FOLLOW KATHINKA AND HER TEAM TROUGH THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE, APRIL 2022

The team has now landed in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada. The team is now checking out the village of real Inuits, getting to know each other and talking trough the upcoming days. Tomorrow they will do some shopping, preparing sledges, rigging tents and equipment. All good :)

7th April, Preparation days in Cambridge Bay

The team has settled in Cambridge Bay. In between shopping, packing and prepping it has also been time to visit galleries and museums. And getting to know some of the locals.

As we are waiting for some lost luggage we hope to start skiing on Saturday. Everyone is getting eager to get this show on the road. Adventure is waiting!

The spirit is high and we all look forward to an exciting trip.

Kathinka😉

8th April, Today’s diary

Getting closer to departure day! The sleds are starting to be filled up with all the food we need to endure the cold. We pack everything in transparent bags: Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. And then everything goes into one bigger bag for each day. Efficiency and organizing is key. We’re looking forward to go out on the ice and start eating all the good stuff!

Øyvind

9th April, Today’s diary: Departure day!!!!!!

Finally! We are on our way! The sun is shining and we are ready for adventure.
With us we have Buster the polarbear guarddog. He is super friendly and a good boy. He makes a lot of noise in the evening, but we hope he will adjust and get used to chilling out in the evening.
We skied straight out of the hotel, thru town and onto the ocean. With a late start we did a short day and almost 10km. But we are all in good spirit and excited to be on the road.
Kathinka

10th April, Today’s diary: Bear watch and northern lights!

Our second day of the expedition started in an unexpected way after our husky, Buster, managed to chew his way through his leash just before midnight last night.

After calling for him for over 30 mins there was still no sign of him and Kathinka made the decision that a Bear Watch was necessary. Starting with myself, we each spent an hour throughout the night circling the camp site with a flare in hand. No polar bears were seen, but instead we were shown a spectacular display of the Northern Lights which lasted until sunrise at 4:30am this morning.

Despite our tired eyes this morning, today was a glorious day. The sun was out for most of the day and the wind was negligible, but even puffed slightly at our backs. 17km was skied, slightly ahead of our schedule.

Days like these are the ones which make you appreciate being in these polar regions. Tomorrow’s forecast is similar, although we’re not sure how long our luck will last for!

Frederick Fennessy

Day 3 : listen to the voice mail from the group

Day 4 : still in reach

Today, while still in reach of Cambridge Bay by snowmobile, Helmut decided to pull off due to frostbite on his finger. He got picked up 4 in the afternoon. The group continued after this, and made around 10km today, and pitched camp in beautiful pink-blue sunset. Helmut is all good! :)

Day 5 : Great day on the sea ice

Great day on the sea ice, the group made just over 20km :)

Day 6 : Another great day on the sea ice

Today we walked further out on the sea ice, and we went trough some pressure ridges, and saw polar bear tracks. It´s exited, we can see the pressure ridges in front of Jenny Lind Island, which we will cross on our journey, but that will be tomorrow. Great day, listen to our voice mail here :)

Day 7, north west passage

Listen to voice mail from the team below:

Day 8, pressure ridges big as houses. another beautiful day !

Fantastic day , not too cold, just a bit of wind, lots of bear tracks…in the middle of Jenny Lind Island and heading for the Arctic Ocean tomorrow !

day 10, everybody happy and in good spirits :)

Ice is great, visibility superb, we found a really nice route through the Ice and did 44 Km yesterday. Camping in the middle of nowhere and looking forward to tomorrow !

DAY 11, TREKKING ON THE ICE

A good day, trekking on the Ice, heading away from Jenny Lind island

Day 12 , great ice and a bit windy. Good distance though, and happy with progress !

Day 13, Good distance, we covered 22-23 Km under a cold South wind, sending report from Camp 13 in the Ice, listen to below:

Day 14. Very windy, as expected, but from the back, so it helped us to cover a long distance, 27 Km yesterday, 40 Km to go !

Day 15. Off the ice tomorrow !

Celebrating in a packed 4 person tent ! After 2 days of high wind and cold temperatures spirits are high and ready to go on. 15km away from land, 105 Km to Gjoa Haven, 3 days to go !

Day 16. Absolutely beautiful day !

Very nice Ice, sunshine from morning to evening, we navigated all the way to the radio station on land, where we camped. Tomorrow we will decide whether to keep going along the shoreline or overland to Gjoa Haven.

Day 17, another great day !

On land all day today. Sunshine and wind in the face, but not too cold. We have climbed some hills today, we are not used to uphill but we made it up! We have also crossed some turquoise ice on the lakes, beautiful - made us think about the tropics and frozen margaritas. We saw a lot of ptarmigans and got very hungry, one flock even landed in our camp! Right after setting up camp a heard of muskox passed us at a safe distance, but fun to see 15-20 animals!

So all in all an eventful and perfect day!

Kathinka

Day 18, What a day!!!

We have skied in just our wool shirts all day! It has been sunny and no wind, we even measured up to +20 degrees at lunch, in the sun ! (-10 in the shadow) Buster was overheating as well.

We have now set the compass for Gjøa and getting excited for a shower after a sweaty day here in the Arctic. Its supposed to be as warm tomorrow too.

Kathinka

Another sunny day in the North.

But today with some wind from behind to keep us cool. We did 26km today and are now camped about 10km from Gjøa. We can see the lights from a radio station and are feeling both happy and sad that this Arctic adventure soon will be over. But new adventures will come up for sure!

See you all soon!

Kathinka

Day 20, blog post from our final camp on the North West Passage expedition - the Amundsen Hotel in Gjoa Haven!

Hi everyone!

This is our last blog post from our final camp on the North West Passage expedition - the Amundsen Hotel in Gjoa Haven!
This morning we crossed into the small settlement after three pulls. There was a strong northerly wind, which was the Arctic’s way of telling us its not quite finished with us yet…
We have all had a long-overdue shower, dried our tents and equipment, and enjoyed a short exploration around Gjoa Haven.
After dinner, we had a debrief where we reminisced about the past three weeks. We all concluded that it was as challenging as expected, with the wind and cold being just as harsh as we had read. However, it was the few warm and calm days which made the tougher days worth it.
As always with these expeditions, its the people you ski with who make it extra special. From the packing of food in cambridge bay, to the drying of tents in Gjoa Haven, everyone has worked together great, and laughter along the way has made the harder conditions far more bearable.
A special shout out goes to Arild for navigating through very difficult conditions over the past week, and of course to our wonderful guide Kathinka, whose leadership and polar knowledge has made this expedition one to remember.
Thanks to everyone who has followed our journey! We are excited to catch up with our families again over the next few days.
Over and out from Freddie and the team.