Vuntut Moment

Day three, the wind started to blow.

On the one hand, this was good--it knocked down the mosquitoes that had formed a fog around our camp.

But then it started to blow harder. You could hear it, coming up like a train pounding across the valley, getting closer and closer, the monster ready to jump out of the closet.

And then suddenly there were no pauses at all.

Here's what you can do in a tent when the wind is pushing a hundred miles an hour:

Absolutely nothing.

And I felt lucky to be doing it.

When the wind finally died down, three days later, the arctic alpine butterflies came back out, the light brown edges of their dark brown wings blending perfectly into the tussock grass.