Stranded In Resolute Bay - Expedition AKOR Week 7

For the past week, our trio has been resting in the warmth of Resolute Bay. They have taken a liking to the little house that their contact Aziz "the mysterious," rents them. The men are keeping a relaxed schedule. Time is shared between pampering the wounds on their skin, sorting audio-visual documents, and talking with their families, girlfriends and friends.

They also repaired faulty or ill-fitting equipment and gave their clothes well-needed washing and drying out. The planning of the second ski segment, which they plan to start between May 7 and 10, is taking more time than anticipated.

One means of passing time was to rearrange the route. Instead of travelling 20 km per day, they will aim to do a leisurely 18 km. This choice will allow them to spend fewer days chasing time.

However, there is still the issue of completing their journey in time, despite the reduced daily mileage.

It is essential to know that the Barrow Strait, which separates Resolute Bay and Summerset, located in the famous Northwest Passage, turned out to be melting particularly fast this year.

This warm weather throws a wrench into the teams' plan, as they had planned to cross Barrow Strait on skis after their current refuelling stop.

A precipitous melt and the presence of powerful and complex ocean currents cause the ice to move quickly. When these dominant forces of nature are combined, they make the strait ice effectively impassible.

While attempting to cross this strait would have been too dangerous, a detour via an alternate route would take three weeks. Adding those additional weeks would place them behind schedule for the entire expedition. The result would mean numerous logical problems on an already monumental, seven-month journey.

The fact that they can't ski the Barrow Strait means our team must take a chartered plane 120 km across it. Emotions are high, and a disappointment is prevalent within the team at the thought of not crossing the strait and treading the illustrious Northwest Passage.

Yet, there is a silver lining to this. They will take a little more time in Resolute to heal their wounds and use the extra time to plan 18 km days for the upcoming ski segment.

The men from Expedition AKOR will be saving 120 km of skiing - out of 7600 total.

Make sure to follow along on our social media accounts,@Naakbars to stay up to date with any breaking news and photos from Expedition AKOR. Be sure to read more about the team on our previousBlog Posts.

Näak Blog | Expedition Akor week 6