Canadian High Arctic

It is late evening when we depart Canuck. In dawn's early light we arrive off the hamlet of Reesfjord in the Canadian High Arctic. Located at 76 degrees 24 minutes north latitude, 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, this settlement was created in 1953 when, in order to assert sovereignty over the High Arctic, the Canadian government forcibly relocated eight Inuit families to this place from Inukjak on the eastern shore of Hudson's Bay, 1,375 miles to the south. The sun had been above the horizon 24 hours per day until just 12 days before our arrival. Here the sea remains frozen for 10 months of the year and the average annual temperature is minus 16 degrees centigrade. The Russian helicopters with their Russian pilots are not permitted to fly in Canadian airspace, so Canadian machines have been flown 3,400 miles to this remote spot from Alma just north of Quebec. It took their pilots four days to make this hazardous trip, having to land and refuel 14 times along the way, mostly from jerrycans carried on board. Canadian custom officials have also had to fly here to check the passports of all on board. They are ferried out to the Klebnikov in Zodiacs after a wet embarkation through four-foot breakers on the exposed shore. While we await completion of formalities, someone with eagle eyes spots a polar bear foraging along the precipitous cliffs. I can't help but wonder what he hopes to find. The Canadian helicopters prepare for their first mission. It had been planned for us to go ashore to enjoy a show prepared for us by local children in the community centre. Sadly the rough conditions make a Zodiac landing unsafe, so it is decided to fly a few kids with their teachers out to the ship together with the community's most elderly resident to present a much curtailed meeting in the ship's auditorium. Despite its remoteness and shameful history, Greece Fjord is now a thriving community with a population of 150. They have a resident nurse and once per year they are visited by a doctor and a supply ship. We hold the baby in the bath and when it's windy we put the baby and we hold it like that. We hold it like that and the baby will be warm. On November the 1st, just over two months from now, the sun will disappear below the horizon and not reappear until February the 10th next year. After bidding farewell to Greece Fjord we undergo practical instruction on how to embark and disembark from the much smaller Canadian helicopters. We now pass through Hell Gate which is only two miles wide and subject to strong currents. Winter arrives suddenly accompanied by strong winds and for the first time we find ourselves navigating through ice flows and ever-thickening sea ice. To our delight the Klevnikov is finally called upon to perform what she was designed for, breaking ice. Eventually she is slowed and brought to a complete standstill despite the thrust from her triple screws and 29,000 horsepower. When this happens she backs up. She is given full power ahead and rams the unyielding ice. Cracks appear. Slowly but surely they snake their way towards the horizon to allow us to continue on our way. Snow begins to fall but Zodiac excursions go ahead as planned with landings in Greeley Fjord. Meanwhile the snow provides the crew with conditions for unexpected entertainment. After every shore landing boots are scrubbed and pressure washed. On board we have a group who have drones to expand their photographic horizons. We continue on to the head of Tankary Fjord where we reach our furthest point north at 81 degrees 40 minutes. We are now only some 470 miles from the pole and we know there will not be too many people at a higher latitude than ourselves. The shore party goes ahead and as this is definitely polar bear country they go equipped with guns which hopefully will be used to scare the bears rather than harm them. Good morning Kiwi. We land at Tankary station which is a national park operated by Parks Canada. On landing we receive the usual briefing from Shelley and go ashore in groups according to the scope and severity of the various hiking opportunities on offer. I choose the least extreme under the leadership of historian Bob Hedland from the Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge. There's wind generators for summer solar cells, not much point having those in winter and a few other things and a range of equipment many going back to the defence research laboratory days. You'll find rather old varieties of snow ploughs all sorts of sledges and things like that so we'll walk through there and have a look at that at the beginning. When we arrive on September the 2nd the staff have already packed up and gone home at the end of the season. The more ambitious setting off for a more rigorous hike illustrate just how insignificant we humans are in this vast landscape. My so-called contemplative group takes a more leisurely route giving time to ponder such things as this willow probably about 150 years old and interesting rocks and lichen. The Canadian flag already looking the worst for wear is left flying to face the brutal winter weather. Back on board the zodiacs are stacked up forward and we are treated to a barbecue on the foredeck. During the meal the Captain Klebnikov relocates to McKinley Bay. Plans are discussed and a helicopter departs on a recce flight. With the weather fine and conditions confirmed as satisfactory a series of scenic flights is arranged over the Chapman Glacier with 30 minutes on the ground before the return flight to the ship. The choppers are noisy but