NORTH-WEST PASSAGE 2023
FOLLOW ALI, ALYSSA, ANDERS, ANDRE, EWA , JEROME, SANNA & SINDRE
SINDRE HAS LEFT NORWAY
With the last tents and details gathered in Oslo, Sindre left the country heading for canada and then Nunavut. Now ecerybody will gear up, and soon get together for this beautifull and truely Arctic Adventure.
All preparations are made, training is done, permits issued, equipment bought and sent, everything is ready for adventure !
On this blog pages you will be able to follow our team between Cambridge Bay and Gjoa Haven in Nunavut. That is part of Roald Amundsen’s epic discovery of the North-West Passage connecting the Atlandic and Pasific Oceans..
We will have daily reports, audio, photos, from the field , some days longer reports, on tough days it might just be an “All OK” message and campsite position, and we will post here as often as possible.
4th April: The Prologue: Preparations and math
Today the whole team met up for the first time in the beautiful town of Cambridge Bay. A small hamlet sitting far north of the arctic circle. Here we have been rigging pulks, packing breakfasts and shopping for snacks. A lot of calculations has been done, but luckily not just by the guide. This evening we went to a community meeting and spoke to some locals about life in the high arctic. These old hunters have the skills of a thousand men! Now we are preparing dinner together and will soon hit our beds, because tomorrow it is more preparations believe it or not.
Cheers from Sindre, Ali, Alyssa Jérôme, Ewa, Anders, Sanna and André
Ousland team.
day 1, The Bay of Winds
The house was buzzing with lots of people running around filling thermoses, packing the last essential equipment. Then by 08:00 we were introduced to our 9th team-member. Sacha the Dog! The Team was super excited!
So then we were nine companions headed out of Cambridge Bay and on to the frozen sea!
Winds were hard and the cold were harder. But luckily it was beautiful. A happy team gets in to their sleeping bags and ends the day.
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
day 2, Whiteout !
A stormy night has passed! Big hills of snow have gathered between our tents, and the snowdrift was not going to stop. It was totally whiteout! We walked for hours with no reference points and a chilling headwind that made our breath fog up our goggles! Finally, the team is inside the tents and resting. New day tomorrow, but maybe the same.
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
day 3, From sastrugi to sea-ice
Day Strong winds and buried pulkas, we were to face yet another day of tough skiing. Sastrugi is not the easiest thing to move across. They look like a rough sea that suddenly got frozen, and the skis have a hard time riding the waves.
Right before lunch, we hit the sea-ice again. What a relief! In the last part of the day, we skied in to the vast, cold arctic evening. And finished the day off with a beautiful sunset!
Cheers from Sindre and The Team!
day 4, sacha’s great adventure
The whole group agreed that Sacha was no longer to be in chains. She has gotten used to us and definitely deserves to roam these white plains freely!
Sacha is a dog who lives in Cambridge Bay and is very friendly. She's never been on an adventure like this, but she is an excellent expedition member. After a while, she got into the same routines as us. Moving for 50 minutes resting for 10.
This was a good day under the arctic sun for both dogs and people.
Cheers from Sindre and The Team!
Day 5: Times Like This
It had been a cold night, way below minus 30, so the team found it hard to get out of the sleeping bags. Around 0800, the frost-mist cleared, and the sun got through. It became another beautiful day on the sea-ice.
Small pressure ridges start to appear around us, and the landscape is getting more and more interesting. It's only a matter of time before we lose sight of land and start venturing out in the big sound.
The skiing was great, and we enjoyed it. Especially Sacha!
We switched tent teams today. Nice to break up the trip into smaller happenings.
Good night from Sindre and The Team!
Day 6, the pressure
We are still blessed with sunshine and no wind. This makes both navigation and skiing easier.
Today, we left the coastline of Victoria Island behind us, and we are now in the middle of the sound. Here we crossed our first pressure ridge. Pressure ridges are often a good spot for the seals to find open water and air. Which also means polar bears can hide behind them looking for food... But not this one, Sacha made sure it was clean before we crossed !
Now we lay our eyes further east and towards Jenny Lind, an island we will be crossing in a couple of days.
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
Day 8, the nature of nature.
Eight humans and a dog are gliding across nowhere, far from any kind of sanity.
Under the ice they are skiing on lurks the silent dark depths of the arctic ocean, and above it, the relentless cold winds and bone-chilling arctic air. Both sides of the ice sheet only reward the persistent and the lucky, and kill those who aren't.
Eight humans and a dog are gliding across nowhere, wearing almost nothing. Because today, this hostile and extreme environment was a windless, hot, and sweaty experience.
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
day 9, jenny lind island.
We see land in the distance. Behind some impressive pressure ridges lies the desolate island of Jenny Lind.
