Position: Resolute Bay
Temperature: -25.6 °F/ -32 °C
Wind: 11 MPH/ 18 KPH, ESE
Distance traveled: 0 km

We arrived here in Resolute past midnight last night. The dogs did really well during the four hour flight but were very happy to get out of their kennels and back to the cold. We worked on preparations until 4 a.m. this morning and we are aiming to start our long journey after breakfast tomorrow. We are all now looking forward to get started.The arctic seems intimidating right now and the cold temperature is not comfortable. However, we are ready and we feel very confident that we will reach northern Ellesmere and witness the last remaining ice shelves of the northern hemisphere. All good. Best regards from Toby and the rest of the expedition team.

Toby Thorleifsson

Additional Info:

Resolute

Resolute is located in the High Arctic, on the south coast of Cornwallis Island. Home to just under 230 people, it was named after a British ship, the HMS Resolute, that passed through the area in search of Franklin’s expedition.

The history of the community of Resolute is very similar to Grise Fiord. Inuit families were relocated for Canadian sovereignty reasons and forced to make ends meet by living in the harsh climate of the High Arctic.

Resolute is now the gateway community to the north. It is home to a weather station and provides a base for the Polar Continental Shelf Project.

Reference:
http://edt.gov.nu.ca/docs/communities/Resolute.pdf

Who named Ellesmere Island?

The European and Euro-American/Canadian assault on the High Arctic started in the 17th century and in 1616 William Baffin was the first non-aboriginal person to sight Ellesmere Island since the Norse Vikings. The further exploration of Ellesmere Island did not take place until the 19th century when a number of primarily American and British expeditions were launched. Ellesmere Island was named by Commander E. A. Inglefield who was in charge of a British Expedition to the High Arctic in 1852. Inglefield did not know that Ellesmere was an island and named his discovery Ellesmere Land after the Earl of Ellesmere who was also the vice president of the Royal Geographical Society in London.

Position: N 75 30.401, W 093 40.616
Temperature: -33 °C/ -36°F

Just after Sigrid finished her dispatch last night our campsite was again visited by polar bears. This time it was two bears. One huge mamma bear and her two year-old cub. Unlike our curious visitor earlier in the evening, these bears were not easy to scare off and they got very close to our dogs and tents - we measurered the distance at about 6 meters. It took about five bear bangers and flares to scare the bears off and we were all pretty scared when they got as close as they did. Luckily for us, the bears are well fed this time of year as they feed on the newly born seal pups and the adult seals that are nesting under the snow on top of the ice.

Today when we continued our journey we saw over 20 different bear tracks and it became clear to us that we now are in an area that is a great habitat for the bears. At one place we saw the fresh evidence of a successful kill. We saw the remains of a seal den, polar bear tracks and lots of blood. Life is harsh here in the high arctic and a polar bear needs to eat too.

Traveling today was very hard. We battled through rough ice for the third day in a row. Seeing all the polar bear tracks we also kept looking over our shoulder. Tonight we finally came to flatter ice and we hope tomorrow will bring better travelling conditions - and that we will not be woken up by bears tonight.

We are all doing very well.

Toby Thorleifsson

 

Additional Info:

The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a Bear native to the Arctic and Subarctic. The world's largest land carnivore (meat eater, feeds on other aimals), an adult male generally weighs 300–600 kg (660–1320 lb), while an adult female is about half that size. Its fur is hollow and translucent, but usually appears as white or cream colored, thus providing the animal with effective camouflage. Its skin is actually black. The thick blubber and fur insulate it against the cold. The bear has a short tail and small ears that help reduce heat loss, as well as a relatively small head and long, tapered body to streamline it for swimming. The polar bear is adapted for a life on land, sea, and ice. It feeds mainly on seals, young walruses, and whales, although it is an opportunistic feeder and will eat almost anything if hungry.

The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species. Scientists believe that the projected decreases in the polar sea ice due to global warming will reduce their population by two thirds by 2050.

