Canadian Arctic: Hiking Baffin Island

The backdrop for our journey is Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island’s Cumberland Peninsula. Established in 1972, the park’s Inuktitut name means “Land That Never Melts.” It is an apt moniker, as the park encompasses some 4,000 square miles of ice and snow comprising the Penny Highlands mantle, which is drained by outlet glaciers on all sides. Some stretch for 15 miles, extending gradually to the sea, while others drop precipitously from 1,000 feet to nearly sea level in just a mile or two. The park is home to the 10 highest peaks of the Canadian Shield, and the sheer faces of Mounts Asgard, Thor and Overlord impress the hikers dwarfed by their granite hulks. Thor, named for the Norse god of thunder, has a 1-kilometer cliff face – 2/3 of a mile -- the longest uninterrupted cliff face in the world.

Despite the rugged terrain, this land is home to diverse flora and fauna in the protected valley bottoms. Auyuittuq National Park straddles the Arctic Circle in an ecological transition between the High Arctic and Low Arctic vegetation zones. During the brief summer, the sun remains high in the sky, bathing the land in continuous daylight. In places, the topography of the surrounding hillsides reflects this solar energy into the valleys below, warming the permafrost enough to provide sufficient water for vegetation to flourish. More than 100 species of plants thrive here, including ground-hugging willows, brilliant fields of purple broad-leafed willow herb and orange bursts of Arctic poppies. These plants in turn provide food for Peary caribou, Arctic hare and brown lemming, while Arctic fox and ermine prey on the herbivores. During the summer, 18 species of birds nest on the island, including rough-legged hawk, gyrfalcon, peregrine falcon, snowy owl, rock ptarmigan, lapland longspur and snow bunting.

Our journey begins with a boat transfer from Pangnirtung. In good weather, the boat ride is nothing short of breathtaking as we travel through fjords that slice through a maze of daunting peaks. We may be fortunate to see marine birds and mammals along the way, including seal, narwhal or walrus. Once we land, we hike up the Weasel River Valley and across glacial moraines to Summit Lake, where we begin our descent of the Owl River Valley. Here we meet our boat charter for the transfer to Qikiqtarjuaq. 

This trip offers a genuine backcountry immersion. It includes challenging river crossings, difficult walking over uneven terrain and ascending some steep grades, all while carrying a full pack for two weeks. It is an exhilarating adventure for the experienced hiker who enjoys a challenge and the reward of being one the few who have traveled this magnificent northern landscape.

Canada’s Baffin Island is the fifth largest island in the world, named after 16th-century Northwest Passage seeker William Baffin. The Arctic Cordillera -- sometimes called the Arctic Rockies – is the northernmost range in Canada, stretching from northern Ellesmere Island to the northernmost tip of Labrador and northern Quebec. It offers some of the world’s most spectacular scenery and includes the Baffin Mountain Range that runs along the northeastern coast of Baffin and Bylot Islands.

The Vikings had a name for Baffin Island —they called it Helluland, Country of Flat Stones — and the birds and animals they hunted there became exotic trade items in Europe. This included the white gyrfalcon, and eventually Baffin Island became known in Europe in the Middle Ages as the Falcon Island. 

When English seaman Martin Frobisher recorded Baffin Island in 1576, he made contact with the present-day Inuit whose ancestors had adapted to life in the Arctic environment at about the time the pyramids were being built and some 3,000 years before the first Europeans arrived in the New World. The neo-Eskimo Thule culture was thriving on Baffin Island, a marine hunting society well adapted to life among the Arctic seas and tundra regions by means of dogs, sleds, umiaks, and kayaks. While on the trek, we may see signs of peoples who came before us as we hike via routes the Inuit have used for centuries.

In the 19th century, with the lure of a potential Northwest Passage trade route to Asia, European explorers returned to Lancaster Sound, and right behind them, in search of the prized bowhead whale, the whalers began to arrive. Many of the ‘Northwest Passage’ seekers were actually rescued by these whalers, including the incredible John Ross expedition, which — after four years of overwintering in the Arctic, and having been given up for lost — was picked up in Eclipse Sound. The whalers acculturated the Baffin Inuit with various southern trade goods and established a whaling station in Eclipse Sound at Pond Inlet in 1903. 

By the beginning of the 20th century, the eastern Arctic bowhead had been hunted to near-extinction, and the whaling era drew to a close. The Baffin Inuit were largely left on their own, but with a newfound dependency upon western trade items. With the northern fur trade in full swing coupled with the Baffin islanders’ desire for outside goods, trading posts were set up at Pond Inlet in 1912, and the site became an established trading center for the Inuit. 

Today, 11,000 people in eight different communities call Baffin Island home. While the region’s history is dramatic, it is the drama in this stunning Arctic landscape that leaves visitors awestruck. We witness its beauty and changing moods firsthand while learning about the challenges and rewards of the contemporary northern lifestyles of today’s Inuit residents.

Jul. 19-Aug. 1
Aug. 2-15

Trip Difficulty: Level 5