After half a day of skiing, we touch land again, then we saw flowers, rocks, musk-ox, and ptarmigan. The sun was shining and the vibe was chill, and the minds were reflecting. It is a beautiful place, but in reality, a flat, windblown gravel island in the middle of an icy ragnarokk.
We set up camp on a hill overlooking the ocean. It was a good day.
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
Day 9: Oh, Jenny I hardly knew ya!
Waking up today, we saw that this day would be a navigation exercise. A white veil covered the sun, and along the ground the white frost-fog crept ever closer.
Jenny Lind is a harsh place. A place where a passing musk-ox is the only thing higher from the ground than shaking blades of grass. Have people been here before? Like a long time ago? Was this place a resource or a cursed place? We walk onwards, pondering these thoughts.
During the end of the day, the mist clears, and we see far into this flat wasteland. There in the distance we see a radar-tower! Another remnant from the Cold War. It seems we can try to go as far away and as wild as possible, but the military will always have an installation there. Well, we are now leaving Jenny, and the story of this island remains a mystery. At least for us!
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
Day 10: A song of ice and five minutes!
There are blocks and blocks of ice stacked together in a chaotic and violent manner. The blue and the white shine in the pale arctic day. Skis struggle to get a grip on the tilted ice-blocks, and loose snow in between makes the ski-poles disappear. What is ahead?
Another massive wall of nature's impressive force. Kilometres after kilometres with mayhem, and there is a group of skiers trying to fit in on this wild plane of cold. There have been other struggles here, and the remains of blood, feathers, and fox-tracks tell a story about survival and death…
The skiers soldier on. Finally, a break. Eat some chips and some chocolate. Maybe some… "five minutes!" Oh damn, it's time to go again!
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
Day 11: At the King's Court
We enjoyed good weather and forgiving skiing conditions when suddenly we became aware that we have been dancing too long in the palace without greeting the regent. What we saw on the ground reminded us that there is someone above us on the food chain...
Fresh tracks, maybe some hours old. The whole team stood and watched, and of course, took a lot of pictures.
We don't often get to feel what it's it like to be the prey, but for a moment, we could sense the apex predator stalking us. We looked around and at the 30.06 rifle and realised the combat would not be fair anyway. Then we skied on into his majesty's frozen palace.
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
Day 12: Back to flat
The chaotic days of the pressure ridges were behind us, and ahead lies the wast white sea-ice. Flat!
It was back to monotonous skiing in a straight line. Which is kind of nice…. We are now one long skier moving at the same speed with the same frequency in our feet. All on automatic. Around us lies small islets and islands that are not named, nor are they all on the map. It's just a quiet place which time does not seem to touch. There was not much conversation today, just skiing.
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
Day 13: Whiteout, sastrugi, and sunshine
Out of the tents after a good night sleep, and what we see is absolutely nothing. It is a total whiteout from the morning. The navigation is a bit here and there, but we make progress in the right direction. Just grit your teeth and keep on moving on.
Then suddenly the sun makes another appearance. She shines a light over these polar plains of frost and reveals a canvas of sastrugi. No wonder it felt like a bumpy ride. It seems it is more snow here because the sastrugi are huge. But with our steady pace and good marching routines, we make good progress today.
We have had Royal Geographical Society Island to the north of us the whole day, but now, in the evening, we are leaving the island behind us.
Next aim-point: King William Island !
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
Day 14: The Routine
Almost the whole trip, we have been skiing 10 legs a day. A "leg" is the term we use for the 50 minutes of skiing we do each hour. Then, for the rest of that hour, we have a 10 minute break. After 5 legs in the morning, we have a lunchbreak that lasts 1 hour. Then it's 5 more legs. So in total, it's almost 10 hours of skiing and 3 hours of relaxation during a day.
Now we are at the latter half of the expedition and the conditions are in our favour, so we have increased to 11 legs a day.
Yeah, it's a hard working team! Or as Anders puts it: "Yes, one more leg means one more break."
That's the spirit, Anders!
Cheers from Sindre and The Team
Day 15: The Lost Expedition
We are skiing inside a dead man's last dream. The air is grey and the winds are cold, and we can feel the stare from the lost sailors resting under us in the dark, cold waters of Victoria Strait.
We thread lightly because we are now in a historical graveyard. In 1847, the famous Franklin Expedition disappeared in this area, and their faith was long one of the biggest mysteries of the British empire.
Just north of us, about 15 km, lay the shipwreck of the mighty Terror. One of the two ships that was crushed under the ice in this area. The other one, Erebus, lays further to the south. We are skiing right in between two of the most famous shipwrecks in polar history. The coastline to the north is scattered with bones of young men who never made it home. And we can almost see their ghosts dragging lifeboats across the ice in thin winter clothing.
