Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine Spring 2017 | Page 31

SPRING SUMMER
2017
CANADA
NU 1999
EXPLORE CANADA S ARCTIC
THE LAST
WILD PLACE
ON EARTH
BY NANSEN WEBER
A wildlife filmmaker and photographer whose
work has appeared in National Geographic,
Nansen has spent much of his early years in
Nunavut at his family-owned adventure lodges,
Arctic Haven and Arctic Watch. These lodges
and his father, Arctic explorer Richard Weber,
were featured in the Fall 2015 issue of Six Star.
Nunavut is the land of discovery
and adventure. A land were one can
find true wilderness, unspoiled and
pure as it might have been 500 years
ago. The sound of the wind and the
smell of ocean air drift across the
vast landscapes. It holds views where
concrete and the sound of motors does
not consume the imagination.
From its vast mountains and
glaciers on Ellesmere Island to the
arctic deserts of the central arctic, the
rocky coastal lands of Baffin Island
and the seemingly endless barren-
lands to the south, there are still
discoveries and memories to be made
around every corner. If it’s hiking,
kayaking, rafting, wildlife viewing,
skiing, fishing or dogsledding, you
can find your passion here.
Nunavut is a land where wildlife still
triumphs man. Thirty five thousand
people live in the territory of Nunavut
– a two million square kilometre mass
of islands at the top of Canada. There
are more birds in Nunavut than there
are people. There are more caribou
than there are people. We have yet to
modify the environment, shape it to
our convenience. Polar bears roam the
Arctic ice as they have for generations.
Beluga whales congregate by the
thousands to inlets where they have
migrated for millennia. This is the
last wild place on Earth. This is why
Nunavut is so special.