Well, Keara & I are at it again !
July 16 2021 A little recap……
We’ve had a good few adventures together over the last decade, including cycling from India to Ireland and sea kayaking from Vancouver island up to Alaska. Fast forward a few years and life got in the way, Keara got married, 2 new babies came along and with the demands of raising Daisy & Finn, there wasn’t much time available for brother-sister expeditions. The most we could manage together during this time was bagging a few peaks in Norway’s Lyngen Alps…of course Daisy came along making it her first overseas backcountry ski trip at 10 months old. She’d been training for a while, hitting the NZ slopes in a front pack from 1 month old. Then that Covid pandemic really got in the way of travel plans !
After crossing Canada & Indonesia with partner Sam and finally finishing the cycle around world goal, Pete continued working up in the high Arctic as a Nurse Practitioner providing primary and emergency care in several remote Inuit communities, Rankin Inlet and Clyde River. I enjoyed the challenges and opportunities of the north. Professionally, I was exposed to so many illnesses across the lifespan from newborn to geriatrics in the Arctic. I was the first NP to work in Clyde River, Baffin Island and set up several programs to improve healthcare to residents. In response to high obesity, hypertension and diabetes rates in Rankin Inlet, I set up a pilot project utilizing nutritionist counselling and exercise boot camps. After a 6 months intervention, we successfully reduced A1C, high blood pressure and weight amongst Inuit participants.
Working in remote nursing stations is not easy, there’s no doctor in the community, just a few battle hardened nurses and the occasional NP willing to work 24/7 doing everything from delivering babies, suicides, mental health crises to running vaccine clinics in the local schools then finishing off the day judging the high school halloween costume competition! Working in remote nursing stations required a strong work ethic, endless compassion and an understanding of Inuit culture, community and values.
Inuit are a friendly bunch, resourceful, hard working and adaptable. Family and children are tight knit, many generations intertwined often living under the same roof, looking out for each other.
Life is tough in the north and it’s not just the housing crisis, food insecurity, freezing -50 temps and 24/7 darkness in winters. The negative effects of residential schools run throughout generations in all First Nation communities. Residential schools were created by the canadian government in 1850’s and existed until mid 1990’s with the purpose of educating first nation children. Children were removed from their homes and flown out to schools in the south for “education”.The reality was a system of cultural genocide created to eradicate first nations identity/beliefs/knowledge and language all enforced by nuns & priests! Residential schools have had lasting negative impacts on many generations of Inuit. On an individual level, many former students left schools with significant psychological issues ranging from anger, anxiety, low self esteem, depression to PTSD and suicidal tendencies after years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of priests, nuns and teachers! They also lost the language skills to communicate with their support network back home, their elders. When this generation of residential school survivors became parents, the residual trauma was passed on to the next generation and resulted in high rates of family violence, domestic abuse and suicide.
To make matters worse, first nations are recently discovering thousands of unmarked graves on residential school sites across Canada, a horror of horrors !!
So it was a very challenging work environment and you really had to watch your own mental health and know when to pull back and take some time out. We supported each other as nurses up there with many a wine fuelled debrief!
Essential to surviving in the North as an NP was practicing daily gratitude/calm through yoga/meditation/guitar, building up a local community of fellow teachers/nurses/rcmp/inuit and of course a few Newfies too! I enjoyed getting got out in the community as much as possible, joining local soccer & sports groups, they got some good skills up there!!
But the best medicine was getting out on the land whenever possible.
Over 5 years of travel nursing in Nunavut, patients and Inuit friends often invited me “out on the land”, I embraced any opportunity to get outside and learn from Inuit hunters on how to travel and survive in one of the moist inhospitable areas on earth, think – 50 temps, blizzards, cold dark winters! From early on it was clear that I had a lot to learn. I recall my first Caribou hunt in Rankin Inlet in frigid -40 mid January, turning up at the meeting point with my top of the line north face ski gloves, the hunters laughed at my clothing choices, “here there is no such thing as bad weather up here, just bad clothing and choices.” I had a lot to learn still and they heartily provided me with beaver mitts, polar bear pants and a down sleeping bag to keep warm in the back of the Kamotik – wooden sled pulled behind a snowmobile. After carefully choosing and harvesting our first caribou on a cold -40 day, I learned how to warm up the inuit way, by sticking my hands into the still warm cardiac/thoracic cavity of the just slaughtered caribou! On our way back a blizzard blew in with near zero visibility and high winds, my GPS failed to turn on in such cold conditions, taking out a map would be futile in those winds. Luckily my Inuit friend had been hunting these lands since age 6, what seemed featureless to my untrained eye was full of landmarks, food and signs for home. He knew exactly how to navigate home following the north/south winddrift lines that the blizzard winds left in snow that direct one to the distinctive sea ice, a crashing clutter of sea and land ice disturbed by the cyclical rise and fall of tidal action. Follow the sea ice to the west and we’ll be at home in rankin for dinner, easy, no GPS/maps required !
Lesson learned – local Inuit knowledge trumps modern gadgetry !
Over the next few years, I went on many different hunting trips with Inuit friends harvesting seal with traditional harpoons, caribou in Rankin Inlet, beluga hunt by boat and jigging through ice holes for arctic char. Whilst joining an early morning hunt for eider ducks in Sanikiluaq,I was impressed by a beautiful display of generosity and shared values common in Inuit culture. Leaving town with an early start by ATV with a 16yr old local hunter as guide, we found a small rock blind and waited several hours in the freezing October cold for a flock of Eider ducks to come close to shore within shooting range. An onshore wind brought 8 of the downed ducks to wash into shore to be processed on land. Of the 8 ducks, he only took two of them, “that’s all I need, my elders need the rest.”Another Inuit hunter Ernesto out feeding his family on a swan/geese hunt in Rankin Inlet brought his entire catch back to his father in law who taught him how to hunt years ago. It is Inuit custom to provide for the one who taught you the skills to hunt.
