In The Most Dangerous Kayak Expedition on Earth, a pair of adventurers set out to explore the underside of Greenlandic icebergs. While scientists are still working on a unit with which to objectively measure danger in kayak expeditions, I’m sure they’d agree that this one is up there. Besides, after battling the icy Arctic waters for 1,000 kilometers in a kayak, paddlers Vincent and Alban have surely earned some hyperbole.
The environment they paddle through is incredibly harsh, with no permanent human habitation anywhere along their route. Photo: Screenshot
As the film opens, Vincent introduces himself and his companion, Alban, an expert in ice diving. Their quest is to explore the hidden world beneath icebergs, under the freezing waters of the Arctic. Their plan is to paddle, by kayak, between Ittoqqortoormiit and Tasiilaq, on the almost uninhabited east coast of Greenland.
Alban in a partly frozen ocean. Photo: Screenshot
A race against time
It’s a race against time. If they can’t reach Tasiilaq by the end of October, they’ll be caught in the ice and the unending polar night. The days are an exhausting push, with Alban sometimes having to don his diving suit and tow their kayaks through chunks of ice. By the end of the day, Vincent feels like they’ve only narrowly avoided hypothermia.
Beneath the ocean’s surface, as Vincent says, it’s another world. Tiny pteropods bounce through the crystal clear water. Ice has been carved into fantastical shapes.
Alban explores a frozen world beneath the surface. Photo: Screenshot
Between dives, the pair struggles for every kilometer. Winter is coming on fast. When the entrance to a fiord they’re sheltered in freezes over, they have to haul their gear and kayaks over a pass while a storm blows in.
While they’re sheltering, they celebrate Alban’s 35th birthday in their tent with canned and bottled luxuries. There’s even a singular balloon. The storm confines them for days until the weather clears. It’s bitterly cold, but open channels remain.
Under a glowing aurora, Alban makes one final dive, this time at night. The illumination of his lights attracts a Lion’s Mane jellyfish, a species best known as the murderer in a Sherlock Holmes story. In the black, frozen water, Alban finds microscopic squid, Arctic cod, and then, most thrillingly, a Greenland shark.
The Greenland shark, a mysterious creature with a centuries-long lifespan. Photo: Screenshot
They’re almost to Tasiiliq, but the last few days are a hard test. Often, the ice is too thick to kayak through and too thin to walk over. Constant snow buries their tent and whips at their faces as they paddle. But for the last few kilometers, the weather clears, and they savor the end of a 51-day, 1,000km Arctic kayak expedition.
The dialogue and narration, originally in French, have been dubbed into English. While it’s a bit distracting at first, I do respect how the voice actors gave it their all and seemed to be having fun with it.
