CANADA’S REMOTE ARCTIC Northwest Passage to Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands ARCTIC 2021 | INAUGURAL SEASON Contents Overview Itinerary Arrival and Departure Details Your Ship Included Activities Adventure Options Dates & Rates Inclusions & Exclusions Your Expedition Team Meals on Board Possible Excursions Packing Checklist Overview Canada’s Remote Arctic: Northwest Passage to Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands Here, at the top of the world, nature has created unique wonders in astonishing EXPEDITION IN BRIEF variety. Our game-changing new expedition vessel Ultramarine, equipped with two Search for iconic Arctic wildlife, such as twin-engine helicopters and quick-launching Zodiacs, enables you to explore this polar bears, walrus and muskoxen breathtaking environment from brand new perspectives. You’ll experience the same Learn about indigenous culture from Inuit sense of wonder felt by early explorers as they navigated the region’s formidable bays, guides onboard and ashore inlets and channels. Enjoy unforgettable ightseeing and heli-landings aboard Ultramarine’s two On this exciting itinerary, we follow the natural guides of sea and ice to showcase the helicopters region’s cultural, historic and geographic treasures, aiming to approach the farthest Zodiac along the face of an active glacier stretches of this rugged, rarely visited landscape. Ultramarine’s unprecedented range Channel your inner explorer as we set out of adventure options, including activities such as helicopter ightseeing, gives you an to reach Canada’s most northerly islands: unrivalled polar experience. You’ll be able to view the magnicent wildlife that make Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere Island their home in this forbidding region, including polar bears, whales, seals, walrus, polar bears, muskox and possibly the elusive arctic wolf. From soaring cli­s to mummied forests, spectacular glacial formations to stunning alpine vistas, expansive waterways to sheltered shores, Canada’s Remote Arctic provides the denitive experience of a mysterious, magical region few ever get to see. Itinerary DAY | ARRIVE IN DAYS TO | EXPLORING Axel Heiberg TORONTO, CANADA CANADA’S HIGH ARCTIC Island Ellesmere Your Arctic expedition begins in Cruising around the remote islands Island Toronto. Explore this vibrant city on of the Canadian High Arctic aboard Hell Gate your own before spending the night Ultramarine, the newest ship in our Grise Fjord at your well-appointed hotel. eet, you’ll navigate the same icy inlets, Coburg Island Devon Island channels and bays that fascinated Resolute Croker Bay DAY | FLY TO RESOLUTE Beechey Islandl legendary explorers of long ago. BaBann BaBayy AND EMBARK Designed to give polar adventurers ArcticArctAArcticctticic BayBay This morning, board your charter ight unprecedented access to the hardest- to Resolute, Nunavut. Upon arrival, BanBan IslandIsland to-reach places on the planet—and TO/FROM you may have a chance to check out equipped with two onboard twin- some of the town’s sites before being engine helicopters for unparalleled transferred to your ship via Zodiac or NNUNNUNAVUTAVUT access to areas only Quark Expeditions ((CanadaCanada)) helicopter (depending on ship location can bring you—this one-of-a-kind ship, Approximate limit and weather conditions). of exploration area in its inaugural year, will take you beyond the familiar in polar CANADA’S REMOTE ARCTIC Nunavut featuring Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands Onboard the Ultramarine Flights between Toronto and Resolute exploration. Throughout your journey, daily Zodiac cruising, land excursions, a remote landscapes you will be traveling your Expedition Team will keep an eye robust education program, a community through the ancestral homelands of this toward immersing you in the best the visit and wildlife viewing opportunities. ancient culture, illuminated in person Arctic has to offer, including reaching And thanks to our onboard helicopters, by Inuit guides onboard and ashore. Canada’s most northerly islands: Axel you’ll also discover the ultimate polar Nunavut is an Inuktitut word meaning Heiberg Island and the rarely visited expedition experience: As stunning as “our land” and the Nunavummiut (the Ellesmere Island, at the top of the world. polar landscapes are from your ship, people of Nunavut) are renowned they’re even more striking from the for their incredible resourcefulness, Remember that no two polar voyages air! Conditions permitting, you’ll enjoy hospitality, good humor, and a deep are alike, since each expedition presents ultra-immersive activities like flightseeing knowledge of the land and animals that new opportunities and different weather (short sightseeing flights around your has allowed them to thrive in the far and ice conditions. While this voyage ship and surrounding areas) and heli- north for millennia. has no fixed itinerary, our objective is to landings (flying to places we could not visit as many of the incredible highlights Ultimately, your Expedition Team will otherwise access