Death In the Arctic

(A  little bit dramatized by news but it was the real deal up there..)
This is an expedition I was involved with in Summer 2007. There has been renewed interest in this story with the Canadian Government funding a large expediton to Simpson Strait off of King William Island in the Arctic.  

I spent close to 3 weeks up there retracing the steps of the Ill Fated Franlin Expedtion from 1845.

Sir John Franklin set sail from London with 2 boats. 129 men and 5 years of supplies aboard set sail in the dream of finding the North West Passage.. They were never seen again !!!

Years later a story would unfold. Both ships gone, all men lost,  was cannibalism the final resort. What happened out there??

The key to the mystery lay inthe shores of King William Island. With their ships, the Erubus and the Terror, locked in the sea ice off the coast of KWI, all crewmen had to abandon ship and cross the ice to the island..

None survived and later rescue parties sent by Franklins wife found signs of cannibalism on remains found on the shores.

We went on an expedition with CBC and Outpost Magazine to try a North to South trek on the route that survivors would likely have taken base on Inuit tales.  We went to merely observe and document findings for future organizations.     http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2007/11/111807_1.html

Spruce Lake

Did an amazing mountain bike trip last week to Spruce lake in South West B.C. Incredible alpine riding, long climbs, upwards of 3hrs, huge ridge lines (we climbed to the summit of the snow dusted peak  behind the rider and pushed/pulled and descended an epic 2000m .. Lots of reports of Grizzly encounters, and a little anxiety but we saw no signs of the bruins.. 

We had all kinds of weather thrown at us.. intense sun, heavy rain and some snow just as we arrived at a trappers shack.. Lit a fire and soon the shack was filled with wet mountain bikers.. arriving 1 at at time..

Soon the sky's cleared and off we went..

A few hrs later we were back at home base cracking beers & Partied down  until the bottle of Scotch emerged in the wee hrs finishing my night off and left me in my misery holding the couch down...