Hunting is essential to Inuit life and is the healthiest source of nutrition in the north. Due to transport costs, southern food is exorbitantly expensive. The hunt is a family and cultural tradition that is sustainable and respectful in nature, hunting and life skills are transferred from elders to youth throughout the hunt and the entire animal is used for feeding local families.
Every trip “on the land”, I learned valuable skills and respect for the land, I learnt how to light a stove at -40, how to build an igloo, skin a caribou, hunt a seal by harpoon, process the hide of a polar bear and how to run a inuit sled dog team. As my skills and confidence developed, I started heading out on my own adventures, kite skiing on the frozen sea ice in sam ford fjord, suping out to icebergs in clyde river inlet, ski-jouring 6 kivalliq huskies across the sea ice on rankin bay, surfing a nearby river break in clyde river on the east coast of baffin island. A common question I’d hear from locals when we stopped to chat was “ hey, what are you looking for?” expecting me to be out looking for seals/char/caribou to feed my family, “just having fun and getting out in nature” was my reply, a perplexed look always greeted me. To Inuit the land is their bread basket, where they provide for their communities, there is a purpose beyond my hedonistic pleasure of just being out there to have some fun.
After 5 years working as an outpost community nurse and nurse practitioner in the baffin/kivalliq region, I wanted to end the experience with an adventure that would put my acquired knowledge/skills to the test, a 15 day self supported ski traverse across Baffin island through the Auyuittuq Pass from Qikitarjuaq to Pangnirtung…and I needed a solid partner to do it with.
January 2019 – Phonecall to keara …”hey petal, er ya wanna ski across Baffin with me ?”
A giddy/excited “hell yeah” from Keara who was eager to have a well deserved break from mothering 2 year old Daisy. Her husband Tom had recently taken time off to climb a peak in Nepal, so she was owed some time off !
With keara juggling working full time, being a young mum and with zero experience in the arctic, I did the lions share of research, planning and trip preparation so that she could hop off the plane in Qikitarjuaq and start the trip. I spent months talking to other skiers/mountaineers/dog mushers who had completed the trip by ski, hiking, ski jouring or dog team. Every single item on the equipment list had to be arctic rated and proven to work and be reliable at extreme temperatures. A malfunctioning tent zipper or fuel container at extreme temperatures can have dire consequences when a blizzard rolls in. I chatted with Sarah mcnair landry, a renowned polar guide/ accomplished arctic explorer who gave me a wealth of tips from her many days on ice. Jake Gearhardt ,an experienced sled dog owner/musher gave lots of advice on how to travel safely in the arctic.
Two good friends John & Paige in Rankin Inlet owned a hotel with a large dog team of kivalliq huskies out in front of the hotel. A warm hearted generous couple who have lived in the arctic for decades, we spent many an evening talking about John’s days doing 400 km dog sled trips to bring medications to the next community. Paige acts as the local vet, taking in strays, vaccinating dogs as well as running a busy hotel!
After hearing about my planned Baffin trip, they kindly offered me use of one of their Kivalliq husky dogs for polar bear protection and to help pull a sled. I had spent the winter living with them, helping to feed their dogs during blizzards and running a puppy intensive care unit when parvo hit. We saved 2 out of 4 puppies. Whilst helping to feed the dogs one day, John swung open the doors to his kennel…..take your pick , take them out for a ski, listen to them, dont let them be the boss and make sure you give that big one at the back a test run. At the back of kennels, stood “Sky” a large proud husky with piercing blue eyes who commanded respect amongst the pack and myself.
Sky is a descendent of the first pack of dogs that came up to lead RCMP patrols across the kivalliq region, lithe, strong, loyal and smart, he held himself a little higher than the rest, a 90 pound husky with brains, instinct and experience deterring polar bears.. but could I handle him though ! Before skiing with Sky, I took out a few other lead huskies, many weren’t too comfortable pulling a load side by side with a human and were fearful of sharp edged skis, they instinctively wanted to be out in front pulling with the human behind. Sky patiently waited his turn and wow did he deliver right out of the gates, he was as strong as an ox, intuitive, listened and seemed to know my next move. We worked hard side by side pulling 2 heavy sleds with a Y harness/rope configuration . He was a perfect fit for the team I told John who remarked, I told you so, Sky skied to the north pole a few years back with a solo french canadian skier, he’ll keep you safe out there! Decision made, Sky was hired, the next challenge was to figure out how to get a 90 pound husky down to home in squamish for a month of training. I forgot to mention, he’s never even seen a tree before, no city experience, never lived inside a home !
caribou and arctic char
bellies
Trip planning
The Akshayuk pass is located in southern Baffin Island, Nunavut within Auyuittuq National park. The pass runs 100 km along a river system from east to west coast. The pass can be accessed by flying in to Pangnirtung or Qikiqtarjuaq and hiring a local guide to snowmobile/boat to start of pass. In the summertime, the Auyuittuq pass is a reasonably well travelled route for hikers, trail runners and expeditioners, climbing the many tall peaks overlooking the pass. The most famous being Mount Thor (5495 feet) and Mount Asgard (6610 feet), the latter being used in the opening James Bond movie “The spy who loved me” for a daring ski escape when a stuntman ski/parachutes off mt. asgard.
Weather within the Akshayuk pass is extreme and changes frequently. Average monthly lows in March/April are -32 with consistent 15-20 kmh winds, windchill effects are considerable and every caution must be taken when travelling during winter. Blizzards frequently roll through the region bringing 100 kmh winds and zero visibility.
