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On my first trip to Auyuittuq National Park we flew in to Broughton Island, a small island
just outside the entrance to North Pangnirtung Fiord. We arranged for the local Inuit to
take us, via skidoo, to the head of the Fiord. It was early July, and the sea ice had not
yet left. It ended up being a ten hour journey, reminiscent of a roller coaster ride. The
sea ice was quite rough, and the "komitiks" (sleds) overturned a few times, dumping us out
on the ice. Fortunately, nobody ever landed in one of the deep meltwater pools. Some of
these pools were bottomless - they were holes in the ice.
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| Broughton Island.
The sea ice was melting, but had not yet broken up. Our first task was to get from dry
land onto the ice. It had broken up along the shore due to tidal action, so we had to be
careful with our footing.
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| On The Sea Ice.
We had heard that the head of the fiord was clear of ice, so we placed boats on the
komitiks, to use for the final few miles of the journey. The boats also proved useful
during the journey - whenever you got cold, you could huddle down and get out of the cold
wind. Unfortunately, this entire contraption didn't have any suspension system, so we all
had sore backsides for a few days.
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| Ice Water.
Looking back at this image after many years, I can't believe that we actually drove
skidoos through this stuff. The entire journey from Broughton Island to the entrance
of the fiord was like this. Once we entered the fiord, there was a more consistent
ice cover. Every now and then, our drivers would stop, pull out a rifle, and take a
shot at a seal many hundreds of yards away. Thats their way of life. They never did
hit one.
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| Rest Stop.
We stopped several times to take a rest, have a tea, etc. During the journey, we were
either in clear blue sky or in a fog bank with only a few hundred yards of visibility.
We were all quite chilled - it wasn't all that cold, but it was very damp and windy.
The hot tea really helped.
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| Icebergs.
As we drove over the ice of Davis Straight and later North Pangnirtung Fiord, we
occassionally saw large icebergs. These had calved from glaciers further north along
Baffin Island, Ellesmere Island, or even western Greenland.
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