TOP OF THE WORLD

Cruising high above the Arctic Circle through the Northwest Passage reveals a playground of lively surprises.

Words and photography by Rachelle Mackintosh.

The Ilulissat Icefjord’s jagged tangle of icebergs stretches as far as I can see as Western Greenland unfurls around the MV Sylvia Earle. But its soundtrack sings of life hidden in plain sight: the whoosh! of exhaling humpbacks, the squawks of fulmars, the thwack! of the glacier birthing its brash. These lively seas offer a fitting preview of the surprises ahead as I join 84 passengers to journey from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland to Nome, Alaska through the Canadian Arctic on Aurora Expeditions’ month-long ‘Traversing the Northwest Passage’ voyage. It’s an ever-changing route through some 36,500 islands and passages so perilous that, during 400 years of failed expeditions, European explorers viewed them as a deadly ice labyrinth at Earth’s end. Nearly 120 years after Roald Amundsen succeeded, we experience an untamed playground,…

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Signature Luxury Travel & Style (Digital) - 1 Issue, Volume 50

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