SIRMILIK

SKI MOUNTAINEERING
NUNAVUT
 Bylot island is located roughly 800km
north of the arctic circle in Canadas
Nunavut territory.
A rugged island with a heart of
nameless mountains, monstrous glaciers
and shores of vertiginous ramparts
dropping to the sea.
Sirmilik place of glaciers is the name
of one of Canadas newest national
parks established on bylot in 2001.
Mount Thule made famous in a 1930
Lawren Harris (Group of Seven) painting
was our goal in Sirmilik. with heavy
sleds, muscle and sweat we would make
introduction
our mark on this canvas using crampons
and telemark skis as our brushes.
Setting out from Calgary, Alberta on
may 14, 2013, we drove to Edmonton
where we spent that evening at my
brothers place making final
preparations. The next morning we
boarded our Canadian North B-737 for
the flights north through Yellowknife,
Iqaluit, Clyde River and finally after
two days the tires of our Canadian
North Dash 8 touched down on the
gravel runway of Pond Inlet at the
northern tip of Baffin Island - Thule
was in sight.
BYLOT ISLAND
 Mittimatalik Pond Inlet

Laval St.Germain is a Calgary, Canada based

TEAMMATES
adventurer and outdoor athlete. No stranger
to the north, Laval has climbed and skied the
highest peaks in Nunavut, Yukon and Alaska.
Laval has an extensive background in
adventure racing, ultra-running, cycling and
mountaineering. having climbed the highest
mountains on six of the worlds seven
continents plus the high points of Mexico,
Bolivia, Costa Rica, Morocco, Germany, Iraq,
Iran - to name a few. Laval is the first and
only Canadian to have climbed Mt.Everest
without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Laval is an airline pilot and the Director of
Flight Operations for Canadian North
airlines.

Darin McBeath is also a Calgary based

outdoor athlete. Darin is an experienced
backcountry skier, ice climber, avid cyclist
and sailor. Darin is a former member of
Canadas National Alpine Ski Team where he
specialized in the speed disciplines. Darin
competed for Canada in the 2002 Salt lake
City Olympics. Darin holds a Commercial
Helicopter Pilot License and is a Geologist
for Crescent Point Energy Corp.

Our home for the Pond that we wanted
night along Eclipse
Sound, the plywood to get to the floe
walls replacing the edge (before we
seals and skis

nylon ones of our started the ski

tent - a welcome
haven from the mountaineering) our
threat of marauding best bet for seeing
polar bears narwhal and polar
bear. After a quick
discussion with a
After some fellow traveller (and
stress when our photographer), Riley
skis and darins Veldhuizen, we
pack did not make decided to all share
the connection a komatik (a sled
to our iqaluit pulled traditionally
flight, we were by dogs, but now by
now just 30 km snowmobile) and a
from Bylot guide to take us to
Island. We the floe edge. with
decided that that we made plans
first night in to
meet the next morning. through a vast area of
At 9:00 the weathered, pressure ridges and
warm and friendly face towering shards of ice,
of or guide, Sheatie which resulted in the
Tagak, greeted us in the komatik being damaged
front entrance of the and Sheatie being
Sauniq Hotel. thrown from his snow
machine, but luckily
After a few words and uninjured, we were back
Sheatie staring in Pond.
quizzically (and with
some concern) at our
ungainly plastic
telemark ski boots, we
jumped on the back of
his quad for the 800m
ride down to the sea ice
where his komatik and
Riley waited.
The three of us piled in
to our Baffin Limo and
we were off for 12 1/2
hours of spine bruising,
teeth rattling and bone
chilling fun.
Although we regrettably
saw not a single bear
(lots of prints
everywhere) or whale, we
had splendid weather
and fantastic views of
the area including
climbing on some
icebergs.
After some difficulty
negotiating our way
Photo courtesy of Riley Veldhuizen