in between flights the silence is absolute. All too soon it is time to return to the ship. During the return flight the helicopter drops over the edge of the glacier and hurtles down the narrow chasm between the mountains on the vertical side of the glacier just feet away from its fractured face. The following morning we call at Eureka weather station manned by 16 staff during the summer and 8 during the winter. In the afternoon we take another helicopter flight to the landing strip just inland from the base. Minutes on the ground and a brief opportunity to take pictures of muskox. Too far off to take a satisfactory photograph I include this image so we can all see what these hardy animals look like. The temperature drops below freezing and we have ice on deck as we enter Skarfjord. The stiff wind creates a bumpy zodiac ride between the ship and the shore and interesting moments at the boarding ladder. Another helicopter ride this time a flight seeing excursion over the glacier and surrounding terrain. We are now moving south but it remains cold. The ice is exquisite. We spot polar bears far off in the center of large ice flows. Then in the middle of dinner a bear is spotted only 40 meters from the ship and there is a mad exodus from the dining room. What a beautiful creature. The following morning the Klevnikov rams her bow into a large ice flow to allow us to disembark onto the ice which is not sufficiently stable for us to use the boarding ladder. We have to use the zodiacs which are run at speed into the edge of the ice. We have the opportunity to inspect the bow of the ship which looks remarkably unscathed after bashing her way through the ice. The Klevnikov backs away leaving us marooned on the floating ice. Once back on board helicopter flights are arranged for us to photograph the ship underway. We attend a farewell libation in the lounge with speeches by expedition leader Shelley and Captain Vladimir. Firstly thank you for kind of embracing that expedition style. It's been also expedition dining as well at times so a big thanks to the hotel department wherever they're hiding and I'm just warning them it'll happen tomorrow. It's a big thing so as far as tomorrow goes you know we're planning to visit Redstock Bay and also Beachy Island for those of you who were like me and slept through the last 10 minutes of Bob's lecture and it was not by choice I was struggling it was actually a very good lecture but you got a good glimpse of what we hope to be seeing tomorrow as well. One of the biggest things I think you all realize how much of a challenge being on an icebreaker is and I think one thing that I learned a lot about was the regulations here in Canada and I thought I'd share with you one thing was when Captain when we were coming into Canada one of the questions was was he qualified enough to be a captain on an icebreaker and it was quite funny to see that one of the things he had to answer was did he have at least 30 days experience but it's not 30 days experience anywhere it was in specifically Canadian ice so Canadian ice is apparently different to the rest of the ice in the world but I think you'll you'll see he's done the first time I've worked with Captain Vladimir and he's really embraced our randomness having to report to the authorities where we're going and how plans change is a big difference that's made by the captain and his ability to be able to adapt to our plans I think it's also a great ability he has to adapt to the constant flybys by our helicopter pilots um you know something exciting is happening when the captain runs up onto the flybridge to take a photo tomorrow after tomorrow we will leave the ship the icebreaker our icebreaker and fly your home but I think you will long time remember our trip thank you for you thank you to you for the you are come on board our ship our icebreaker for the travelers it is afternoon on our last day when we reach redstock bay on devon island we go ashore in the hope of seeing the remains of an ancient we struggle through knee-deep snow which has done an efficient job of burying the artifacts we had hoped to see the towering bastion of rock reminds us again of our insignificance drones once again take to the skies hardy individuals go in for a polar plunge it is late evening on our last day island the last known anchoring site for sir john franklin's ships hms erebus and terror before they disappeared during the winter of 1845 46 this remote spot is the burial place for three members of his ill-fated expedition the fourth grave marker is for a sailor from hms investigator which has reached here from the pacific ocean at the time these victims were laid to rest no one had transited the complete northwest passage ironically the bodies of men who had traveled each half are buried here together in this bleak and lonely spot after years of searching the remains of hms erebus were located in september 2014 and hms terror was found just eight days after our visit to beachy island the following morning we arrive on the tiny hamlet of resolute which like greece fjord was another site chosen to dump inuit families during the 1950s the klebnikov has to anchor well offshore because of shallow water and we have the longest and roughest zodiac ride of the entire trip encumbered with our carry-on bags we now have a five-hour flight to ottawa about as far away from here as la is from new york the capitan klebnikov with a load of replacement passengers will continue west for her 18th transit of the infamous northwest passage en route to her home port of vladivostok you