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Crossing Baffin: Sea kayakers tackle epic polar adventure

VIMFF hosting Sarah McNair-Landry and Erik Boomer at Rio Theatre Feb. 13
VIMFF
Polar adventurer Sarah McNair-Landry traversed Baffin Island in a four-person crew using traditional Inuit-style kayaks.

The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival, Feb. 7-15. Various venues. For more information visit vimff.org.

It was a tougher section of river than they'd anticipated.

Midway through a 65-day, 1,000-kilometre, primarily kayak expedition across Baffin Island last summer, the four adventurers wondered if they'd bitten off more than they could chew.

Travelling in sea kayaks they'd made themselves, adhering to traditional Inuit practices, the team realized they were suddenly facing a 60-km upstream stint in the Amadjuak River, which had been difficult to research.

"The maps aren't very detailed, so to find info on those areas was really tough," says Qajaqtuqtut Expedition member Sarah McNair-Landry. "We had expected that it was a much more mellow river. We got there and it was this huge, raging whitewater river and we had to paddle upstream."

With no choice but to carry on, the quartet set off.

"Our average went from, easily, 25 km a day to we were working as hard as we could to get five-10 km a day," she says.

In addition to the physical challenge of the river, they experienced damage to their boats, the result of scraping rocks, and they each broke a paddle.

"It was definitely one of the tougher sections of the trip," says McNair-Landry.

Nonetheless, she and her teammates completed the journey and their nine days spent battling the Amadjuak is among the countless tales they've earned the right to tell.

Two of the four Qajaqtuqtut Expedition (Inuit for "they kayak") members, McNair-Landry, a 27-year-old polar adventurer based in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and her boyfriend, Idaho-based professional whitewater paddler Erik Boomer, 28, will be in Vancouver this week as featured presenters at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival. The annual event, which brings together outdoor enthusiasts from around the world, opens tonight at Centennial Theatre with a full program of films, as well as a presentation by

top female climber Sasha DiGiulian, getting underway at 7:30 p.m. The VIMFF continues to Feb. 15 offering a host of daily events, ranging from: Wednesday night's Enviro Show - Inspired by Nature, featuring the world premiere of Northern Grease, a Beyond Boarding documentary, at The Cinematheque at 7:30 p.m.; to next Friday's (Feb. 14) Mountain Bike Show at Centennial Theatre at 7:30 p.m., featuring a presentation by Debora De Napoli.

McNair-Landry and Boomer are the featured presenters at Thursday night's (Feb. 13) Kayak Show at Vancouver's Rio Theatre at 7:30 p.m. The evening's MC is Katrina van Wijk and films Sensory Overload, Cascadia, Freestyle Kayaker, Dark Water, Zambezi Life and Alone on the River will be screened.

Making their VIMFF debut, McNair-Landry and Boomer's presentation, Crossing Baffin, will showcase their recent Baffin Island expedition, in which they traversed by kayak, ski and foot, and was intended to showcase traditional sea kayak building and travel.

The idea for the journey came from expedition teammate, McNair-Landry's brother Eric, an avid kite-skier. Rounding out the team was Eric's girlfriend, Katherine Breen, a physician, yoga teacher and healthcare advocate.

The team completed the expedition through Pittarak Expeditions, which McNair-Landry and her brother founded in 2007, with a goal of going on expeditions as a means of inspiring youth to get active outdoors.

In the lead up to the Qajaqtuqtut Expedition, they built their kayaks at an Iqaluit high school. "It was a really fun place to build them because the students could come down and check out our progress," says McNair-Landry. In addition, they worked with several classes, led related workshops and are continuing to give talks in schools.

"We just wanted to get kids and adults in Baffin excited and thinking about the sea kayak," says McNair-Landry.

The team set off in July 2013 and after traversing a variety of landscapes, completed their route at the end of September 2013.

"The first part, we headed across an ice cap and then we descended into a river system," she says. "There is this Class V river that had never been paddled before. Erik (Boomer) is a professional kayaker, so he kayaked that. That basically led us right into the ocean and then we picked up these traditional sea kayaks that we'd spent the last two months building. From there we followed these traditional routes basically straight across the island, following these portages between river and lake systems."

Temperatures proved to be much colder than expected, particularly on the ocean sections, and they were hit with a number of snowstorms. They later learned 2013 was the coldest summer in 30 years in that area.

When asked what keeps her going when times get tough, McNair-Landry (whose long list of expeditions includes: journeys to both the North and South Poles; kiteskiing 3,300 km, retracing the Northwest Passage; and kite-buggying across the Gobi Desert), says it's important to keep things in perspective.

"Any big expedition, it's kind of just breaking it down into smaller goals and just focusing on the section, whether it's a day or the week, or the section that you're on, and just kind of taking it one step at a time.. . ." she says. "That really helps, breaking it, mentally, into challenges that are much more doable."

After a rough day, it's also important to enjoy the moment. For example, there was nothing better than on Baffin when they were lucky to catch huge Arctic char to dine on before turning in.

"Those nights where we had fresh fish were definitely a highlight of the trip," she says.

McNair-Landry and Boomer talk about their polar kayak adventure at the Rio Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. (Admission 19+).