Commiting to our baffin ild crossing a few months ago, i knew it was going to be a challenge, trip planning such an intricate operation with 2 people on opposite sides of the planet but wow the phaff level for arctic travel is extraordinary ! Every scenario had to be accounted for, safety plans, to do lists a mile long, preparing high calorie/dehydrated light food to fuel the journey, get a firearms license and know how to use and maintain a it at -40. Every product brought on the trip had to be arctic tested and proven to work at extreme temperatures, I had to buy new arctic rated seals for my stove/gas containers and arctic down jackets/pants, gps/sat phone/spot messengers and goose down from head to toe! An endless checklist of small little details that if neglected or gear forgotten could have dire consequences. Numerous MEC trips, so many that they knew me by first name, thanks MEC for the great advice and customer service !
Most important amongst the trip planning was learning how to work with a 90 pound husky sled dog. I ve never owned a dog before, so why not start off with a half wild sled dog ! Inuit sled dogs are very different from southern dogs/pets, they are working dogs, they live outside on the sea ice in Rankin Inlet at very cold temperatures and they love it ! Chained up in a dog kennel, alongside all of their friends and with a small running area, they are provided with a delicious diet of high protein kibble mixed with arctic char bellies, seal, caribou meat and any other scraps brought in by hunters in the community. They are intelligent/ high intensity dogs needing a lot of running/activity which John and Paige provided regularly.
Sky was quite nervous and anxious during the first week in Squamish, he’s a kivalliq husky pack dog, used to living with 40 of his best friends and here I was dragging him down to a very foreign land all on his own. Sky had never seen trees before, heard city traffic or socialized amongst non – sled dogs, he nearly fell over with laughter after seeing his first chihuahua at the dog park…..thaaaats not a dog lol! We trained hard everyday, learning how to pull a 200 pound sled together at callaghan cross country trails in Whistler. Sky even got to have a bit of fun on St. Paddy’s day in Squamish. Whilst I was at the bar celebrating, Sky figured out how to open 4 different types of door knob and bolted over a 6 ft fence, off leash for the first time in his life! After searching for him for hours by the river and local neighbourhood, I eventually gave up and fell asleep ready to resume the search in early morning. I notified the local lost dog online forum in squamish and people volunteered to keep an eye out for him on their morning walks. Before I went to bed, I put a large bag of fresh steak/chicken thighs and fish bits on the back deck hoping to lure him back. The local butcher, also a husky owner had kindly agreed to help supply fresh meat from the offcuts at his butcher shop. Well it worked, I awoke to a cheeky grinned husky barking on the back deck waiting for his breakfast ! For the next few days, local dog owners reported sightings of a horny husky visiting their pets late that night, I expect some familiar husky pups to be seen walking around my neighbourhood in 9 months time, good on ya Sky !!
D – Day April 3rd 2019
Keara arrived last night and we had a short one day period to unpack all of our gear, decide what was going to stay or go and repack it all into our expedition pulks. After a marathon packing/repacking session, firearms 101 training for keara, we got everything to Vancouver airport with gracious help from friend ktan…. then things quickly went petong!
Every single piece of gear on this trip had an important function and if failed or forgotten had consequences. In the mad rush and jet lag of the last 24 hours, we forgot the cable ties up in squamish… an essential piece of gear to keep husky in dog crate and repair anything from ski bindings to stoves. After a lengthy search through our bags and time not on our side at Vancouver airport, I spent $60 on $6 worth of crappy rope/keychains to try to macgyver sky’s crate door closed. Air Canada demanded that the door be securely closed before flying.
Then Pete’s feck up occurred, potentially a huge one…I booked keara s flight to ottawa several months ago with her new maiden name and credit card name of Keara Brownlie, however all of her ID states Keara Brennan ! Our check in clerk advised us that we wouldn’t be allowed to fly until this was rectified and it may take days which would ruin our trip! We were on a tight schedule to do the crossing before the weather warmed up and rivers became unsafe to travel on.
It was proving to be an enormous struggle to change the ticket name last minute but with the superhero skills of an Air Canada front desk agent named dominic and a sympathetic supervisor who agreed to override and change the name on ticket on the spot. He gave us a swinging deal on overweight baggage and helped to grease the wheel when every other security officer / handler was being a complete pain in the ass. With the clock ticking close to missing the flight, lugging very heavy bags to/from check in counter with the noise of a barking husky filling the arrivals hall, the security officer demanded to see the inside of dog cage that we d just creatively secured closed with 10 ft metal chain/ rope and keychains!!!
Faaaaaaaack the adventure begins !
What I love about travelling with Keara, my sister as an adventure partner is that when shit hits the fan, there’s no drama, no blaming, no arguing, no tears, the focus is switched to how do we collaboratively fix the problem, share some ideas/solutions, choose the best one, then run with it, adapt and overcome as we go !
Whilst waiting for our flight out of vancouver airport, I phoned concierge at the Ottawa hotel and explained our predicament that we urgently needed some zap straps before we take off again the next morning for Iqaluit. Arrived in ottawa airport at 1 am to a relieving voicemail that the concierge had driven across town to pick up some zap straps for us. Phew, a major relief as finding zap straps in Iqaluit/Qikitarjuaq would be like trying to find a needle in a blizzard ! We decided to keep all of our gear at the airport rather than lug it all with husky to the hotel for only a few hours sleep. So keara, what a legend, with a mountain of gear and pulks surrounding her, slept for a few hours at the airport whilst Sky and i went to our 4 star hotel to sleep on cotton sheets after a delicious steak dinner/beer and yes Sky got his own bed too lol !
