If you have not read Part One of my recent experience with Canadian North airlines, please do so before reading this post. Part One covers the backstory of the expedition to Ellesmere Island.

Facing escalating hotel bills at AUD 550 a night in Resolute Bay and no option to even reach Grise Fjord before the 13th of March at the earliest (and that was weather and weight limits permitting at the mercy of Canadian North), no accommodation available in Grise Fjord even if I did make it there, and no local guide available in Resolute to make use of the expensive time this far North, I decided to cut my losses, abandon ship, and get back to Ottawa as soon as possible. An hour or so of phone calls later, I managed to get Canadian North to change my flight schedule and get me back to Ottawa late in the evening on the 10th of March. To be fair to them, they did offer to refund the Resolute to Grise portion of my flight schedule (after some not-so-gentle prodding), albeit at a tiny fraction of what I paid for the ticket. For those unaware, flights from Ottawa to Grise Fjord start at approximately CAD 7,500 economy, and there is no business class. Canadian North’s refund offer was less than 15% of this; to date, I have not yet received the refund. The above costs do not include my flight expenses from Melbourne to Ottawa or the supplementary hotel bills, all of which amount to more than AUD 20,000, flights included.

Keep in mind, at this point, I have flown from Melbourne, Australia, to Sydney, to Vancouver, to Ottawa; spent six nights in Ottawa (four of them thanks to Canadian North’s cancellation and then flown Ottawa, Iqaluit, Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay, and finally Resolute. In Resolute, I spent several nights at AUD 550 p/night due to three failed attempts to fly to Grise Fjord, including a cancellation, a bump due to the plane being overweight, and finally being turned around at Grise and unable to land due to low cloud cover. I also had to spend two more nights at Resolute before retracing the above steps to Ottawa.

Also, at this point, my team was out in the field, far from any settlement, cell phone coverage or contact. They were with my local experienced Inuit guides on the hunt to find and photograph the rare and elusive white Arctic wolf and would not return to the tiny hamlet of Grise Fjord until the evening of the 15th of March at the earliest. The 15th would be the first chance I would have to hear firsthand their experiences during the expedition. As the expedition’s leader, I felt very torn at this point. I was heartbroken I was not out in the field with all the participants but thrilled that they at least made it to Ellesmere, were in good hands, and could try for the white Arctic wolf. An update on their progress is included below.

The most angering aspect of this Canadian North disaster is that the company was quite happy to take our money for the seats from Ottawa to Grise Fjord and charge us for the extra luggage bags (at a high cost). However, it was not until we arrived at the airport in Resolute Bay, ready to depart for Grise Fjord, that the airline decided to inform us they could not take any of the luggage we paid for on our flight. Remember, these flights are north of CAD 7500 with the extra bags. Instead of allowing for luggage, Canadian North oversold the trip, knowing they could not accommodate anybody’s luggage on the flight (even the locals were told their bags would not be on the plane).

With dusk rapidly approaching and the flight window closing, the only solution was for someone not to board the flight and free up weight allowance on the plane. It quickly became apparent that there was no way any of the locals would give up their seats (disappointing), so I took the heartbreaking decision not to board. Not boarding was the only way I could get the team to Ellesmere with their luggage. Removing myself freed up the standard 216 pounds for a male person plus another 60 pounds of my luggage, plus the pilot kindly found us another 150 pounds in his weight calculations. This additional allowance was enough to get the rest of the team to Grise fjord with their luggage, but of course, it left me stranded in Resolute.

Had I not voluntarily removed myself from the flight (and as it subsequently turned out from the expedition), the entire expedition would have been sunk; since the plane could not land the following day (which would have had our luggage) and had to turn around and return to Resolute Bay. We would have all then been stuck in Resolute until the next scheduled flight (with space), which was the 13th of March (and that was weather and weight dependent). This late date would have landed us in Grise Fjord just two days before the scheduled completion of the expedition and a full eleven days later than Canadian North was supposed to deliver us to Grise Fjord.

The decision not to board the plane so the team could make it there with their luggage was the right one as the trip leader, but it left me gutted, knowing full well my expedition and the chance to photograph the white Arctic wolf was over. This decision was one of the toughest I have had to make in this business, but I would make it again in a heartbeat for the team’s sake.

The good news is late last night, I received an In-reach satellite message from my team that they had reached camp two and had already encountered Musk Ox, Arctic Fox and Ptarmigan. Fortuitously, my local Inuit guides have found a recent Musk Ox kill at camp two and lots of fresh Arctic wolf prints. I am thrilled that the entire team made it out into the field for the ‘Ellesmere Experience’ and has had some incredible wildlife encounters. Please join me in sending them lots of luck for the remainder of the expedition.

Since the team is currently still out in the field on Ellesmere Island (due back to the tiny hamlet of Grise Fjord in five days) and out of contact, I have no further update on their experiences but will revert as soon as I have contact with them with a further update.

Read PART THREE, End of the Dream

With all the travel difficulties over the last couple of pandemic years, the 2023 Ellesmere Island expedition report was one I wanted to start with positive travel news. Alas, Canadian North (the only airline that flies from Ottawa to Ellesmere Island) let us down so badly this year that I feel compelled to get the story and rant out of the way to move on to more positive news. I do not want to overplay the mess Canadian North made of this expedition. However, I want to emphasise that this is why I strongly recommend travel insurance for any trip you participate in, regardless of location. You never know what circumstance may curtail your travel.

