Northwest Passage: Eastern Gateway

Kangerlussuaq sits in a wide glacial valley between the Greenland Ice Sheet and the sea. Its dry climate and stable weather conditions led to the establishment of an American air base during World War II, and the settlement remains an important aviation gateway to Greenland. The region also has a long history of Inuit travel and hunting.

Arrive by charter flight from Toronto, then board the expedition vessel and begin the passage through Kangerlussuaq Fjord. Along the way, observe mountains, glacial valleys, and meltwater streams as the landscape transitions from Greenland’s interior to its western coast. Cross the Arctic Circle and continue into the expansive waters of the High Arctic, where long summer daylight shapes the days ahead.

The Sisimiut coast is characterized by islands, mountains, sheltered waterways, and deep fjords. During summer, the tundra supports white cottongrass, dwarf birch, willow, and Arctic wildflowers. Seabirds gather along the coast, while whales may be spotted in the surrounding waters.

Human settlement in the region dates back more than 4,500 years, with archaeological remains linked to successive Saqqaq, Dorset, and Thule cultures. These traces reflect generations of Inuit movement and adaptation along the coast. Zodiac cruises, hikes, and shore visits provide opportunities to observe the landscape and learn how the sea has shaped traditional hunting grounds, settlements, and travel routes.

Ilulissat means “icebergs,” a fitting name for a city beside one of the world’s great moving ice systems. At the head of the UNESCO-listed Ilulissat Icefjord, Sermeq Kujalleq ranks among the fastest and most active glaciers on Earth. Its immense icebergs travel slowly through the fjord before entering Disko Bay, continually transforming the seascape.

The icefjord has shaped human life here for more than four thousand years. That relationship continues in contemporary Ilulissat, a lively Greenlandic city where fishing boats crowd the harbor and the streets bustle with residents and travellers. Restaurants showcase Greenlandic ingredients, while cafés, shops, and the striking Ilulissat Icefjord Center reflect the city’s growing cultural and creative energy.

Here, deep human history, contemporary city life, and constant environmental change come together at the edge of the ice.

Northwest Greenland is a far-reaching world of islands, narrow channels, sheltered bays, and deep fjords enclosed by steep mountains. Glaciers descend from the ice sheet, while summer loosens sea ice and opens passages along the coast. The West Greenland Current carries immense icebergs northward, many beginning their journeys in Disko Bay before joining bergs released by glaciers farther north. Together, they form a moving flotilla of towers, arches, and fractured blue faces. During the nineteenth century, European whaling ships pressed through these ice-laden waters and across Melville Bay towards bowhead grounds in northern Baffin Bay and Tallurutiup Imanga.

Small communities occupy rocky islands and natural harbors throughout this intricate seascape. Fishing and hunting remain central to life, while boats connect settlements separated by water and rugged terrain. Explore by ship, Zodiac, and on foot, following shorelines busy with breeding seabirds and walking across tundra brightened by white cottongrass and summer wildflowers. Long hours of daylight illuminate the coast, where every channel offers a different arrangement of rock, water, and drifting ice.

Baffin Bay extends between Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, carrying currents, wildlife, sea ice, and immense drifting icebergs between its coasts. Icebergs moving north along Greenland may turn west through these waters before joining the southbound current along Baffin Island. Whales, seals, northern fulmars, kittiwakes, murres, and dovekies also travel and feed across this vast marine ecosystem.

A day aboard offers time to experience the scale of the crossing from the decks and observation spaces. Presentations, workshops, and conversations with Inuit cultural educators, naturalists, historians, and other expedition team members explore the wildlife, geography, cultures, and exploration history connecting both sides of the bay. Ahead lie Tallurutiup Imanga and the eastern gateway to the Northwest Passage.