Dont play on the beach by village and had agreed to give

us a lift across the ice in their
Tagak Attack
yourself, the sea monster will get komatik to Bylot Island.
During our break for tea, Sheatie
The next day under piercing recounted how the year before he
you. blue skies and no wind, we was camped at the floe edge, with
headed north toward Bylot. his rifle outside the tent. A polar
bear ripped through the tent. using
- Inuit proverb Ian had asked if we minded if only a fuel canister as a club
he hunted seals in hopes of Sheatie scared the bear off, but
supplying only to have it return. This time
Across fresh meat Sheatie stuck the pressurized fuel
to some of nozzle in the bears nose and
Eclipse opened the valve, with a snort the
the elders
Sound in Pond, of bear retreated, sneezing.
After a warm course we
meal that was agreed and
waiting for us at for the next
the Sauniq, we 3 hours,
returned to our our Group
room to make the of Five - ian,
final Tove, Wren,
preparations to darin and I
our gear for hunted
the trip across seals as we
the sea ice and Sedna made our
into the Sedna, the goddess of the sea way ever
mountains. whose frozen fingers fell into the closer to
sea to become the sea mammals. our Group
We had been Darin and I were deeply moved how of Seven
fortunate after Ian killed the seal, he mountain.
enough to have respected the Inuit tradition of
one of my placating and thanking Sedna by After a
colleagues, the dribbling fresh water from his own successful
captain of the mouth into the seals mouth, a hunt and a
flight to Pond sign of respect for the seals life. snack of
Inlet, Jordan raw seal
Dixon, liver, we
introduce us to his friend Ian climbed out of the Komatik, bid
Snider, his wife Tove and their the Sniders goodbye and skied
baby girl, Wren. Ian and Tove toward the mountains of
are both school teachers in the Sirmilik.
 I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a Nanuq
Always aware of the possibility of
machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this encountering polar bears we were
constantly on the look out.
trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the I had purchased an ice bear alarm
trip wire system to put around our
mountains to learn the news tent, we were hoping that the
system would work as designed
(fire off a .12 GA blank shotgun
blast when a bear walked through
- John Muir the perimeter) and fortunately we
did not need it, although we did
test it, it worked perfectly.
Into the Mountains
Pulling heavy pulks (expedition sleds) and
carrying heavy packs we skied, with skins on,
across several hundred metres of sea ice to gain
the shore of Bylot. It was great to finally set
foot in Sirmilik and slowly climb higher into the
remote mountains. after 3 hours of skiing
northwest from the Sirmilik glacier we pitched our
tent along a frozen river a few kilometres from a
nameless glacier that we hoped would give us
access to Thule. Setting up the Ice bear Alarm
trip wire system required some planning and
engineering done mostly with bare fingers in the
-20C evening air. We eventually had the system
set-up and tested, and an additional inadvertent
test when Darin accidentally tripped the
wire (actually thread) which startled us as the
shotgun blank exploded.
After brewing up some freeze dried dinners we
crawled into our sleeping bags near midnight and
even with the 24 hour daylight and thoughts of
bears, we fell into a deep sleep.
Just follow your heart. That's
what I do.
-Napoleon Dynamite
We woke to perfect
weather - dead calm with
brilliant sunshine.
after melting snow
and brewing up oatmeal
and coffee, we packed all
of our equipment, stepped
into our skies and skied
deeper into the high
arctic peaks surrounding
us.
we laboured for
hours through
unconstituted sugary
snow capped by a wind
crust. This crust would
collapse under our
weight from the tail of
the ski to just ahead of
the boot, leaving the ski
tip and first third of the
ski firmly on the surface
creating a constant
unforgiving uphill, even
when moving downhill.
with sweat burning our
eyes and the pulks
were following to the base
of thule. We skied with
perpetually trying to pull much less effort long the
us back to the sea, we top of the moraine which
topped out on the lateral at times was only just a
moraine of the glacier we very narrow ridge the
same width as our two
skis.
at a spot where the
ridge widened enough to
fit a tent, we stopped for
the night.
After a big meal with
tea and dark chocolate
for dessert, we
consulted our maps and
made a plan to go for the
summit in the morning.
Sleep comes easy after
hard days in the
mountains. with bandanas
over our eyes to block
the midnight sun, we
drifted off with images of
Harris paintings in our
dreams.
Darin high on Wren Ridge
 Laval headed for Thules summit, we would ski the slope to the right of the ridge.

