Images from a 13-day backpack trip across Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Province, Canada. Our route — from Irene Bay through Sverdrup Pass to Beistad Fjord — followed most of the path pioneered by Norweigan explorer Otto Sverdrup in the early 1900s. Ellesmere is the ninth-largest island in the world, slightly smaller than Great Britain. Aside from a small military base in the north called Alert, there is only one permanent settlement, Grise Fjord, pop. 150. The northern-most tip of the island is 500 miles from the North Pole. The sun shines 24 hours a day from approximately May through September.
