An international expedition that hoped to reach northern Ellesmere Island by sailboat, then climb some rarely attempted peaks north of Tanquary Fiord, has had to change its plans. The reason? Ice.
Instead, Stafford Tyrrell of Ireland and his eight companions will settle for the much more modest goal of visiting Grise Fiord on the south coast of Ellesmere. They will then sail 70km across Jones Sound to Devon Island and ski the ice cap on the northeast corner.
“We’ll be in Grise Fiord around the 18th of August, and then two of us will attempt a crossing of the Devon Island Ice Cap,” Tyrrell told ExplorersWeb. “After that, we’ll sail down toward Pond [Inlet], and take it easy going down the east coast of Baffin Island.” Pond Inlet is a town on the north end of Baffin.
Although sea ice is a lot thinner than it used to be, this was always the likeliest outcome of such an ambitious sailing project. A sailboat has never reached Tanquary Fiord, in Canada’s Quttinirpaaq National Park.
Tanquary Fiord, both images, is largely ice-free by mid-August. The hard part is avoiding the ice plugs further south. Photos: Jerry Kobalenko
Even big ships avoid this area
Even most Arctic cruise ships avoid it, because only the most powerful ones can make it through the predictably heavy ice of Norwegian Bay to the narrow, sometimes open channels to the north. The only civilian vessel I’m aware of that has reached Tanquary Fiord is the cruise ship Kapitan Khlebnikov, which is considered an icebreaker — the highest quality of polar vessel. Both its hull and its engines are strong enough to force a way through heavy sea ice when necessary. See this Wikipedia piece for an overview of how polar vessels are ranked.
The current state of sea ice in the eastern High Arctic, based on an analysis of satellite imagery. The letters are code for the type of sea ice in that area — how thick, how broken, and so on. Red and orange are bad. Even yellow is marginal for most ships.
Satellite imagery of Ellesmere Island at the same time of year in 2024 and 2025. The turquoise color is ice. Norwegian Bay, circled, would still have presented difficulty in 2024, but it might have broken up enough by late August to allow passage. In 2025, however, there was considerably more ice, including further north at the gateway to Tanquary Fiord.
As the climate warms, no doubt a sailboat will one day make it to Tanquary Fiord. Today, however, it remains a long shot.