By a route obscure and lonely,

Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of space- out of time.
-Dreamland by Edgar Allan Poe
The morning of May 20th dawned
clear and calm...again, we were
pleased and energized for the hard
day ahead.
After our standard oatmeal and
coffee breakfast we left our tent
securely tied down, and after
grabbing our climbing gear, a snack
and water we skied higher up the moraine. back and forth across the ever
steepening slope. As the slope steepened
We were looking for some obvious I became concerned with the stability and
weakness in the ridge between us and safety, an avalanche here would likely be
Thule, we needed to find a route that fatal for both of us. We quickly
would deposit us hopefully on a high col traversed to a rock band to our right an
that according to our maps led to the now switching to crampons and an ice axe,
summit. After maybe one hour of skiing I with our skis on our packs, we slowly
spotted a steep couloir that appeared to scrambled upwards on what we dubbed
be the way up. we skinned up, zigzagging
Wren Ridge. We were now be treated to. Anxious to plateau with steep drops
mixed climbing (rock, snow start the fun, we took to the south and west
and ice) often with big our summit pics, had a few with a steep but skiable
exposure, but fantastic sips out of our thermoses face to the north. This
views. AFter over 3 hours north face was our goal.
on Wren Ridge we climbed Darin led the descent
the last few 50 degree with the first few turns
couloirs and topped out on very steep boilerplate
exactly where we had ice where a fall would
hoped - precisely on the have been very serious or
summit col. worse. Once we had those
With Thules summit first no falls allowed
looming in front of us we turns behind us we
spent the next hour carved hundreds of leg
mindful of crevasses and burning high arctic
walking the last several telemark turns down
hundred metres to the Thules north face.
top. Gasping thru the pain in
our quads, that had over
Here we were - Thule, 7 hours of hard climbing
we had planned for in them that day, and
months, researched giggling in pure joy
countless hours, I had reveling in where we were,
even made Harriss we sped down the
painting my ipads wall mountain.
paper, sweet satisfaction!
after over 9 hours of
On the final summit climbing and skiing above
ridge we had views of our and strapped on our the clouds below us we
descent route, we were telemark skis. were back at our tent,
blown away with the ski
Thules summit knackered.
descent we were about to
consists of a huge
 Darin carrying his binding
on the traverse.

We spent the next few place and it made one ski while carrying the
hours melting snow on our traveling quite easy. broken bindng in one hand.
stoves for drinking water, As the lake narrowed Darin quickly went to
we were parched and we skied onto the river work making a template
hungry. After a big meal, that emptied it, but this out of a piece of paper,
we quickly fell asleep in quickly turned into a boring new holes with his
our -30C down sleeping small canyon with some leatherman tool and with
bags. frozen waterfalls that a few drops of glue in
The next each new hole
morning we he re-mounted
spent a his binding, we
leisurely few were off again,
hours packing disaster
up and averted.
preparing for Hours of
the descent skiing through
to the coast. ever worsening
The sun was snow and even
beating down breaking
again and our through the
faces were river ice into
now a deep water and
brown and our slush at times
clothing we finally made
stained white the coast. It
with the salt was time to
from our really watch
sweat. blocked our progress. for bears again as we
Skiing downhill with an Doing a 180, Darin found skied west along the sea
expedition sled is often an easy way on to the ice.
more difficult than pulling river bank. we decided to Our destination was an
it uphill. The sled is traverse above the canyon unusual area of hoodoos
always threatening to try on a icy, but manageable further up the coast that
and pass you, push you side slope. Just as Darin we had read about. Making
down or tip over and drag skied to the most exposed good time we came upon a
you down, but we made it part of the traverse he very basic hut used by
down to the valley floor let out a curse, I looked hunters. The half door
without mishap. up to see that his ski was held shut with a
binding had ripped
Once in the valley we shovel propped against it.
completely out of his left
skied across a large Removing the shovel and
ski - bad spot for this to
frozen lake completely pulling, the entire door
happen. he remained calm ,
devoid of snow, just bare came out of the jam as it
did not fall, and carefully
ice. It was a beautiful finished the traverse on

was not even attached at the
hinges.
Stepping in we found one
large bed and a wooden box to
place our stove on. basic
indeed, but bear proof once we
had the door in place and tied
shut from inside.
We knew we had
another few hours of
skiing the next day to
make it to the
hoodoos , and even
though we were under
a constantly grey sky
with colder
temperatures, we were
warm and safe in our
hut. Sleep came
quickly again after a
big meal and some
fudge that Darin had
brought as a treat.
We made it to the
the next nights camp
easily, even with my
binding breaking this
time, but being quickly repaired
with a piece of wire Darin
modified.
We spent most of the day
exploring the hoodoos and
taking photos and video. One
could be easily convinced they
were in southern Albertas
Red Deer river valley instead
of the high arctic, the terrain
was eerily prairie-like.
One last night in another
cabin and we packed for the
Kids helping Darin up the last hill
to the Sauniq Hotel in Pond.
long ski across the sea ice of
eclipse sound.
After a false start when my
binding broke again (it would
break one more time this day),
and with a cold breeze out of
Darin feeling small in the
hoodoos
the west, we set out, our
toques pulled down low and
our hoods up.
After 8 hours of pulling
our sleds along an endless
white treadmill, we arrived in
Pond Inlet, blistered, bruised,
tanned and completely
satisfied.
We had left our marks
on an iconic Canadian
landscape, experienced
the stunning beauty of
Nunavut and had been
exposed at every turn
to the warmth of its
people, I was reminded
again of why i loved
the Arctic.