Posisjon: N 75 30.401, W 093 40.616. Wellington Channel
Temperatur: -33 °C

Vi er naa paa vei nordover mot Arthur pass paa Devon Island som vil ta oss inn I Norskebukten. De siste dagene har det gaatt meget tregt fordi isforholdene har vaert meget roffe. Ofte har vi maattet bruke oeks for aa lage vei gjennom isen. I omraadet er det ogsaa veldig mye isbjorn. I gaar hadde vi besok av hele tre bjorner hvorav de siste to kom saa nerme som seks meter fra teltet til meg og Will. Vi sov ikke spesielt godt I natt noen av oss. I dag saa vi spor av bjorn 20 ganger og vi er spente paa hva kvelden og natten vil bringe. Det er likevel flott aa vare I et omraade hvor bjornens habitat er saa bra som her. Isen er full av sel unger og vi ser spor mange steder hvor bjornen har endt et ungt sel liv. I kveld kom vi endelig ut I bedre isforhold og vi haaper at vi kan gjore unna mer distanse I morgen. Vi er paa vei mot Otto Sverdrups rike.

Alt vel,
Hilsen Tobias

 

 

Distance Traveled: 17 mi/ 26 km
Temperature, -13 °F/ -25 °C
Position: N 76, 34, W 093, 15

Good weather today as we travelled through Arthur Pass on Devon Island that connects us to Norwegian Bay. Tomorrow we hope to make a good distance into Norwegian Bay proper. Norwegian Bay has its name from Norwegian Explorer Otto Sverdrup who, between 1898 and 1902, discovered and mapped the whole area we now call the Sverdrup Islands. In addition Sverdrup and his young crew mapped most of the western part of Ellesmere Island. This explains all the Norwegian place names in this region of the high arctic.It is fantastic to enter this area with dog teams traveling in the same way as Sverdrup did 110 years ago. It is also interesting to think about that we Europeans or Americans have only known about this part of the world since 1902. We saw polar bear tracks today too, but we are now pretty sure that we are in an area with less bears. We will therefore all sleep better tonight than previous nights. We are all healthy but a little tired. The expedition is starting to make an impact on our bodies.

All my best to eveyone,

Toby Thorleifsson

 

Norwegian Translation:

Distanse Reist: 17 mi/ 26 km
Temperature: -13 °F/ -25 °C
Posisjon: N 76 34, W 093 15.

Vi har entret Otto Sverdrups Rike!

Vi reiste I dag gjennom Arthur Pass som forte oss over Devon Island og ut til enden av Arthur Fiord og Norwegian Bay. Vi ha naa entret arbeidsfeltet til den Andre Fram Ekspedisjon som I aarene mellom 1898 og 1902 oppdaget og kartla vestkysten av Ellesmere og de oyene vi I dag kaller Sverdrup oyene. Det er stort aa naa se utover Norwegian Bay aa vite at man kom hit med hundespann. Samme transport middel som Sverdrup brukte paa sine vaar og sommer turer I omraadet. Sverdrup brukte kun fem hunder per spann til forsjell fra vaare ti. Den gang reiste de lettere og levet av landet samtidig som depoter ble lagt ut for de lengre turene. Den Andre Fram Ferd spiste opp 25 prosent av det totale norske forsknings budsjett hvert aar ekspedisjonen var ute. Det var mao et kjempe prosjekt og et loft for Norge. Naa er vi ikke lenger her for aa finne nytt land men for aa verne denne fantastiske arktiske naturen som barer norske stedsnavn. Her har vi et spesielt ansvar tattvaar historiske tilknytning til de arktiske strok I betrakning.

Alt er vel med oss. Litt sliten er jeg men jeg gleder meg til aa serre kursen mot Amund Ringnes oy.

Masse hilner fra Tobias

 

Position: N 77° 47', W 093° 05'
Estimated Temperature: -35 °C / -31 °F

We are now making our way up Norwegian Bay with our course set for the remains of Ayles Iceshelf. The sleds are light as we are awaiting our first resupply in a couple of days. The light sleds are a good thing for the dogs who are getting as tired as we are after 17 straight days of traveling. Today we saw Axel Heiberg Island with its beautifull mountains on the horizon. The sight told stories about the adventures still to come on this trip.

The island was named after a Norwegian business man who sponsored Otto Sverdrup's expedition between 1898 and 1902. Axel Heiberg also has a glacier named after him in Antarctica. As we were crossing the bay today I was thinking about the members of the Sverdrup Expedition who spent four whole years in this wilderness. Our two months does not compare to that achievement. Many of the members of the Sverdrup expedition were the same age as we are. One of the expedition Members Per Schei was only 21 when he left and he was the expedition geologist. His work was amazing despite his young age and it changed the map of the Arctic forever.