After landing in iqaluit we were disappointed to find that our Qikitarjuaq connection had been cancelled due to bad weather… balls, now to find a hotel for us, gear and husky in Iqaluit where there is a severe shortage of accomodation, not easy but we found one cheapie hotel for the night. Grateful for the rest evening, it allowed us to pick up supplies and have a birthday dinner at the Frobisher inn courtesy of Mum and Dad.
6 April 2019
Our flight out to Qikitarjuaq the next morning was again delayed until the afternoon which meant our first night in Qik, we’d have to find a place to camp near town, our first night together in the arctic. Our outfitter’s wife met us at the airport and an excited gaggle of kids helped carry our gear outside to the car park where we began the slow process of getting skis and skins together to ski off and find a place to camp. Our outfitter advised that we sleep near the town’s docks, an area surrounded by houses and hopefully safe from wandering polar bears. We assembled our rented Hilleberg tunnel tent for the first time and tucked in to some dinner that a fellow nurse brought for us….ahh great to be in the north again !
Our nurse friend John was a great help in planning the trip, helping to store supplies that we shipped ahead to Qikitarjuaq. The next morning we had a tour of his clinic and he offered to store our mountain of gear in his clinic waiting room, it was a quiet Sunday, so no patients fortunately.
We then proceeded to the Parks Canada office for a mandatory 2 hour orientation before entering the Auyuittuq Park. We listened attentively on a range of important topics from wildlife management to emergency/evacuation plans and more. We were advised that the local search and rescue service was not equipped or trained to travel in mountainous/glacial terrain, so if we ventured off course and needed help, it would be a 3 day wait for help as they fly in a glacier search & rescue team from Canmore Alberta ! The Auyuittuq pass is a great first timer arctic expedition as there is a clear route to follow 100km through a river valley system with 9 emergency shelters along the way equipped with a VHF radio should one need help. We were advised that it would be pretty quiet enroute with only a team from Japan travelling in the opposite direction that we may encounter. The orientation video was from the 1980’s and discussed how to deal with polar bears. This was my number one fear of the trip, a polar bear attack. I heard many stories from inuit hunters about how intelligent these creatures are and their ability to stealthily stalk a subject before pouncing. The video showed in detail how to use a firearm to deal with an aggressive polar bear, the parks official then pressed pause and explained that it was presently illegal to carry a firearm through the park and that he’d be giving us some pepper spray to carry at the end of the presentation.
Yup ….pepper spray to prevent a polar bear attack!
I was well aware of this predicament before the trip and discussed the options with many inuit hunters and government wildlife officers in a few different baffin/kivalliq communities. Advice from the experts was to carry a firearm at all times, so after lengthy discussion, we decided to go prepared and ready to use one, knowing that there might be some legal consequences if we had to defend ourselves and shoot a bear. Being a Qallunaat (white man) and killing a polar bear even in defence would be a very controversial issue amongst local communities. Polar bear numbers are very tightly controlled by federal/provincial government, allowing a limited number of polar bears to be harvested each year by Inuit for food and clothing. Polar bear tags are given out by lottery and when announced throughout the hunting season, winners are given 48 hours to go out and find a bear before the permit runs out. A polar bear hunt is a dangerous affair and if successful, a community feast ensues and the entire animal is utilized, it’s meat distributed to elders and those who need food, the hide either used to make polar bear pants or sold at market earning the hunter $2-300. A qallunaat killling a polar bear in self defence would remove one tag from the community, a major issue ! After speaking with many people about self defence systems, we created a fort knox style defence system to set up every night. We had a bear banger alarm fence perimeter, a husky outside tent, an assortment of flash bangers, knives and a “ long pointy thing” for last resort measures!
Lucky that we had planned all this out in advance as our outfitter rushed in towards the end of presentation to say that we had a good weather window and had to leave shortly. In the rush to leave, our park interpreter forgot to give us the bear spray and we didnt realise till the next day when we were out on our own in the arctic!
April 7 2019 Qikiqtarjuak to North Pangnirtung Fjord
The last 2 days brought unseasonably “warmer” weather to the area with barely freezing temperatures and a fresh dump of wet heavy snowfall. The outfitters were worried about several soggy sections and we were concerned about a slow sticky surface to lug our sleds across, slowing our travel down for the next few days. Arctic snow is normally very hard and light, almost like styrofoam, allowing one to glide across it with ease and carve out slabs to make an igloo or wind shelter. With 200+ pounds of gear each packed in our pulks , towing becomes significantly more challenging in wet snow.
Our two outfitters loaded all our gear into two kamotiks and we were finally off to the auyuittuq pass, months of planning all to be tested over the next 12 days. Our outfitters were wearing seal skin jackets and mitts, the best protection against the cold temperatures up there ! Keara and I were giddy with excitement but also nervous about what we’d committed too. I was nervous about “guiding” Keara in such an inhospitable climate with so little experience myself. We sped over the sea ice past icebergs frozen in place , through slushy snow patches and after three hours were dropped off at the North Pang emergency shelter. The journey was pretty cold even with canada goose jackets/beaver mitts and down sleeping bags. It was a tight squeeze in the kamotik and Keara noticed that one of her feet was going numb on top, she loosened her boot and moved socks around and we’d look at it later. Frostbite at this stage of the trip in that location could be a trip ending endeavour. Our park interpreter told us about a group last year that had to medivac a client out on day two after a ski tourer showed up with brand new ski boots, the resulting blisters / frost bite causing a sepsis infection!
