• Canadian High Arctic.
• Northern Greenland.
• End of an Era call at Grise Fjord.
• Baffin Island.
• Aerial sight-seeing.
• Attempt to reach 80°N

Two countries, one midnight sun – the Arctic few have visited. Kapitan Khlebnikov will make its final call at Grise Fjord, during this expedition.

Duration: 16 days
Embarkation and Disembarkation: Resolute, Nunavut, Canada
Staging point: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Please note: Charter flight must be purchased at the same time as the expedition.

Ottawa has been a staging point for expeditions to the North, since the voyageurs paddled past in their canots de maitre in the late 18th century. A night at a hotel in Ottawa is a fitting beginning to your icebreaker adventure through the Canadian High Arctic to Greenland.

En route to Resolute - Qausuittuq –the place of no dawn - you will discover that your fellow travelers have a passion for the North equal to your own. In Resolute, well above the Arctic Circle, you will embark the polar –class icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, at anchor in the bay. From this day until you disembark, there will be only a few hours of twilight each night, as you will be sailing under the midnight sun.

The ghosts of Mounties and the ancestors of the Inuit may haunt the activities that we plan for our visit to Devon Island. In the Maxwell Bay region, you will visit a Thule site, where the ancestors of the Inuit lived. You will hike, and cruise in Zodiacs. At Dundas Harbour, be alert for wildlife. Walrus and musk oxen inhabit the area. The ghost settlement you visit was once a Royal Canadian Mounted Police depot. Don’t think of it as abandoned. In the cemetery you will visit, every year a detail of Mounties arrive to tend the graves of fallen comrades.

Wildlife in the Arctic depends on polynyas to survive. They are naturally occurring openings in sea ice that enable whales to rise to the surface to breathe and birds to fish for food. Murres and Fulmars will soar overhead as you cruise in a Zodiac along the base of high cliffs. Thousands of seabirds nest in Nirjutiqavvik National Wildlife Area established to protect wildlife of the Lady Ann Strait polynya along the island’s southern shore. Be sure to carry your camera and binoculars!

The only settlement on Ellesmere Island is Grise Fjord. The citizens of Aujuittuq – the place that never thaws – will entertain and educate you with cultural demonstrations that are based on 4,000 years of tradition. The tiny hamlet – the most northerly community in Canada – has only 140 residents – that is slightly more than 1 resident per traveler aboard our icebreaker.

Smith Sound separates Greenland from Ellesmere Island. An international boundary runs up the middle. As the expedition moves northward you will be sailing through Canadian waters. When the ship begins its southbound journey, you will cross the invisible boundary into the home-ruled state of Greenland.

You should reach the furthest north of this voyage today. We anticipate that you will be about 10 degrees from the North Pole. Now that is the High Arctic!

While pushing northward the Expedition Team will talk about Elisha Kane, after whom the Basin is named. An American from a prominent family, he earned his medical degree, then joined the US Navy, as an Assistant Surgeon. In 1850, he became the senior medical officer of the Grinnell Arctic expedition. His illustrious career as an Arctic explorer had begun. Sixty years before Shackleton, Kane abandoned an icebound ship to lead his men on an 83-day march across the frozen Arctic to Upernavik, Greenland. Although they were carrying invalids, Kane only lost one man on the journey in what is acknowledged as one of the greatest feats of Arctic exploration.

The ice north of the Kane Basin is impenetrable most of the year. Sometimes an icebreaker can push farther north, if the local conditions are just right. Our Expedition Leader will consult with the icebreaker’s Captain to determine if the vessel should attempt a northward push.

In sharp contrast to the success of Kane, Aldolphus Greeley lost 19 of 25 men. Tales of cannibalism tainted the reputation of the survivors. You will visit Fort Conger, which was established originally by Greeley, and rebuilt by explorer Robert Peary as a base camp for one of his Arctic expeditions. You will explore Fort Conger, and learn of Greely, Peary and others who followed Kane’s route to the Arctic Ocean.

The glacier and landscape of Dobbin Bay have inspired artists and photographers. You will experience it from the deck and from the air. Kapitan Khlebnikov is equipped with two passenger helicopters that are used for ice reconnaissance, shore transfers and, as they will be in Dobbin Bay, aerial sightseeing. There is no extra charge for group transfers and sightseeing by helicopter!

At about the same time as the nomadic tribesmen of Central Asia were domesticating the horse – 4500 BCE – the Dorset People began to populate what is now the eastern Canadian Arctic. The Dorset were replaced by the Thule, who are the direct ancestors of the Inuit, the High Arctic’s indigenous people. On Skraeling Island, you will visit the remains of a Dorset community and learn of the meaning of the name the Vikings gave to the local inhabitants. On Pim Island, you will visit Starvation Camp, where 19 of Greeley’s 25 expedition members died before rescue. In one day, you will travel through six and half millennia of the development of humankind!

After sailing across the international boundary, you will enter Greenland, home-ruled under the Danish flag since 1979. Politics play a significant role in the High Arctic of the 21st century. Politics will not be on the program in Qaanaaq. There the local people will introduce you to the distinct culture of the Greenlandic Arctic. Although the language sounds similar to that spoken in the Canadian Arctic, it is different. The broad smiles of welcome, however, are universal.

There is a stone monument honoring Robert Peary on top of a glacier in Greenland, near Kap York (Cape York). The onboard helicopters will transfer you from the ship to the glacier – this unique opportunity is not possible on ordinary expedition ships, as access to the site is possible only from the air.

After passing through Canadian Customs, the people of Pond Inlet or Mittimatalik - as it has been called by the Inuit for thousands of years – will welcome you to the Artist’s Co-operative. In addition to the international reputation for the art they produce, the people of “Pond” earn their living fishing for Arctic char. You will have time to take photos, explore the hamlet and hike the nearby tundra, before boarding the icebreaker.

Lancaster Sound is the eastern end of the fabled Northwest Passage. You will go ashore on Beechey Island, where the first evidence was found that something had gone awry with Sir John Franklin’s search for the route to the orient. Three members of Franklin’s crew were buried on the island. Their grave markers are silent witness to the tragedy that continues to consume the imagination of Arctic travelers to this very day.

Bid the land of the midnight sun adieu. You return to the world of night and day in Ottawa, where you will sleep through your first full night of darkness in two weeks.

After breakfast, depart for home from Canada’s national capital.