The fifth-largest island on earth — fiords and glaciers, Mount Thor's 1,250-metre vertical cliff, the art capital of Cape Dorset, and the narwhal of the floe edge.
Baffin Island is the fifth-largest island on earth — 500,000 square kilometres of Arctic mountains, glaciers, fiords, and tundra, the heart of the Inuit homeland, and one of the most spectacular and remote landscapes on the planet. It's the eastern Arctic's great wilderness. Here's the guide.
Pangnirtung (Pang) — the fiord and the park The 'Pang' — a community of 1,400 at the head of Pangnirtung Fiord, the gateway to Auyuittuq National Park. The Auyuittuq landscape — the 200-km fiord-and-peak corridor of the Penny Ice Cap, Mount Thor (the world's greatest vertical cliff, 1,250-metre overhang), and Mount Asgard — is the climber's and the skier's pilgrimage. The fiord approach by boat or snowmobile is the trip.
Auyuittuq National Park The 'land that never melts' — the park is the classic Arctic expedition: the Akshayuk Pass, the Weasel River, the crossings, and the cirques. Multi-day, guided, and serious; the flightseeing from Pang is the easier version. This is big, glaciated, true Arctic wilderness.
Cape Dorset (Kinngait) — the art capital The Inuit art capital of the world — the community that produced the famous Dorset prints and sculptures, and still does. The West Baffin Eskimo Co-op and the galleries are the reason to come. The landscape and the art are inseparable.
The High Arctic — Pond Inlet and Sirmilik The northern Baffin — Pond Inlet, on Eclipse Sound, the gateway to Sirmilik National Park (the 'place of glaciers'), and the floe-edge (the narwhal, the polar bears, the ice edge) trips in spring. The high Arctic, the ice, and the narwhal are the draw.
When to go March–May for the floe-edge and the spring light; June–August for the midnight sun, the hiking, and the open water; September for the first aurora. Winter is dark and cold. Much of the access is by snowmobile, boat, or charter flight.
Good to know Baffin is fly-in only — flights from Iqaluit (and from Ottawa/Montreal to Iqaluit). There are no roads between communities. Plan with a licensed outfitter for the parks and the remote trips. And this is serious, beautiful Arctic — bear awareness, cold-weather gear, and respect for Inuit land and culture are required.
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