Our guides dropped us off at the North Pang cabin and unloaded all our gear, sniggering at the weight that we’d have to pull ! Well there’s no better feeling than hearing their snowmobiles humming away into the distance, dwarfed by giant icebergs frozen into the bay returning to the charming little community of Qikitarjuaq. We were finally alone by ourselves in the arctic and exhausted after days of travel phaff! We decided to have a rest day to prepare ourselves and equipment for the days ahead. Our shelter was a small plywood A frame building that are supposedly polar bear proof and equipped with a VHF radio…oh and they have no insulation whatsoever ! The cabins are tiny 2 person shelters with a raised wooden platform on either side to act as a bed and a small cooking area in between. Some have accompanying outhouses. Park wardens advised that officially these were for emergencies only but during the winter months they turn a blind eye to winter use as the visitor numbers are so infrequent and its rather cold to camp in a tent. As a laugh, we vow to create a daily emergency to rationalise staying in each “emergency shelter”, tonights emergency being it’s Keara’s birthday ! We carry a tent at all times to shelter in bad weather/blizzards and there will be several nights when we wont be able to make the long distance between cabins. The VHF radio is used to listen into parks canada daily weather/information bulletins and for calling in emergencies. The signal is pretty patchy but it’s comforting knowing that we can call in help if needed. A log book in each shelter documents a motley crew of travellers who have trekked/skied/climbed/mushed their way through the Auyuittuq pass over the years. Assessing Keara’s foot was concerning, a large white numb spot on her dorsal foot, likely frost bite, not a good start. At night, we were treated to an incredible display of northern lights dancing off the high granite walls behind our shelter, a perfect northern happy birthday to Keara as she turned 35 toasted with of course some Jameson’s whisky! I sleep poorly the first night, running through the different scenarios and decisions that would have to be made if keara’s foot worsens overnight, do we both cancel the trip or call outfitters on satellite phone to pick up keara and I continue alone with Sky.
April 8th 2019 – North Pangnirtung shelter
8 am radio weather bulletin informs us that we have clear skies , – 32 temps with 5 kmh SW winds. Slow start to the day as we unpack and sort through gear trying to find that bag of coffee buried in there! 2 inuit hunters dropped in to say hi on their way back through the pass, they report no bear tracks/ activity seen and kindly left a snowmobile track/highway for us to pull on for the first few kilometres !
We spent the afternoon, reorganizing and testing out different packing configurations trying to keep the heaviest items at the base of pulk to improve stability. The pulks were quite top heavy and unstable on slopes, turning a heavy pulk over was arduous so we had to get this right early on. We tested different ski / hauling set ups, I had both a xc ski and downhill ski set up with kicker skins to provide traction on steeper surfaces. These skis would also allow me to kite ski and pull both pulks if the winds were coming from the right direction. The classic cross country skis were much lighter and quicker on the flats and gave the heels a welcome break from tight ski boots.
Keara’s potential frost bite wound is recovering better than expected, colour returning to the wound, phew !
April 9 2019 – North Pang to Owl River shelter
Another slow start to the morning as we figure out our packing systems and prepare ourselves for the journey ahead. We have a touring set of clothing combining warm wicking base layers, fleece and windstopper layers. Within arms reach at the top of pulk was our “cold weather” insulation layers consisting of down pants/jacket, rabbit fur hat, beaver skin mitts. Learning how to regulate body temperature in an arctic expedition is key, too many layers and you sweat which soon freezes, causing hypothermia. Too few layers and well you get hypothermia too.
The first 6 km are a tough slog carrying way too much gear, only 6 km covered through wet deep snow and a gradual incline. There are some essential items like camping fuel and dog food but we start to question wether we should have brought all that heavy cheese, chocolate and whisky …then quickly dismiss the idea of tossing it !
At the end of the first day, we figure out who ‘s going to make dinner and who’s going to feed Sky and make drinking water by heating ice. Our socks are wet from the day’s exertion, so as advised by polar guide friends to place the smelly wet socks under our arm pits to allow our body heat to dry them overnight…gross !
Climbing into our -40 winter sleeping bags wearing many layers of down, beaver mitts, fur hats and zippo hand warmers with smelly wet socks under armpits, we vow to make this the first and last arctic trip and commit to chilling out a bit on the expedition front for the next decade !
April 10 2019 – Owl river to Camp site
We took forever again to get going in the morning, sore legs and lots to pack up. Breakfast prepared and Sky is fed his daily ration of kibble mixed with hot water. He hasnt been eating much in the last 2 days and Keara, a veterinarian is getting quite concerned about his general health/weight loss over such a long haul trip. We scoop his now frozen bowl of dog food into the pulk to reheat for dinner tonight. We make good progress today due to a firmer snow pack and no incline, allowing the pulks to slide and glide a little more. Sky seems to be taking a rather relaxed approach to hauling the pulk with me, Keara observes that his part of the haul line is slack most of the time. Hopefully we get some fuel into him tonight so he can replenish and pull his fair share of the load ! We plan to camp tonight so start looking for a good location in the late afternoon, aiming for a flat campsite, hidden from the wind.
This was to be our first experience winter camping so we needed plenty of time to figure out our camp systems before the sun dipped behind the peaks and the cold set in. We rented a hilleberg expedition tent from Black Feather expeditions, hilleberg tents have a great reputation amongst extended arctic expeditions so we decided not to compromise on our shelter. The tent is a tube design small 3 person tent with a small vestibule for cooking and gear storage. With multiple guy lines and its sleak design, the tent is known to withstand blizzard strength winds. As Keara cooks up some dehydrated packaged rice dinners, I assembled our polar bear defence system. It was painfully slow putting this up the first time and very cold on the fingers. I try to do all of the fiddly work as quickly as possible in leather ice climbing gloves then plunge my hands back in to my beaver mitts to warm up. It’s a four post defence system connected by fishing line attached to 4 shotgun blank spring trigger release devices. The theory being that if a polar bear wanders into camp, it triggers the fishing line trap, launching 4 shotgun blanks in to the air. Our best deterrent was Sky, an alert husky sleeping outside the tent to act as our early warning system. Inside the tent we slept with a range of weapons/bangers close by in case needed. We both get some sort of sleep our first tent night but with one eye/ear open most of the night, we were pretty tired the next morning.
