Baffin Island Travel Guide

All food was expensive in Baffin Island as most things have to be imported. If we ate anything other than the dried dehydrated food, it was either bought from the Northern Stores in Iqaluit and Pangnirtung, or eaten at The Snack in Iqaluit, which definately had an 'interesting' atmosphere.

First Air connects all communities in the North with Iqaluit, which is connected to Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Nuuk (Greenland), with most flights south stopping off at Kuujjuaq, a small settlement in northern Quebec. Prices are very expensive, like most things up there. Some of the views are stunning, especially on the Iqaluit-Broughton Island flight, as this flies over the Auyuittuq National Park...or at least our flight did...the pilot announced that he wanted to take the scenic route for a change!
First Air have a fleet of planes which decrease in size with the size of your destination...the Broughton Island flight was very small, just big enough for our group of 19...the hostess doubled as the co-pilot, and cabin service consisted of boxed drinks only. Because I'd chosen a seat next to the emargency exit, the hostess/co-pilot handed me a leaflet, saying that if we crashed, I'd be responsible for opening the doors!
There are several outfitters which can provide boat trips. In Broughton Island we used Pauloosie to access Auyuittuq National Park. Because of the water temperature, you have to wear protective orange suits....you end up looking like the Michelin Man! Apparently, if someone fell into the water without one of these, they would only survive for a couple of minutes....with the orange suit, you can savour your last moments for a further 10, then die of hypothermia once rescued....so you can choose between slow or fast death!! I think it is probably best not to fall in!
The weather is unpredictable, and so is the ice flow...our journey to the national park took 4 hours longer than expected, as the ice suddenly changed direction and blocked our path...so we waited on a beach and cooked bannock bread with our Inuit guides. The delay didn't really matter....we arrived at our first campsite at around midnight, but it never gets dark in the Arctic in summer!

Luggage and bags: NOT a suitcase destination!! You need a good quality backpack/rucksack which can take a certain amount of bashing around, and it is essential that it is waterproofed, or at least has a plastic lining bag to keep clothes etc. dry. A small daysack is useful if you decide to make a base somewhere in the park.

Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: Waterproof windproof jacket - probably best not to get a rock or ice coloured one, or rescue teams will have one or two problems finding you if you have an accident! You need warm clothes that can dry quickly, especially lots of thin layers. Jeans take ages to dry so aren't really suitable. Shorts (not for sunbathing - there won't be much sun!) are useful for crossing rivers. As for shoes, good strong walking boots plus a pair of old trainers for crossing rivers. Good quality sunglasses are needed for walking on glaciers. Underwear...hmmm, well take what you think you'll need...most people in our group took only one pair. Did we smell?...of course, but if everyone smells as bad as each other, you don't notice at all...trust me!!! Oh, and don't forget the woolly hat!

Toiletries and Medical Supplies: Take anything you will need and can carry comfortably - there are no shops in this national park. You can probably buy most things in Iqaluit, but everything is expensive there. A basic medical kit is essential,

Photo Equipment: Bring plenty of film, plus a waterproof bag to keep them and your camera in. Films and camera batteries are available in Iqaluit at inflated prices, but it would be very unlikely that they are available in Pangnirtung or Broughton Island, so stock up before arriving in Baffin Island.

Camping/Beach/Outdoor Gear: I'm not an expert on tents or camping gear, but camping in Arctic Canada is a world away from camping on a hot sunny beach! The tent needs to be lightweight but able to withstand high winds. The sleeping bag needs to be fairly warm too. As for stoves, we used some sort of gas stoves. but we had problems carrying fuel, because of the airplane restrictions. Limited fuel is available in Pangnirtung and Broughton Island (the two gateways to the park) but double check this before you go.

Miscellaneous: Pack-in Pack-out! In other words, take out everything you took in, including empty packets. Some people go as far as carrying out their toilet paper, but maybe this is a bit excessive...ask at Parks Canada about this sticky issue! They may not allow you to burn it and burying it is certainly out of the question.
Food is a big thing to sort out...obviously it is impractical to take fresh food, so you'll have to use dehydrated food which is usually disgusting. Carrying it can be a pain, especially if you are intending to spend a long time in the park. We organised for some food to be left at a cache at Summit Lake a couple of months earlier (it had to be that early, as it was dropped off by snowmobile)...a good idea in theory, but unless you know exactly what food is being dumped, then I wouldn't recommend this...the company that provided our food didn't really do its job well; they provided us with lots of packaging which needed to be carried out with us (extra weight we could have done without), silly items like bread mix (how the hell did they expect us to make bread!!), and not enough calories per day to last someone sitting in an office let alone climbing glaciers. All of us spent almost the whole last week thinking of food, and we were continually hungry. If I can remember the company name, I will have no qualms about shaming it.

Most travellers to Canada would miss out Baffin Island as a whole, so this entire page is relevant!
'Off the beaten path' in Baffin Island could describe everything.
The walk in the Auyuittuq National Park is fairly unknown, or at least the Northern section was - most trekkers start from Pangnirtung, trek up to Summit Lake (roughly half way) and go back the same route. The northern section isn't as beautiful, but is much more remote - we saw no-one at all until we arrived at the southern point of Summit Lake (and even then we only saw less than 15).

Fondest memory: My fondest memory of the expedition was probably the boat trip from Broughton Island through the North Pangnirtung Fjord to the start of our trek in the beautiful Auyuittuq National Park. The ice was still thick, even though it was July, so we had to wait several times on different beaches while waiting for the ice to clear. Just a week earlier, the in-flight movie on our flight from London to Montreal had been 'Titanic', and here we were in a tiny boat next to enormous icebergs.