This is one of the highlights of the trip for all team members. This story is fascinating and should be read by you at home.
And now a personal message from one of the team members: "Anders hilser til Sigmund som fyller 12 år. Gratulerer med dagen!"
Cheers from Sindre and The Team!
Day 16: The Flat Icers!
We had been told that the sea-ice would be flat and easy to ski on. We have now, after 16 days of bumpy sastrugi-skiing, decided that we are strong believers in that the ice is indeed flat. Even though we have seen every piece of evidence possible that it is not flat. That is our religion now!
In other news, we are now just 9 km from the shores of King William Island, and this night, we have our last camp on sea-ice. Tomorrow, we will venture on into the tundra and the final phase of the expedition!
Cheers from Sindre and The Flat Icers!
Day 17: King William
Woke up this morning to strong winds and snow. It is safe to say that the visibility was zero. We struggled keeping the line straight and the correct bearing. After some hours, the snow stopped, and we could see land.
Just as we entered King William Island, we were greeted by yet another military installation. A radar tower was looming over us. It looked operational, so we kept our distance…
We said goodbye to the sea-ice and hello to rumbling hills of rock and snow. Then in the evening the sun came out and we had a fantastic ending of a day that started rough.
Cheers from Sindre and The Flat Icers!
Day 18: Days like this
The call of the male ptarmigan woke us up. Just outside the tents, two of them were sitting welcoming the sun. A beautiful sight! We drank coffee and enjoyed the calm arctic morning. The ptarmigans flew away, and we started skiing. It was like a soothing song gliding across the snow.
The terrain of King William Island rolls gently towards the East, with snow-covered hills and scattered frozen lakes bathing in sunshine. Here and there, it sits a ptarmigan, and we can see musk-ox far in the distance. Then, during lunch, a big flock of ptarmigan landed just outside our lunch tent. It was an incredible sight! We are here today, in the moment. Enjoying. But moments pass, as do all. So live life while you have it. That's at least what the wildlife thinks when Sacha comes running.
Cheers from Sindre and The Flat Icers!
Day 19: Last night with the gang
There was a chilly wind coming from the southeast, and it had such angle that it filled our hood with cold air. The snow in this part of the island was much more pulverised by cold, so the skins had a hard time sticking. But the team of skiers has an even and rhythmic tempo gliding through the hills. Suddenly, a pole goes up in the air! It's break-time.
It was so nice to eat the cheese and the salami first. Keep skiing. The sun starts its plunge towards the horizon, and the skies change colour. It's dusk, and two poles go up in the air. In silence, three tents get pitched amazingly effective, and equipment gets moved from pulkas to tents. The wind dies down, and in the distance, you hear the soothing humming of the stove, and some muffled voices clearly having a great time.
Outside, the moon shines upon the last camp of this expedition. Tomorrow, the tents will be rolled up for one final time, and it's off to Gjoa Haven, which lights are flickering at us from only 15 km away. But tonight, 9 team-members will enjoy their hot chocolate while sitting in the warm sleeping bag and feeling tired and content, and reflecting upon the past 19 days!
Cheers from Sindre and The Flat Icers!
Day 20: The end of a journey... and an angry musk-ox
We got up quick and sharp, and we were ready to ski down to Gjoa Haven. This is done in a instant, no problems.
But it turns out Murphy was also skiing with us because in the second break of the day things happened. We were just about to pack down our snacks when Sacha started running towards a nearby ridge. Then she came flying back with something at her tail. We realized too soon that a young, angry musk-ox came charging towards us and we had to run to the sides because it ran through our pulkas. We managed to gather some 10 meters from our equipment and stood and watched as Sacha ran in circles around the musk-ox who was ramming its horns in to pulkas and tents. So there we stood looking at our equipment which was now owned by a angry musk-ox. But we got an idea. Sacha had worn the poor bull down so he was tired, so when the musk-ox was facing Sacha we just snuck up and stole our equipment back. No worries. When we left the poor musk-ox, it didn't understand what had happened.
Then our ski-tips were pointing towards Gjoa Haven again, and after 3 hours of skiing we finally could ski the last meters of our 400km journey through the streets of this historic settlement and declared that the expedition was completed.
Thank You, Nunavut and The North West Passage!
Epilogue: An ode to Sacha:
Thank you, Sacha for your incredible service! When we met you you were hyper and chaotic, and you barked at everything and made a ruffle. But during the trip you became used to our routines and you started to calm down. Then you became the perfect expedition-dog! Much thanks to your connection with Anders, who trained you expertly. You made us sleep well, you checked every pressure ridge for polar bears, and you made us smile. Hope you live a good life in Cambridge Bay. Thank you!
Cheers from The Flat Icers: Sacha, Sindre, Anders, André, Sanna, Ewa, Jérôme, Ali, and Alyssa