April 11 2019 – Camp site to june valley cabin
7 am alarm, our pulk packing routine improving slowly, breaky of oats & nabob coffee. A smooth few hours with steady progress pulling the pulks, then a cold icy headwind develops, beaver mitts on and all skin covered up to prevent frostbite. So grateful to have the beaver mitts, hand made for Keara and I by an elder from Rankin Inlet. Skiing into the head wind is tough and Sky still isnt pulling his weight, the milestone markers drift by slowly due to the scale and magnitude of terrain here. By 4 pm, we make it to the June valley shelter, a cute little cabin, slightly larger than the others, nestled under 2 unnamed peaks with two very skiable couloirs to ogle at all afternoon. It would be fun to come back here some time and ski some good lines. The Inuit put a pause on the “naming” of peaks after mythological non inuit gods (Thor/asgard) when the park was created and for good reason. Most of the region’s features were named by William Baffin, a British naval explorer in 1600’s who named areas through his telescope without ever setting foot on its soil. Reviewing a government issued map of Baffin island is quite a farce amongst Inuit. Every valley/peak seems to be named after some British naval Lord’s mistress, favourite hometown in England or mythical gods completely detached from the Inuit culture, history and language. Inuit have lived on and WITH this land for thousands of years, they are the true owners of this land and prefer not to name it’s peaks as it infers ownership. It sometimes irks me watching videos of young egotistical climbers coming to bag first ascents and naming them afterwards, it’s not yours to name !
Inuit are firm believers in being caretakers for the land, their responsibility is to maintain the natural balance and pass it on to the next generation. Reviewing a Inuit map of Baffin Island with a local/hunter/elder, reveals a much larger database of useful information based on traditional hunting gathering areas, shelters, food caches marked by inukshuks. Several communities have reverted back to their traditional names, the regions capital city Iqaluit reverted back to it’s current namesake after Inuit voted to change it from Frobisher Bay.
The wind is still howling in late afternoon and it’s coming from the right direction at our backs, yeeehah it’s playtime ! I unfurl my 9m kite and harness the full power of mother nature, whizzing across the river ice/compact snow from one side of the valley to the other all afternoon. Gratitude to keara for hanging out and taking some memorable photos of the experience! We chat over dinner about the possibility of joining up the pulks and using the wind to pull the weight the next time the wind blows in our favour.
Sky hasn’t eaten much in the last few days, so Keara decides that we should force feed him until he decides to eat on his own. We devise a system of me holding the husky from behind whilst keara opens his jaws and forces kibble into his mouth, closes mouth and strokes his throat to ensure he swallows it all, then repeat. So grateful to have a vet on board the trip !
We are treated to another magical northern lights display for a few hours, I sit mesmerized in the snow capturing long exposures, this one below won Black Feather’s expedition photo of the year 🙂
April 12 2019 – June Valley to Glacier cabin
Glorious start to the day with our cabin bathed in sunlight, we recharge our Go Zero solar chargers and batteries and force feed Sky yet again. He somewhat tolerates it but its a bit of a hassle having to spoon feed him twice a day. I have removed the wild meat portion of his kibble combo for the expedition as we just cant carry the weight and the smell could attract polar bears, so he might well be having a little protest and refusing to eat. Ribs are now starting to show under his fur, so it’s our only option.
load lol!
We’re excited to get going this morning as it should be our last day of gradual uphill climbing to the highest point in traverse which is located at 420 metres just after the glacier cabin. All the hauling has been tough on keara’s left knee causing her pain and a little slower on the march. It’s a tough slog up to glacier cabin in more wet dense snow, we come across a line of Japanese skiers, a school group of 10 or so skiers led by 2 guides. We ski over to greet them and exchange information about the trail travelled so far, lessons learned and of course have a few group selfies !
Bad weather starts to roll in early afternoon and the wind picks up. Within a few kilometres of the cabin we notice that a cloud/fog ceiling is descending quickly and we are unable to get a visual sight on our cabin, potentially a dangerous situation. To make matters worse, I am skiing behind Keara and my caribou skin hide named “skippy” rolls off the back of my pulk. This was an essential piece of kit that lay under my thermarest and provided extra warmth. I yell out to Keara so that she can stop but she’s unable to hear me with the winds and her down hood /hat impeding her hearing. I decide to unleash from Sky and the pulk to follow my tracks back to where it fell off. As I ski away, I keep looking over my shoulder to get a visual on her location and suddenly I cant see her anymore, we’re approaching whiteout and I’m separated from my pulk with all of its survival gear/tent and also my sister, what a dumb mistake ! Luckily I retrace my tracks and visibility briefly improves long enough for me to see Keara’s faint outline in the distance waiting for me. Lesson learned, never leave your pulk and travel side by side or within ear shot at all times ! We get out the map and fix a compass bearing on the cabin location and plug away to arrive in very poor visibility at Glacier shelter, ahhhh whisky and chocolate has never tasted so good, rest day tomorrow 🙂
April 13 th 2019 Glacier Shelter – Rest day
There’s nothing better than being snuggled up in layers of down with heat warmers in the sleeping bag and knowing that you can stay there all day if you want ! Rest day to chill relax, sort through gear, stretch, attend to blisters etc. Our sunscreen is now a frozen chunk, we have to boil it up in the morning just to apply it to exposed skin, ah the pleasures of arctic travel!