We are all doing well. Slightly tired but eagerly looking forward to continue.

All my best,

Toby

More Information:

Axel Heiberg Island

Axel Heiberg Island has been inhabited in the past by Inuit people, but was uninhabited by the time it was named by Otto Sverdrup, who explored it around 1900. He named it after Axel Heiberg, manager of the Norwegian Ringnes brewery which sponsored the expedition^[2]. Other explorers visited the island during the early 20th century, during which time it was claimed by Norway until 1930. It is now part of Nunavut Territory, Canada. It wasn't until the late 1940s that the island was aerially photographed by the United States Army Air Forces' Operation Polaris. In 1955 two geologists of the Geological Survey of Canada, N.J. McMillan and Souther, traversed the interior as part of Operation Franklin. McMillan's observations of Bunde Glacier, in northwest Axel Heiberg Island, are the earliest glaciological observations on the ground to have found their way into a scientific publication.

Source: Wikipedia: Axel Heiberg Island

Norwegian Translation of Toby's Dispatch:

Temperatur: -35 °C
Posisjon: N 77° 47', W 093° 05'

Axel Heiberg Oy I Sikte

Vi har naa jobbet oss godt opp I Norwegian Bay og har I dag sett Axel Heiberg Oy I horisonten med sine imponerende fjellpartier. Det var stort aa faa se denne oyen som Otto Sverdrup oppdaget I aarene mellom 1898 og 1902. Forholdene er bra. Det er kaldt men det er lite vind og sol. Sledene er ogsaa ganske lette siden vi naa venter paa nye forsyninger om et par dager. Da faar vi ogsaa en pause dag etter 20 dager paa reise, noe som naa merkes paa kroppen. Kursen er naa satt mot restene av Ayles Iceshelf som ligger innefrosset I havisen nord oest av Amund Ringnes Oy. Det skal bli spesielt aa besoeke dette beviset paa at Arktis naa er I forandring. Ayles losnet I Augusst 2005 og et bit paa storrelse med Manhattan drev sorover mot Ringnes oyene der den delte seg I to. Det e en av disse gigantiske bitene vi naa skal besoeke og dokumentere.

Alt vel I Sverdrups Rike.

Hilsen,
Tobias

Position: N 78° 10', W 094° 16'
Distance Traveled: 0 km/ 0 mi

Who was the Ayles Ice Shelf Named After?

Second rest day today (on Day 21) and we are all busy doing repairs and resting sore muscles. The dogs are being fed twice the amount they usually are and they are taking the opportunity to sleep as much as they can. Tomorrow we are heading north for the remains of the Ayles Ice Shelf. The Ayles Ice Shelf was named after the young Chief Petty Officer Adam Ayles who was a sled commander during the Nares expedition to northern Ellesmere in 1875 and 1876.

The Nares expedition did not use dogs but the sailors of the expedition dragged the sleds around the north coast of Ellesmere while their health slowly deteriorated due to scurvy. At 82°N 80°W, at the entrance of what was to be named the Ayles Fjord, Adam Ayles erected a cairn before the expedition had to turn back due to scurvy. In the Ayles Fjord there was an ice shelf that later was named Ayles as well. It is the remains of this ice shelf that we now have our course set towards.

After the Ayles broke loose in August 2005, a piece the size of Manhattan drifted south before it devided in two pieces north of the Ringnes Islands. Two other explorers that were important for the exploration of Northern Ellesmere were American R. Peary and M. Henson who made extensive dogsled jouneys in the area during several expeditions between 1896-1909. Like Otto Sverdrup, Peary realized the importance of the dogs to be successful in arctic exploration.

Today we are also looking at our route further north of Ayles. I am carrying with me on the expedition, a 100 year old reprinting of a map originally drawn by Otto Sverdrup. Using this map we hope to find traces or evidence of Sverdrup's expedition along the west coast of Axel Heiberg Island. I carry the map very safely with me on the sled and I only take it out in a warm and dry tent. It is with admiration that I look at the achievements of young men like Adam Ayles and all the members of the Sverdrup Expedition who for very long periods and under a lot of strain explored the region of the High Arctic that we are now in.

