Quick Summary
- The mission is off to a great start! Our good friend Caleb McDaniels, along with fellow explorer Henry Penfold, reached out two weeks into their journey around Baffin Island, with the goal of returning to Iqaluit, the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, before winter sets in. As far as expeditions in some of the most remote and challenging terrain can go, they’re enjoying smooth progress as they make their way to the north.
Words and Photos by Caleb McDaniels @calebjmcdaniels
Hello from Pangnirtung!
After 15 days of walking, skiing, and paddling north from Iqaluit, three days ago, we stepped onto the sea ice at the mouth of Pangnirtung fjord. As we deflated our packrafts at the edge of the ice, we met a group of local hunters who gave us fresh muktuk brought back from a 4-day narwhal hunt. After enjoying a small feast and sharing stories about our respective travels, the hunters sped off across the ice on huge snow machines, boats in tow. We followed their tracks into town.
On the whole, this first section went very smoothly. Ample snow coverage allowed us to pull our pulks most of the way across the Hall Peninsula, and when we reached Cumberland Sound, we were rewarded with several heavenly days of paddling. It is hard to describe the joy of weaving through fields of ice beneath blue skies, surrounded by multitudes of guillemots chaotically darting around and fulmars gracefully gliding down to inspect us. The sounds of birds, wind, and moving water have constantly accompanied us, and it has been wonderful to smell crowberries and Labrador tea again.
Aside from a few bitterly cold days of blowing snow, the weather has been unexpectedly warm and clear. Leaving Iqaluit, we settled into a mostly nocturnal schedule, skiing at night when the snow’s surface was hardest and sleeping through the warmest part of the day. The endless daylight makes this schedule easy to maintain, though the novelty of making breakfast at 11 pm never quite wears off. As we spent days skiing down frozen rivers, our time was punctuated by encounters with caribou, playful foxes, and one curious weasel. Small challenges like lowering our gear down a frozen waterfall and backtracking 10 miles to recover paddle sections that slipped from a pulk kept things interesting along the way.
While the conditions were generally poor for kite skiing, we still made good time and found ourselves with a large surplus of food. As we neared Pangnirtung, this meant unprecedented all-you-can-eat feasts each night. Pulk maintenance turned out to be one of our only difficulties; we spent many evenings pounding needles and nails through the thin plastic, using thread, wire, and various tapes to patch our pulks up enough to continue the next day.
This first section gave us everything we hoped for - long miles, magnificent landscapes, and plenty of time to appreciate our good fortunes. We are looking forward to continuing north to Qikiqtarjuaq in the coming days.
All the best,
Henry and Caleb
We're proud to support Caleb and Henry on this incredible trip, and honored they trust our gear to help make it a reality. Read Part 1 HERE, and more about Caleb's style of adventure and research HERE.
