Baffin Island lies in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago west of Greenland and is the world’s fifth largest Island. Auyuttuq (the land that never melts) National Park includes the Penny Ice Cap – 6000 sq km forms a 2000 m high barrier in the Cumberland Peninsula. It is a remnant of the last ice age and is 300 meters thick in places. This Ice Cap feeds the fiord and many rivers of the Akshayuk Pass Traverse – a 100 km trek from northeast to southwest on Baffin Island.
The traverse includes all that you might think of in a trek above the Arctic Circle – midnight sun, soft wet tundra, fiords, valleys, ice caps, glaciers, spectacular mountains, many rivers lakes and tarns, steep vertical granite rock walls including Mount Thor whose west face is the longest vertical drop on Earth – 1250 metres or 4101 feet, and Mount Asgard (two flat topped cylindrical rock towers separated by a saddle). In 1976 Rick Sylvester a stuntman performed a base jump skiing of the mountain for the pre-title sequence of the James Bond film The spy Who Loved Me.
Although the trek is not that long in length (100 ks), the terrain is difficult. You are either in soft wet tundra sinking in 25 cm or more with each step or going over boulders in the kilometre after kilometre of moraines. This means your feet and ankles are constantly twisting and with the added weight of backpacks by the end of the day your feet are incredibly sore. In addition although there are only 8 major river crossings, there are multiple steam crossings each day – some with boots on and some with boots off.
We were incredibly lucky with weather – it had rained for about 3 weeks straight prior to our arrival. Some of the rivers were so high hikers had to turn back. Except for one, our river crossings were better than we had anticipated. Still cold and fast with multiple braids to cross, up to our butts in places but all manageable. We had a mix of bluebird days, overcast, a bit of rain one night, and some drizzle on our last day. There was just enough wind to keep the insects at bay. Temperatures were between 4 and 9 Celsius during the day which was perfect for hiking.
We (Doug, myself & our friend Carolyn) left Fernie on August 5th, 2022 – flew Calgary – Toronto, Ottawa August 6th. Flew Ottawa to Iqaluit August 7th and were stranded there for 3 days due to plane delays, weather etc. We met a father and son (Phillip & Axel) from France who were also doing the trek and were stranded along with us. Thought we would make the best of it and explored the area.
August 8th hiked Apex Trail along Frobisher bay to the sight of Bowhead jaw bones erected in 2012 to celebrate the return of the whale harvest. Apex is the original Inuit settlement. Iqaluit was established as a trading post in 1914, then air base during World War 2, and finally constructed camps for DEW “Distant Early Warning” – line of radar stations. Frobisher Bay tidal fluctuations are among the greatest in the world to a maximum height of 11 metres.
August 9th we hiked in Sylvia Grinnell Park. Charles Hall who discover Frobisher’s strait was actually a bay and not the Northwest Passage named the park after a daughter of one of his financial bankers.
August 10th we flew via Clyde River to Qikiqtarjuaq. This gave us an opportunity to see the Penny Ica Cap. Qikiqtarjuaq is situated along the Arctic Circle and off eastern Baffin Island. Davis Straight and Baffin Bay run to the east, and the Baffin Mountains are located to the west – more specifically the Arctic Cordillera mountain range. It is one of the Nunavut comunities closest to Greenland and the bay is often filled with icebergs swept in from Greenland. Population of 593. We camped in a bay with great views of the floating icebergs. Everything shut down early for the night so we were unable to purchase fuel or groceries. This was the only night we were bothered by mosquitos as there was no wind in the bay.
Day 1 of Trek: August 11th – 4:30 pm late boat ride to North Pang fiord for the start of our trek. Fortunate to photograph a polar bear along the way.
Due to time spent watching the polar bear we didn’t reach North Pang until 8:30 pm. Because of a lower tide Billy let us off prior to the North Pang shelter on very precarious rocks. Axel jumped out and we tossed the packs to him from the boat. Unfortunately he slipped with Doug’s pack and went part way into the water. Not fun for him starting the hike with one soaked boot! We were advised to hike inland abut 5 ks to stay clear of the polar bears. Tough terrain – soft, wet tundra to our first river crossing and campsite for the night (12:30 am) – 1/2 way to Owl River Shelter. Total of 13.7 ks to Owl Shelter and we had good weather both days.