The 2023 expedition saw us scheduled to fly from Ottawa in Canada to Resolute Bay in Nunavut on the 1st of March, overnight in Resolute and then onto Grise Fiord at Ellesmere Island on the 2nd of March. The plan was to have one night in Grise Fiord before we headed north into the field in search of wildlife on the 3rd of March. The best-laid plans often go astray, or perhaps more accurately, the best-laid plans are often torpedoed by Canadian North. After checking in at Ottawa airport, we were informed of a short flight delay. This delay was the beginning of our travel difficulties. Although to be truthful, two participants had already had significant flight issues with other airlines and nearly didn’t make it to Ottawa.

After a three-hour ‘mechanical’ delay, Canadian North cancelled our 2nd flight from Iqaluit to Resolute under the guise of questionable weather and left us stranded for the next four days in Ottawa. This sort of airline practice of cancelling flights under the dubious guise of poor weather has become all too common post-pandemic. With the flight cancelled, the airline immediately pointed to its six-point font clause that they are not responsible for weather delays and subsequent hotel costs are not at their cost. Thus Canadian North abandoned us in Ottawa for four days at our own expense.

Moving onto what I hoped would be more positive news, the rescheduled flight on the 5th of March from Ottawa to Resolute Bay (via Iqaluit, Pond Inlet, and Arctic Bay) did indeed get us to Resolute (minus some luggage Canadian North left behind, which mercifully turned up the following afternoon after many urgent phone calls).

The following day on the 7th of March, the team was rescheduled to fly from Resolute to Grise Fjord. After checking in at the Resolute airport, Canadian North informed us they could not fly our luggage to Grise fjord on the same flight due to plane weight limits. In short, they oversold the flight and could not accommodate passengers plus luggage. Thus a tough decision needed to be made. With no confidence, Candian North would fly our luggage to Grise the following day I decided, as the expedition leader, not to board the flight, which would enable all the clients to fly to Grise Fjord with their luggage. I thought I could at least send them out into the field with my local guides in Ellesmere so as not to miss any more of their expedition, given we were already six days behind schedule and counting. I had instructed my field guides to wait for me until lunchtime the following day before beginning the expedition without me.

With everyone else now on location in Grise fiord and myself stranded in Resolute, Canadian North scheduled a new cargo flight the following day to fly me and my luggage (along with other supplies for the small town) to Ellesmere to meet the team. The flight was scheduled for 8:00 am on the 8th of March but was delayed until 9:15 am and finally took off from Resolute at 9:45 am. The weather was excellent, with clear skies at Resolute, but clouds continued to build as we made our way toward Ellesmere. As we began to approach the small Arctic town, it quickly became apparent that landing would be impossible. Grise fiord nestles up against an Arctic mountain range, and the approach requires excellent visibility. Regrettably, visibility over the entire town and small airport was close to zero, and thus we turned around and flew an hour and a half back to Resolute Bay. At this point, I felt the universe had decided I was destined not to lead or partake in this expedition.

With the team still separated, I had to make another difficult decision and instructed my field guides to begin the expedition without me, knowing full well there was now no way I could catch up with the team – my expedition was at a premature end before it even began. However, my team would at least get the Ellesmere expedition experience, and they are now on their way north to search for the white Arctic wolf.

Stranded in Resolute and stuck at the only hotel in town at AUD 550 per night, I am now faced with another tough choice. I can either try to fly to Grise Fjord on the next available (the 13th of March, weather and luggage weights permitting) and stay at the hostel (at the exact cost) while I wait for the team to return or wait here in Resolute until the team returns and my next expedition begins on the 18th of March. Neither option is ideal, but something tells me this decision may be taken out of my hands.

Of course, I recognise that these are first-world problems and that our group is fortunate to be able to travel to the Arctic to photograph and have these experiences. My hope is these problems and experiences will eventually become barroom stories we can laugh and smile about with friends and family. In the meantime, I am scrambling for a local guide here in Resolute to make the best of a bad situation. My hope is to be able to head out into the field and out onto the sea ice in search of Polar Bears, Arctic Fox and other wildlife.

To be continued….

READ PART TWO ‘TOUGH DECISIONS’ HERE

I have just published Episode 66 of my Wild Nature Photography Podcast. In this episode, I briefly discuss the realities of travel delays during travel in the high Arctic during Winter and the exciting news that multiple photographs from my entries have been selected as finalist images in the 2023 Bird Photographer off the Year competition.

The photograph of the month for March 2023 comes from my recent expedition to Mongolia to photograph the elusive and rare Pallas Cat in the Steppe region of Mongolia in Winter. This is my favourite photograph from this expedition as it captures the Pallas Cat in a wonderfully dramatic moment as it bounds through the deep snow. Shot with the Canon EOS R3 and the Canon RF 600mm F4L IS, this photograph would have been virtually impossible prior to the incredible autofocus found in the latest generation of mirrorless cameras. Although the cat is not coming directly toward the camera (the most challenging scenario for the camera’s autofocus), it was moving extremely quickly. With only a shallow depth of field set, it was critical to nail focus on the eyes. Before mirrorless and eye tracking, I would have stopped down the lens significantly more to ensure adequate depth of field and a safety margin for missed focus. With eye tracking, the camera could track the eyes of the cat as it bounded up and down through the snow.