Melting tundra cancels northern trek

A group of Icelanders have had to abandon their off-road vehicle trek across the tundra of the N.W.T. and Nunavut because of warm weather.

The group, which started in Calgary in February, drove up the Mackenzie River to Inuvik. They began to head east, but only got as far as Kugluktuk. The group had hoped to visit some of the territory Canadian-born explorer Vilhjlmur Stefnsson visited in the early part of the 20th century.

According to the group's website, the weather is too warm to complete the six-week, 6,200 kilometre route. The six Icelanders are headed back down to Yellowknife, following the now-closed ice road to the diamond mines.

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The six-person team was driving specially modified Ford F-350 diesel trucks. The $175,000 vehicles have large tires that enable them to go through deep snow.

Jack Himiak, the chairperson of the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Organization, thinks the group made the right decision.

"You don't want to risk your equipment or your lives. Even in the winter for us traveling out there we still got to watch out for these dangerous conditions like overflows and thin ice," he says.

"With weather conditions changing so fast these days you got to really be aware what kind of conditions that the ice is."

Himiak says the group was concerned about getting stuck in southern Nunavut due to the warm weather. They were planning to go to Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Baker Lake and northern Manitoba, ending in Gimli, MB, near Stefnsson's birth place.

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