Last week, British adventurer Camilla Hempleman-Adams completed a 13-day, 241km solo ski journey from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung, crossing Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. British media, including the BBC, reported that she is the first woman to solo traverse Baffin Island.
While any solitary winter ski expedition in polar bear territory is a significant undertaking, this particular route is regularly traveled by local Inuit as well as tourists, both guided and independent. Unlike Hempleman-Adams, most visitors catch a boat or snow machine lift to near the start of photogenic Akshayuk Pass, Auyuittuq National Park’s main — actually, only — tourist route.
Solo travelers frequently do shakedown tours through the 97km pass as training for more ambitious arctic objectives. For instance, in late summer 2019, Celine Jackard ran the pass solo in under 24 hours. Then, in early winter 2023, Anja Blacha completed a 130km solo route as training for the Northwest Passage.
Akshayuk Pass with Mt. Asgard in the background. Well-visited for decades, Asgard featured in the 1977 James Bond movie, ‘The Spy Who Loved Me.’ Photo: Shutterstock
A well-worn route
Akshayuk Pass is so commonly visited that traversing it is unremarkable by itself. To claim originality, Hempleman-Adams bypassed the mechanized lift to the trailhead, adding a little extra travel at both ends of her journey by extending her route to the Inuit communities of Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung. Before the journey, she stated, “Parks Canada has confirmed that there are no historical records of a female solo attempt from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung.”
The route followed by Camilla Hempleman-Adams. Map Source: Shadedrelief.com
While the originality and value of this claim are debatable, there is a much clearer issue with the claim of being the first female to solo traverse Canada’s largest island. Hempleman-Adams did not complete a traverse of Baffin Island as suggested. Instead, she crossed the Cumberland Peninsula on the southeast arm of Baffin. Referring to this as a traverse of such a large island is a significant stretch. There is a long history of marginal record claims in the polar regions, and this latest highly publicized journey indicates that this trend will continue.