Between northern Baffin Island and Devon Island, Tallurutiup Imanga opens westward from Baffin Bay into the waterways of the Northwest Passage. Known on many maps as Lancaster Sound, it is the great eastern gateway through which wildlife, people, ice, and ships have moved for generations. Its name means the waters surrounding Tallurut, the Inuktitut name for Devon Island, whose markings are said to resemble the lines of traditional chin tattoos.

Powerful tides and currents mix nutrients through these waters, sustaining one of the Arctic’s greatest concentrations of marine life. Narwhal, beluga, and bowhead whales, walrus, seals, and polar bears move through the region, while immense colonies of seabirds gather along its cliffs and islands. In High Arctic summer, long daylight offers time to watch for wildlife from ship, Zodiac, and shore as sea ice continues to shift through the channels.

Tallurutiup Imanga is also an artery connecting Inuit communities and an important place for travel, harvesting, and cultural practice. Its protection as one of Canada’s largest National Marine Conservation Areas recognizes both its extraordinary ecological value and generations of Inuit knowledge and stewardship. Inuit expedition team members and naturalists interpret how currents, ice, wildlife, and human life interact across this complex marine environment.

Tallurut rises from these waters in broad plateaus, glacial valleys, gravel plains, and polar desert. Known in English as Devon Island, it is the world’s largest island without a permanent population, although archaeological sites attest to a long history of Paleo-Inuit and Inuit presence. Walks and Zodiac explorations bring its immense geological scale and delicate summer tundra into closer view. Across water and land, Tallurutiup Imanga gathers the defining elements of the eastern gateway into one remarkable High Arctic region.

Ikpiarjuk sits within a natural amphitheater of tall hills at the head of Adams Sound, where cliffs and sculpted rock formations rise above a sheltered harbor. Its Inuktitut name means “the pocket,” a fitting description for a community held between mountains and sea on the northern coast of Baffin Island.

The surrounding waters and lands have drawn people here for generations. Fishing and the harvesting of seal, narwhal, and other wildlife remain important to food, travel, and community life. Inuktitut is widely spoken, carrying knowledge particular to this coast, while carving, sewing, education, local businesses, and other forms of contemporary work reflect a community continually defining its own future.

Ikpiarjuk is one of the communities most closely connected with Tallurutiup Imanga. Its waters provide travel routes and harvesting areas while linking the community with the wider Qikiqtani region. Time shared with residents offers an experience of Tallurutiup Imanga from the shore, expressed through language, creativity, daily life, and the welcome of those who know these waters as home.

Beechey Island holds one of the most tangible chapters in the history of Northwest Passage exploration. Franklin’s expedition spent the winter of 1845–46 here before sailing onward and disappearing. Three graves, remains of the camp, and stone structures left by later search expeditions still mark its stark shoreline.

Beechey became a gathering point for those who came north in search of Franklin, leaving supplies, messages, and traces of their own journeys. A fourth grave belongs to Thomas Morgan of HMS Investigator, who died during one of these searches. In the decades following Franklin’s disappearance, dozens of expeditions entered the Arctic, charting extensive areas and extending European scientific and imperial attention across Inuit Nunangat.

Inuit testimony proved essential to tracing the expedition’s final movements and, generations later, locating its lost ships. Beechey Island connects Franklin’s failed voyage with its wider legacy, including expanded geographical knowledge, growing colonial ambitions, and an increasingly sustained southern presence in Inuit homelands.

Set among the gravel plains and raised beaches of Cornwallis Island, Qausuittuq occupies a strategic place within the waterways of the Canadian High Arctic. Its Inuktitut name means “place with no dawn,” a reference to the long polar night, while the summer season brings light that lingers around the clock.

The modern community began with the Canadian government’s High Arctic Relocation of 1953. The Qausuitturmiut who call it home have built a distinct community that now serves as an important cenrer for northern research, transportation, and expedition travel.

Disembark in Qausuittuq and transfer to the airport for the charter flight to Ottawa. Here, at a historic crossroads of Inuit travel, Arctic exploration, and contemporary northern life, the sea journey ends and the route turns south.