CANADA - NUNAVUT : ADVENTURE TRAVEL AND ART
by Stella Webster



At two million square kilometres, Nunavut’s richly textured, stunningly varied landscape is home to some of the world’s most exciting adventure travel.

Dotted with precariously poised glacial erratics, the rocky tundra beckons with challenging multi-week hikes, as with Auyuittuq National Park or Bylot Island and Sirmilik National Park. Or try day-long adventures in and around communities, like Gjoa Haven and the nearby storied Northwest Passage.

Baffin Island has dramatic mountain ranges for the experienced climber, with big wall Grade VI aid routes on summits throughout Auyuittuq National Park, and new free-climbing Grade IV to V routes in the Weasel Valley and the Sam Fjord area near Clyde River.

Sport fishers love jigging through four feet of ice in spring for crimson arctic char, casting a line for trophy lake trout in pristine lakes in summer, or dropping a fly onto the water’s undulating surface to coax the feisty arctic grayling from the deep. True luxury is heli-fishing – using a helicopter to access remote, prime fishing water for non-stop fishing action.

The endless snow-blanketed tundra and frozen sea is a skidooer’s dream. For an authentic Inuit experience, take a half-day, day-long or overnight dogsled trip, snuggled up in caribou skins on a qamutik (sled), or basking under magical Northern Lights at night.

A seven- to 10-day trip whisks adventurers to the community of Resolute, where they await their weather ‘go-ahead’ to fly to the Pole itself for a brief touchdown at one of the world’s most elusive destinations.

Inuit have long been stewards of the fragile arctic environment, and the practice of development in balance with environmental protection is enshrined in the new territory’s government and land claim agreement. In Nunavut, sustainable tourism is a natural.

With no forests to obscure the shoreline view, canoeists have front-row views of muskoxen, arctic wolves, caribou and other wildlife while navigating such stellar waterways as the Thelon, Kazan and Soper Canadian Heritage Rivers, or the Coppermine and Back rivers.

Nunavut has almost half of Canada’s ocean coastline, making the territory a kayaker’s dream. Modeled after traditional Inuit travel, kayaking is a terrific way to explore arctic seas, especially the deeply incised fjords of Baffin Island near Clyde River and Pond Inlet, for example, or the waters of Pelly Bay near Kugaaruk. Even further off the beaten path are kayaking trips on Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic.

At the floe-edge – where landfast ice meets open water – visitors stumble upon a virtual wildlife convention, including bowhead whales, walruses, seals, polar bears and more. Lancaster Sound, close to Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay and Resolute, is a special magnet for wildlife because of early ice-free conditions fuelled by winds and upwelling ocean currents.

The snow-white beluga, the behemoth bowhead, and the narwhal with its unicorn-like tusk: all unique in appearance, all inspirational to witness firsthand. It’s easiest to spy them in the inlets, fjords and bays of the Baffin Region, such as the bowhead near Clyde River at Isabella Bay, or the beluga off the coast of Somerset Island.

The skies are alive with peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons, phlaropes, snowy owls, sandhill cranes, arctic loons, jaegers, golden eagles, terns, rough-legged hawks, and many more species. Some, such as the snow goose and king eider, migrate north in the summer to nest. Birders will marvel at the cliff-face colonies of the thick-billed murre, and the great waterfowl nurseries of the Hudson Bay lowlands.

With the spectacular wildlife and humbling scale of the land, photo buffs will be in heaven – especially given the ethereal quality of light with spring and summer’s perpetual daylight. The sunlit nights between 8pm and 3am are the best time for shooting. Shadows are long, and colors and textures are vividly defined.

For 4,000 years, Inuit and their ancestors have survived in one of the world’s harshest environments – the treeless Arctic, a polar desert.

Faced with few materials, men crafted ingenious tools needed to stay alive, and women cultivated great technical skills to make the clothing necessary to survive temperatures of minus 50˚Celsius and colder. As hunter-gatherers, Inuit have also amassed powerful skills of observation and visual memory – natural skills for an artist. Their rich history can be traced through the thousands of archaeological sites on the land, and through world famous Inuit art. Visitors who take part in art tours will soak up the creative process and learn more.

West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset, established in 1961, is internationally renowned for its stonecut printing, lithographic printmaking, etching, and Inuit sculpture from soapstone, bone and marble. The Co-operative has earned Cape Dorset its reputation as the birthplace of Inuit art.

See skilled weavers masterfully play their looms at Pangnirtung’s famed tapestry studio, The Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts and Crafts. Uqqurmiut also houses a print shop, and each year a new collection showcases riveting artwork depicting legends, whaling, traditional activities and more.

Famous for its appliquéd, embroidered wall hangings made from the heavy wool material called “duffel”, the Baker Lake community is also known for its unique prints and carvings.

Around Igloolik, Repulse Bay, Pond Inlet and most other communities are inuksuit (rock cairns), tent rings, qajaq stands and other archaeological sites that reveal clues about life for the Neoeskimo and Paleoeskimo peoples.

Photo courtesy Nunavut Tourism
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