedded in the Canadian military’s Operation Nanook, as international interest by adversaries in Canada’s Arctic ramps up.

The many frozen lakes that dot Canada’s Far North have become strategically more important for Arctic defence, after a team from the Canadian and American militaries demonstrated they could build, in days, an airstrip that could land one of the largest planes in the world.

The ski landing area, constructed for the first time on fresh water on Parsons Lake, about 60 km. north of Inuvik, successfully landed an American Lockheed LC-130 Hercules aircraft on skis in early March as part of the Operation Nanook military exercises.

“If we can open up freshwater lakes, that’s just a whole different thing than sea ice. It’s projecting out from the coast,” said Maj. Joe Shanahan of the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing, in an interview on Parsons Lake, just before the Hercules circled overhead.

“Now we’re able to go much further inland, resupply anyone bringing troops into a much larger area than we could before,” Shanahan said.

In previous exercises, the ski landing area had been constructed on sea ice, and in this round the crews looked for a suitable location and couldn’t find one -– all they found was open water, said Lt.-Col. Darren Turner, who oversaw Operation Nanook.

“We actually spent the next 10 days through the Beaufort Basin trying to find a suitable patch of ice, which we actually didn’t find,” he said.

The struggles to find suitable ice is an example of how the warming Arctic is changing, becoming more accessible to Canada’s adversaries, including Russia and China, he said.

• Part 1: Canada faces dual adversaries on its northern frontier
• Part 2:‘The cold doesn’t like you': soldiers test gear and mettle in Arctic

What had been an inaccessible frontier is now more navigable, and he said the Canadian military is adjusting its approach, he said.

“It’s about access. It’s about resources. The Arctic is now becoming a little bit more accessible than it has been,” he said. “If I had to boil it down, you can access the North more easily than you have ever been able to.”

W5 witnessed several stages of the operation up close, including riding with snowmobiles in a Chinook helicopter from the Inuvik airport to Parsons Lake.

The Chinook’s blades are actually more effective in the cold, dense air, which helped it lift the unusual cargo, said the Chinook’s pilot, Capt. Jonathan Vokey.

“The skidoos that they’re using are the primary workhorses for the grooming kit that they have for constructing the ski landing area,” he said.

These snowmobiles were ridden by members of the Canadian Rangers, the military’s northern experts.

But they also had other duties at the camp, said one Ranger, Jim Davison, in an interview on Parsons Lake just after the Chinook left for another run.

“They’re here to build a nice runway to land the Hercules on. We’re here to keep them from being eaten by wolves and dying of the cold,” he said.

When we returned to Parsons Lake a few days later, it was in a Twin Otter, a versatile aircraft that took off from from the Inuvik airport using its wheels, but deployed skis to land on the frozen lake.

A group of “distinguished visitors” was also on hand to witness the Hercules appearing overhead to scope out the 6,000 feet of landing area.

The following day, it touched down –- and that was one for the record books, said Shanahan.

For tips on Arctic security, or any other story, please email Jon Woodward