Day 2: August 12th we hiked the rest of the way to the Owl Shelter. We started calling the wet tundra “energy draining terrain”. Like doing stairs for the entire day. Big moraines everywhere you looked. River crossing just before the shelter required us to form a tripod position to cross one of the braids of fast, cold, glacier water. Even with that Carolyn fell part way across!
Day 3: August 13th – we are quickly learning that distances are very hard to judge and we started to refer to an “Arctic kilometre” as 2000 metres instead of 1000. Today we hike 17.4 ks to June Shelter. Mix of clouds, sun and wind and mix of terrain – our energy draining tundra, hard pack river bed, and sand. As you can see from the map below, lots of small streams to cross some with boots off. Bit faster pace than previous 2 days.
Day 4: August 14th, June Shelter to Glacier Lake Shelter, 17.3 ks, windy, cold and overcast. Mostly good walking along shoreline. Good views of Asgard and Turner Glacier.
Day 5: August 15th, Spent part of last night and this morning trying to decide between crossing the Owl or the Rundle. Decided on the Owl River. We then hiked to end of Moraine and across Norman River to small campsite. Rained all night so didn’t get started till around 10:30 waiting for things to dry out a bit. This was the last time we saw Phillip and Axel. We weren’t hiking together but would see them along the way. Tuned into Park’s radio – 2 women at Ule trying to get boat pickup – Parks’ wasn’t responding. We contacted Peter with our Zoleo for them to arrange ride. Long and cold, but easy crossing of Owl onto moraine. Then very long traverse across a massive moraine created by Highway and Norman glaciers. We camped at the end of the moraine for easy access to Turner glacier in the morning.
Day 6: August 16th – bluebird day, across moraine and onto the Turner Glacier. Surprisingly no wind while we were on the glaciers. Stunning views of Asgard, Loki and 360 degree scenery. Climbed Turner and Parade glaciers and after much scouting decided we couldn’t get to Caribou glacier. Glacier finger to get onto Caribou was a 65-75 degree slope. We had rope and ice screws to use as anchors but didn’t think the three of us with heavy packs would be able to climb it. Getting to the cull was equally tough. Steep climb to Bergshrund then steeper ice to rock wall. Probably could climb the rock wall through the cull but couldn’t find a safe way to get to it. Doug went through Bergshrund up to his waist at one point. Turned back and camped at bottom of Parade across from Mount Asgard.
Day 7: August 17th – woke at 4:30 and got first light on Mount Asgard. Everything quite frozen but another bluebird day! Headed back down Turner, staying to the right at the toe of glacier to get on moraine and miss crossing the Turner river. Connected with trail and headed towards Summit Shelter camping 2 ks short of it. Crossed the Caribou river just prior to shelter.
Day 8: August 18th – Past Summit and on to Thor Shelter. This is the day of waterfalls! Transitioning from the Owl River flowing to North Pang to the Weasel River flowing out of Crater Lake to the South Pang fiord. Multiple creek crossings including 1/2 hour. Bluebird day until mid-afternoon then clouds rolling in. Easier terrain, camped near huge bolder just above Thor Shelter. Encountered a couple (Anna & Dave) from London along the way.
Day 9: Aug 19th – Thor to Crater Lake – 14 ks. Cross Schwartzenbach and Crater Lake outflow. Mix of sun, clouds, drizzle. Camped on sandy beach below Crater Lake. Lots of ups and downs, creek crossings, washed out river trail. Crossed Arctic Circle at Schwartzenback River Crossing.
Day 10: Aug 20th – short, easy day from Crater to Ule – 8.7 ks.
Day 11: Aug 21st – 1 hour hike from Ule to Overlord West where Peter will pick us up and deliver us to Pangnirtung.
