Two British explorers traveling the Arctic Coast of Canada in Feathercraft folding kayaks have hit a “wall of ice” blocking their route through the famed Northwest Passage.
In the first stage of a 3,000-mile kayak and dog-sled Arctic Voice expedition to visit Inuit villages and create links to schools in England, Glenn Morris and Stephen Doughty were forced to turn back from severe floes and return to the village of Tuktoyaktuk on July 11.
“It was like a massive maze,” Glenn wrote in the most recent dispatch. “We started going from straight forwards to sideways to backwards and then we ended up realising that there were these huge lumps of pack ice were closing around us. …”
The expedition has published an interesting website with links on Inuit culture, climate change, schools and weekly blogs about from the travelers.
Arctic Voice kayak route
The first kayak leg, launched in mid-June, may have already pushed the limits of seakayaking comfort. In a dispatch posted on July 2, Glenn had this to say:
Today, when we left it seemed quite calm to start with but after about four or five miles the fog descended on us and we couldn’t see where we were going at all and it was a bit disorientating. It is very cold at the moment, just a few degrees above freezing and every now and again we get soaked as the water comes over the front of the kayaks. But anyway we are in good spirits.
The Arctic Voice project is only one of several Far North expeditions underway this summer connected to the International Polar Foundation, many focused on gathering insight into how global warming and shifting climate has begun to change life for people, animals and ice in the Arctic.
- Arctic Adventure Learning
- Arctic Voice
- Arctic Arc
- Global Warming 101
- Icebound schooner
- Rosie’s solo North Pole trip
- North Pole Quest
- Barrenlands Traverse
People will be skiing, walking, traveling by dog team, visiting villages, gauging how the cryosphere has changed. Most of these trips provide extensive on-line portals into their daily challenges, with features aimed at school children, satellite phone dispatches and photographs, and occasional live feeds.
Eight different endeavors link to the IPF’s Polar Expeditions website, including a French schooner drifting (on purpose) in the pack ice and a 2008 mission to measure ice thickness by flying over the pole in a zeppelin.