The team at the Fork Beard Glacier

The Global Warming 101 expedition team is mushing through Auyuittuq National Park on their way to Qikiqtarjuaq. The route climbs over Akshayuk pass. Numerous glaciers carve their way down from the Penny Ice Cap and surrounding peaks.

Ironically, the name of the park translates to “the land that never melts”, but the glaciers are now receding rapidly. Fifty years ago the Fork Beard glacier, which the Global Warming 101 expedition team will pass on their way through the park, reached all the way to the valley floor. It has now receded over 1000 vertical feet and is no longer even visible from the valley floor.

The University of Ontario’s Geology Department and Parks Canada provided the team with images over the past fifty years of the Beard Fork Glacier. They are hoping the team will document the current extent of the glacier when they pass it.