All is good here. We are ready to get started again tomorrow.

All my best, Toby Thorleifsson

Toby

Day 27
Position: N 78° 38' W 095° 44
Estimated Temperature: -27 °C / -16 °F
Distance Traveled: 10 km / 6.2 mi

The Expedition Has Reached the Remains of the Ayles Iceshelf.

After 27 hard days through mostly rough ice conditions we finally made it to the remains of the Ayles Iceshelf. This, of course, is one of the main goals of our expedition. It was a dramatic moment when we saw the eight meter tall ice wall of the Ayles on the horizon. We camped this evening below the edge of the iceshelf resting both the dogs and ourselves after four pretty brutal days in the roughest ice we have experienced on the trip so far. It has seemed to get more difficult everyday over the last few days. We really worked hard to get to the Ayles and we are content to witness and document this smoking gun of global warming. From the chaotic world of the rough sea ice, the world below changes drastically when you climb the eight meters up on the ice shelf. Up there it is flat as far as the eye can see. To the northwest all we can see is iceshelf and tomorrow we will try to climb the iceshelf and cross it with our dogteams. The dogs are probably going to be as happy as we are with a days travel on flat surface. As much as it was great to get to Ayles it is also sad to witness this great iceshelf floating around in the sea destined to disintegrate. We are seeing a changing Arctic and this might only be the beginning. This experience has made a serious impact on me as a person and it has made me forever more determined to work for the preservation of this great and sublime wilderness.

All my best from the High Arctic,

Toby Thorleifsson

 

Norwegian Translation:

Posisjon: N 78° 38' W 095° 44
Temperatur: -27 °C / -16 °F
Distanse reist I dag: 10 km / 6.2 mi

Ekspedisjonen har Naad Restene av Ayles IsMassivet.

Sent I kveld etter fire meget harde dager I meget ugunstige isforhold naade vi den 8 meter hoye kanten og begynnelsen paa Ayles Ismassivet. Det var en meget spesiell opplevelse aa klatre opp paa Ayles fra den kaotiske havisen og se flat is saa langt oye kunne se I nordvestlig retning. Her ligger altsaa 10.000 aar gammel is aa flyter I havet med en sikker dodsdom hengende over seg. Dette er et uhyggelig og vakkert syn paa en gang. Isformasjoner I denne skalaen er vakkert samtidig er dette et direkte resultat av vaart energiforbruk hjemme. Dette store isflaket som var paa storrelse med Manhattan foer det delte seg skal ikke ligge her syd og flyte. Det horer til som en sentral del av oekosystemet paa nordkysten av Ellesmere. I morgen skal vi dra hundene opp paa Ayles og krysse massivet mot nordvest. Kanskje blir det siste gang mennesker ser og opplever Ayles som har eksistert I 10.000 aar. Etter at vi har krysset massivet skal vi bruke tid paa aa filme og dokumentere denne opplevelsen. Selv her I de mest avsidesliggende strok av det Canadiske hoyarktis har vi mennesker klart aa gjore seriose inngrep I naturen. Ayles er beviset paa dette.

Alt vel,

Masse hilsner fra Tobias.

 

Additional Info:

The George Nares Expedition

Of the many British to the High Arctic in the 19th century the Nares expedition is worth mentioning. The expedition achieved some success, but at enormous costs. On sledging excursions in 1876 the Nares expedition managed to gain the furthest north record and traveled around the northern coast of Ellesmere Island to Alert Point. In the process they crossed large parts of the Ellesmere Ice-shelf. However, half the expedition crew quickly developed scurvy and the party experienced several deaths. The Ayles Ice Shelf was named after Adam Ayles, one of the expedition members on the Nares Expedition. The Nares expedition illustrated that confidence in modern technology and western methods did not suffice in the High Arctic. It became clear to the explorers that followed Nares that they had to look to the Inuit and Inughuit for ways to successfully operate over prolonged periods of time in the High Arctic.

Visit the following link to read more about Nares and Adam Ayles: http://wairarapa.co.nz/times-age/weekly/2002/ayles.html

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Only three years ago Ellesmere's coastline included a much larger Ayles Ice Shelf. However, in a matter of minutes much of this ice shelf broke off and became a floating ice island. An ice island is a large piece of floating ice, which has broken away from an Arctic ice shelf.

