ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

I have been following an intrepid bunch of Canadian Seniors who are on an skiing and snowshoeing trip in the far north of Canada.  They call themselves  the Geri-Arctics and are raising money for Alzheimer's Society of B.C.

Geri-Arctics Ellesmere Island Expedition 2019

Their route is on Ellesmere Island which they reached by charter plane.  The plan was to ski/snowshoe/hike for a planned 150 km around Makinson Inlet, latitude ~77 degrees north and taking a month for the trip.

Using Garmin Satelitte technology it was possible to get regular updates.

We have trekked the coasts of England and Wales and have paddled the coast of B.C. in a 37' voyageur canoe. We are Chris (leader), Nancy, Richard, Susan, Sandy, and Alice and Fred. Some of us, including Fred, are former mountaineers."

Where is Ellesmere Island?  Here are two maps from Wikipedia.

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Kathleen Winter's book 'Boundless - Adventures in the Northwest Passage' is about a journey taken through an adjacent part of the Arctic.

Michael Kerr in The Telegraph wrote: she was invited "to spend a fortnight [as a writer on board] a Russian icebreaker [research ship] in the Arctic, Kathleen Winter didn’t hesitate.

The result, Boundless, is subtitled Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage. The newness lies in the way Winter tries to view the Arctic and to respond to it. She wants to see it not through the eyes of the dead white men who sought a way through it, or those of their living counterparts who want to exploit it, but through the eyes of Inuit women who belong to it."

Adventure it is not. Yes, she is interested in following the footsteps of Franklin but as Kathryn Hughes in The Guardian stated: [it's about] "A journey to the Northwest Passage [which] inspires banal meditations on … whatever comes to mind." But her stories she recounts from the people she meets, including one who gives her access to some recently found Franklin papers, more than make up for the various musings.

So if you ever fancy a 'cruise' to this part of the world with professional guides and lecturers and you know you are never going to afford it/organise yourself, this is the book to read.  (I recommended it to a lady-friend of mine and mentioned that I thought it was 'a woman's book'.  She ticked me off for such un-politically correct mutterings!)