Keara gets cracking on the best of breakfast foods baaacccccccon as we listen in to the day’s weather forecast, clear sunny skies & -22 C 🙂 Keara uses the sat phone to text family at home in new zealand and Ireland, it’s great to hear from them and get words of encouragement. We fix gear, cuddle with sky, eat chocolate and spend a few hours building an outhouse using blocks of snow for privacy / warmth. We brought long saws from the hardware store along for this purpose. If a blizzard rolls in and immediate shelter is needed or if tent rips, large ice slabs can be carved out and piled on top of each other to build a shelter. We name this shelter “Camp Daisy” mounting a handpainted palm print of daisy on keara’s ski’s to flutter in the wind all day long : Huge respect to Keara for making the challenging decision to be away from Daisy for a few weeks, a tough choice when Daisy’s only 2 years old. Maybe we’ll all get to do the trip together someday 🙂
April 14 2019 Glacier shelter – Summit Lake
We have one last final ascent up to Summit lake, the highest point on our traverse, a tough steep but short haul up a glacial moraine with the pulks rolling over often. Our kicker skins mounted under skis giving us some traction to haul pulks slowly uphill. What relief to get to the top and be greeted with the sight of Mt. Asgard and 2 large flat lakes. Luck would have it that we had a steady 15 know outflow wind, perfect for kite skiing 🙂 Sky is utterly perplexed as I step into the harness and tie into my 9 m kite and whizz effortlessly across the lake ice. Giddy with excitement, we start engineering a ropes system where we tie together both pulks for stability and a drag rope behind that Keara can hold on to, whilst holding on to a freaked out husky lol! After a few aborted attempts, it all comes together and we figure out how to use the kite to tow keara and I towards Summit Lake cabin. What a relief to be moving so efficiently for once, we can only man-haul the pulks at 2 km/hr and we covered that in about 10 minutes by kite after a few hilarious cock ups!
The wind drops in late afternoon and we walk the last few kilometres at a short distance from each other. We hear an ominous cracking from under our feet and in the surrounding valley. Is it rocks rolling down on to the lake ice or our weight causing the ice to crack. Either way, we re freaked out and decide to travel with some distance between us and avoid standing still for too long !
It’s bitterly cold as we arrive at Summit lake cabin and we look at creative ways of getting into the insulated Park ranger cabin located close to our emergency shelter. They’ve obviously encountered this before and have the place locked up like Fort Knox! Our shelter is slightly larger than the others and there’s an outhouse nearby. Being -30 outside, defecating in an outhouse requires skill and patience, avoiding the potentially embarrassing / painful potential for your arse to freeze to the toilet seat ! The hover method works a charm but is exhausting on tired legs!
April 15 2019 – Summit Lake to Thor Cabin
Very cold night in summit lake shelter, slow to depart in the morning, what we thought was going to be easy downhill on the Weasel river was a tough windy slog on an slippery boulder strewn river of ice, Sky was petrified of the river ice, he sensed correctly that there was moving water underneath and intuition told him to head to dry land asap. After much coaxing, he gets with the plan and we continue walking down the river of ice. Late morning, we came across a convoy of outfitter snowmobiles driving a British army climbing expedition up to Summit Lake. We stop and chat for a few minutes learning of their plans to summit a few peaks and generally have fun at the British taxpayers expense ! We ogle at all of their expensive gear and wander how much Cadbury’s chocolate they brought up, oh if only they arrived at Summit lake last night, we’d have had a few laughs I’m sure!
We are speechless as Thor mountain comes into view, Thor stands tall at 5495 feet and features the largest vertical granite drop on earth at 4101 feet. Nestled on the opposite side of its granite face to avoid rockfalls is a basic shelter where we spend hours in awe looking up at all the different climbing routes. In the Summer, this shelter / campground is packed with highly experienced climbers taking on the worlds tallest granite face. The shelter logbook reads like a who’s who of the worlds elite climbers. There are many hikers that pass through in the Summer too, lots of stories about grueling conditions, ravaging mosquitos and dangerous icy river crossings.
April 16 2019
Thor to windy lake cabin
Another glorious sunny day and a gradual downhill slide down the Weasel river from Thor peak. Keara fed up of walking and in search of a giggle is able to sit on top of her pulk and use ski poles to pole her way down the icy river. We make great progress then things get a little serious!
We were used to travelling within ear shot of each other by now for safety reasons but once again we had a lapse in concentration and I drifted ahead of Keara. I stopped to look for her and after a few minutes of waiting, I could not see or hear her pulk dragging across the ice. Concerned, I decided to unleash from the pulk and walk with Sky up the river bank to a high spot to see where Keara was. As I start climbing up the bank, Sky leads me towards some fresh polar bear tracks heading towards Thor cabin. Looking at the paw prints, it looks like a large male teenage bear that is obviously way off course. Polar bears should be 50 kilometres away hunting for seals at the flow edge at this time of year, what on earth was it doing up a high alpine pass! I panic, my mind racing at the thought of Keara being attacked by a bear, I look around for Keara then back at the pulk that has my “long pointy thing” with plenty of ammunition, do I head back to pulk or use Sky to find the bear and potentially save Keara. Luckily Keara pops up from behind a large boulder where she’d stopped unannounced to toilet herself. Phew we’re all safe but now we are in an active polar bear country with one close by. Keara takes a look at the tracks and thinks they are probably from the night before, she sensed something was lurking around our shelter last night too!
We devised a safety plan of walking in the middle of the river, keara watching the front, Pete watching the back, knives/bear bangers at the ready and Pete with the “long pointy thing.” Polar bears are very effective predators and definitely at the top of the food chain up here,so we are on very high alert for the rest of the day. We proceed cautiously down the frozen Weasel river, scanning the shores for a white bear on a white background. We come up with a plan that If we see a bear and it’s walking towards us, we ll unleash Sky to deter the bear away, if that doesnt work, we’ll use the bear bangars to scare it away. If the bear still doesn’t get the message and comes to within a 100m radius of us, it’s time to use the “long pointy thing” as a last resort for self protection.
