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A case story from the Northwest Passage
An arctic expedition with a new approach
 This case story gives you the highligts from an expedition to the Northwest Passage, taking place in July and August, 2011.
The Northwest Passage is the northernmost part of Canada, where waterways connect the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific ocean, north of the Americas. While frozen most of the year, these straits open up in the late summertime and invite explorers and adventurers to challenges nature.
“Minus Zero / No Limit” is the name of a Danish team of arctic explorers, who set out to map historic sites along a 600 km route in the Northwest Passage. They travel in a single kayak, built for two.
Their primary tools are their cameras and notebooks, but proper communications equipment is equally important, offering safety, confidence and ease of mind.
The team will be rowing, sailing by sails and they will be pulling their kayak across land on a sleigh in all kinds of weather, while carrying out their scientific mission. They will travel in Inuit land, close to where the 129 people of the Franklin expedition disappeared and in the area, where Knud Rasmussen carried out most of his historic 5th Thule expedition.
The 600 km long route begins in Cambridge Bay and takes them all the way westward to Kugluktut. On their way they will cross packed ice, rocks, tundra and endless wilderness. They can expect to face icebears, grizzly bears, wolves, musk oxes and reindeer. From their kayak they may observe seals, walruses, a variety of wales and hopefully a heap of eatable fish, since they plan to eat only what they can hunt and catch.
There is no doubt, this will become an adventure beyond the ordinary. When safely home, all finds and experiences will be analyzed, edited and shared with fellow scientists as well as the general public. Partly through articles in newspapers and magazines, but also through lectures around Denmark.
A film about the expedition will be produced. Experience from previous expeditions suggest there are good chances of getting primetime exposure on national Danish television. No less is expected this time, given the exciting nature of this expedition with a combination of science, adventure and a whole new approach to arctic travel.
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