for shore excursions), this season has to offer, using the keep its eye northward, hoping to follow two breathtaking options that are unique opportunities provided by the weather in the footsteps of the lucky few polar to Ultramarine and give you an awe- and ice to give you the best experience. adventurers who have transited through inspiring polar experience like no other. Each day, your highly skilled Expedition the famous Hell Gate to reach the top Team will read the conditions and choose While this waterway is known to of the world, the spectacular Ellesmere the best course to set, but despite their European cultures as the Northwest Island. If conditions are right, the extensive expertise in these areas, each Passage, this area has nurtured and soaring, ominous snow-capped peaks of visit brings something new to discover. sustained the Inuit and their predecessors this polar desert will come into focus as That said, our expeditions will have who have called these shores home for we approach. The northernmost island some elements in common, including almost 5,000 years. Moving through these in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, 3 Ellesmere is one of the most remote Wildlife sightings are almost guaranteed, such as snow geese, thick-billed murres places on the planet, a land of deep as many of the areas we hope to explore (Brünnich’s guillemots) and kittiwakes. fjords, jagged mountains and massive are home to a surprising number of Occupied by Inuit and Thule cultures ice shelves. If we’re fortunate enough to birds and mammals that thrive in this for almost 5,000 years, this traditional reach here, you will be among the rarest challenging environment. It’s likely that community is also an ideal spot to go of polar explorers. you’ll see polar bears, muskoxen and ashore and learn more about the Inuit several bird species, such as gyrfalcons culture, sampling the local cuisine and One of this expedition’s objectives, and dovekies (little auks). If you’re lucky, mingling with artists, perhaps picking weather and ice conditions allowing, is you may even spot the elusive narwhal up carvings or other handicrafts as a to visit the famous fossil forest on Axel or arctic wolf, though sightings of these memento of your polar adventure. Heiberg Island, Canada’s second most iconic creatures in the wild are rare, even northerly island. Dating back more than Devon Island is another possible locale in these areas where we have the highest 30 million years, the large mummified for wildlife encounters, as walrus, polar chances of encountering them. stumps were discovered in 1985 after bears and muskoxen inhabit the area, erosion swept them clean. The original Coburg Island, for instance, is a wildlife which is also the location of the remains forest that was here flourished, with reserve for such birds as snowy owls and of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police some trees reaching as high as 115 feet peregrine falcons, while the impressive outpost, established at Dundas Harbour (35 meters) and growing for 500 to vertical cliffs of Prince Leopold Island in 1924 to curb foreign whaling and 1,000 years. Birders will want to have are dotted with nesting seabirds like other activities. Nearby is a small their binoculars and cameras at the ready, northern fulmars and black guillemots. cemetery, one of Canada’s most as the island also affords opportunities The sheltered shores and steep cliffs northerly, still maintained by the RCMP for sightings of snow buntings, of Arctic Bay, a hamlet located off of to this day. Another exciting excursion ptarmigans, jaegers and arctic terns, Admiralty Inlet, provide an ideal nesting your Expedition Team might offer, among others. habitat for various High Arctic birds conditions permitting, is the opportunity 4 to fly up to explore the Devon ice cap, There is no shortage of natural beauty, one of the largest in the Canadian Arctic. wildlife and history in Canada’s High IMPORTANT REMINDER History buffs will also be intrigued by the Arctic. Each day, you’ll discover Embracing the unexpected is part chance to visit an abandoned Hudson’s something new and inspiring, whether of the legacy—and excitement—of Bay Company trading post at Fort Ross, it is admiration of the tundra flora to expedition travel. When traveling at the southern end of Somerset Island, survive the rugged environment, a rare in extremely remote regions, your and pay their respects to the ill-fated bird species soaring overhead, a polar Expedition Team must consider the Franklin expedition of 1845–46 at the bear on the hunt in its natural habitat, or sea, ice and weather to guide the route gravesite of three crew members on the remains of a century-old hut. and itinerary details. This itinerary is Beechey Island, one of Canada’s most a tentative outline of what you may DAY 11 | DISEMBARK IN RESOLUTE, significant Arctic sites. experience on this voyage; please be CANADA & FLY TO TORONTO aware that no specific itinerary can be You may have the opportunity to cruise After disembarking in Resolute, you’ll guaranteed.