An ice shelf is a floating ice sheet of considerable thickness showing 2 meters or more above sea level, attached to the coast.
This island has now floated down to the eastern coast of Amund Ringnes island, which is where we have stopped to observe it.

This break off happened on August 13, 2005. The ice island is approximately 66 square kilometers in size, larger than Prince Rupert and British Columbia. It measures 15 km long by 5 km wide and is over 40 meters thick. The Ayles Ice Island represents the largest break-up of an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic in 30 years. It had been in place for at least 4500 years before it broke away.

The ice island calved off from the Ayles Ice Shelf because of unusually warmer temperatures and persistent offshore winds. The sea ice that normally presses along the north coast of Ellesmere Island, even in summer, was replaced by open water in the days leading up to August 13th 2005, which allowed the shelf to slip into the water and drift rapidly to the west.

The fracture of the Ayles Ice Shelf was first noticed by ice analyst Laurie Weir, of the Environment Canada's Canadian Ice Service (CIS), during routine monitoring of the eastern Arctic.

The first people to reach Ellesmere Island were the Palaeo-Inuit culture that spread across the Arctic from Alaska about 4,000 years ago. These people were attracted to Ellesmere Island by animals such as musk ox and caribou, but they also practiced coastal sea-mammal hunting in what is now Smith Sound. The descendants of these first people developed the culture referred to by archaeologists as the Dorset culture between 3,000 and 1,000 years ago. It is believed that these people used sledges for winter transportation but it is not known if they used dogs. Archaeologists have however, found evidence suggesting that they also used kayaks.

Day 32
Position: N 79° 14' W 096° 08
Distance Traveled: 25 km / 15 mi
Estimated Temperature: -18 °C / -1 °F

This is the eighth day without skis and we are continually on these long pans of old sea ice. It is hard work as we are either running or pushing our sleds. After nine hours of hard work and 25 km of distance we are all pretty tired. It would be great if we got a long day on skis on somewhat flat ice in the next couple of days. The coast of Axel Heiberg looks beautiful and in a couple of days we are hoping to possibly make landfall. The west coast of Axel Heiberg is known for its bad ice conditions and difficult travel. It was first traveled by the Sverdrup Expedition in 1899 who, on May 5th of that year, reached as far north as 80.55 degrees. As they traveled north with their dog teams, they named many of the fiords and other natural features on their way.

Otto Sverdrup was one of the three great Norwegian polar explorers next to Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. Sverdrup had joined Nansen on both his crossing of Greenland in 1898 and as Captain of the famous Norwegian expedition vessel Fram during Nansen’s failed North Pole expedition between 1893 and 1996. In 1898, Fram was commissioned to Sverdrup with the goal of a circumnavigation of Greenland through Smith Sound and Nares Straight. Due to heavy ice conditions in the Nares straight, Sverdrup and the fifteen other expedition members had to abandon their goal. Sverdrup instead decided to explore the west coast of Ellesmere Island and spent the next four years in the High Arctic.

Sverdrup’s achievements during these years can only be described as extraordinary. After four years of dogsled excursions, Sverdrup and his men had discovered and named several islands that were previously unknown to the western world. These islands included Axel Heiberg Island, Ellef and Amund Ringnes Islands and Prince Christian Island. In addition, Sverdrup chartered the entire western coast of Ellesmere Island with the exception of Greely and Tanquary fiords. In total Sverdrup charted 260,000 square kilometers, which was more than any polar expedition at the time. Sverdrup’s maps were of such a good quality that they were used by Canadian authorities until the mid 1950s when aerial photographs replaced them. Much of Sverdrup’s success was due to his focus on having small groups of men on the excursions assisted by skis in combination with dogsleds. Like Peary, Sverdrup adopted Inuit and Inughuit technology but he did not hire Inughuit on the expedition.

Sources:
T. C. Fairley, Sverdrup’s Arctic Adventures. London, 1959.
Thorleif Tobias Thorleifsson, “Norway must really drop their absurd claims such as that to the Otto Sverdrup Islands.” Bi-polar international diplomacy: The Sverdrup Island Question, 1902-1930. Simon Fraser University, 2006.