After a few tense kilometres, we enter a tight canyon with massive house sized boulders, plenty of hiding spots for a bear. Our footing is slippery on the polished ice and the heavy pulks are sliding and rolling over when they hit small rocks in it’s path. We team up to turn them over whilst the other keeps an eye out for a pouncing bear. It’s slow progress and stressful stuff, then Sky starts barking and picks up a scent, leading us to some fresh urine & polar bear feces, shit there was a polar bear nearby. The feces was still soft and unfrozen at -30 so we figured this bear was in the canyon and close to us. If there was ever to be a polar bear attack, this would be the spot, the bear would have the uphill advantage and we’d have no where to run or hide! We keep going down the river at a crawl, swat team style watching all around us for a polar bear, scary stuff !!
Luckily we were given safe passage and made it out intact to windy lake shelter where we called parks canada on sat phone to notify them of recent bear activity. They were pretty concerned and requested that we sleep in the shelter that night instead of a tent. Subsequent parks canada radio bulletins warned travellers of recent track sightings. They promised to send up some rangers the next day to further investigate.
We slept on edge all night, always using the buddy system to leave the cabin, one scanning the surroundings whilst toilets were used by the other. Windy lake shelter is appropriately named, the wind howls and screams all night long !
April 17
Windy Lake to Ulu cabin.
We awoke to a strong 40 kmh wind gusting to 60 kmh with poor visibility on this aptly named Lake. Unfortunately we slept through the weather forecast and were a little uncertain wether to push on or not.
We decided to go for it as the wind was at our back for once, helpful but the wind was so powerful it could sweep me off my feet and frequently turned the pulk I was hauling 180 degrees in front of me. Challenging terrain to say the least, my heavy winter boots were a pain to walk in plus manage a freaked out husky. So keara kindly took Sky and i started using ski poles which helped the progress!
The winds continued to pick up, definitely blizzard force and visibility at times came down to 300 metres. As we approached the rivers mouth, the river fanned out with multiple braids & diversions. We struggled to find the most efficient route and avoid dead ends that resulted in pulling heavy pulks across sand berms uuugh !
Rounding one corner, keara spotted our final hut on trip, the ulu shelter, ahhhhhhhhh we’ve arrived. Unfortunately it was a pain to get there as we still had multiple river braids and gravel beds to cross to get there. Our pulks were already shredded to the max with multiple holes from dragging them across rocks so we decided to dump our pulks and just bring the essential gear to the cabin, rather than damage the pulks and back man hauling! Chocolate and whisky being top of the essentials list as arriving in ulu cabin meant the end of the road and completion of the auyuittuq pass, yeeeeehah goal complete!
April 19 2019
We called Outfitter Peter kilabuq on satellite phone and he kindly offered to pick us up a day earlier than planned. So we enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast and mulled about the things we were most looking forward to in Pangnirtung … fruit, bed, showers and phonecalls to Keara’s daughter Daisy being top of the list. We were unable to wash for 14 days due to limited water access, just frozen baby wipes!
Peter arrived an hour early so we hurriedly packed up and hauled our gear over to the pick up point. Peter was a great outfitter and incredibly well experienced, he was a former Parks Canada ranger and knew the terrain well. He also served his community as MLA and speaker of the legislative assembly in Iqaluit. He was so generous with his knowledge of the land and stopped to point out interesting ice / geological formations enroute. After listening to our polar bear encounter, he predicted that a curious teen male bear was waiting for us in the canyon and commended us for having Sky as an early warning system. It turns out he worked in politics with Sky”s dad John Hickes as a minister of cabinet, tis a small world 🙂
Arriving in Pangnirtung after 2 hours in a kamotik hauled by snowmobile, we were dropped off at Sabrina s house and so began the start of two days of bacon, coffee, fruit, pancakes and a scrumptious easter diner with a bunch of pang health workers. Sabrina manages the mental health services for South Baffin Island, an enormous task, Nunavut has the highest suicide rate in Canada. The next day, we did a kite flying workshop for Sabrina, poor wind unfortunately but fun to get out. We had a tour around the Pangnirtung health centre, it was a fairly impressive place, a newer build, spacious with a good team of nurses on the ground. The community is known as a tough one to work in due to high rates of spousal abuse, alcoholism and violence, you can see the strain in the nurses eyes after a busy Saturday night.
Flying out of Pangnirtung is a spectacular experience, the plane flew so close to some tall granite cliffs then it all drops away to an expanse of sea ice. As I sip on my first beer from the Calm Air flight attendant ( Pangnirtung & Qikiqtarjuak are both dry communities, by community choice), I reflect on the magical north, the hospitable Inuit, incredible landscapes, there’s something about it that keeps me coming back for more.
We land in Ottawa and collapse on to crisp white linen sheets at our hotel. A quick phonecall to Mum and Dad to say we’re well, safe and exhausted ! I still recall Mum’s voice on that phonecall, proud of our achievement, relieved that we’re safe and suggesting that we tone it down a bit on the danger level on future trips!
A few months after finishing the Baffin crossing, we get a cruel reminder as to the fragility of life, our family is delivered the tragic news that Mum has stage 4 colon cancer with only months to live. Our lives are upturned forever as we all fly back from overseas to support Mum at home in Ireland through her final journey.
We miss you and love you Mum xox
Life is short, get out there, follow your dreams and in Mum’s words……”Enjoy every moment”
kearab
peteb2010
Cycling from India to Ireland... 