There is an island in the northern-most part of Canada called Ellesmere. Part of the Arctic Archipelago, this is one of the most remote areas where few human beings have ever visited. 

It was decidedly the toughest trip I have ever been on, with temperatures dropping well below -55 degrees centigrade. With just a cloth tent for shelter at the end of the day, there was no real way to get out of the cold. 

The main goal of our trip was to observe and photograph Arctic wolves....yes I know, it's a canid and out of our usual repertoire, but theress something about these wolves that caught our attention. In fact, the whole trip was initiated by our good friend Ben whose dream from decades was to find and photograph these wolves. But the logistics was almost unimaginable until recently. 

The whole trip started out with some amount of uncertainty. Patrick, being super organised, applied for his Entry Permit in December. The weekend before our trip, I suddenly realised that neither Ben nor I had done this application. I quickly wrote to Ben and sent the relevant links and he applied for this entry permit. Within half an hour, he received the documents required to enter Canada. By Saturday afternoon, I was starting to get awfully nervous having not even received an acknowledgement of reception of the application.  Sunday, during the final packing, Patrick pronounced that I was not going to join the trip seeing as there was no news on my application. We made a last ditch attempt to post my application to the consulate in Bern. Monday morning, we loaded the car and headed to the airport. The flight left without me in it. Long story short: in 1998, my family made the decision to emigrate to Canada. Due to excessive racism towards my brother, we had to reverse our decision and returned to India. However, with the emigration application, we were given a "permanent residency" in Canada. Two decades later, this permit was prohibiting me from applying to for an entry visa! I had to "voluntarily relinquish my permanent residency" to be allowed back into the country. Once I reliquished this status, and two hours after my flight left, I finally received my visa and I could fly to Canada. It turned out to be quite an ordeal with flights cancelled, changed and luggage presumed lost but found after three-hours (thanks to me standing in front of the lost-and found counter without sitting down), I finally meet up with Patrick and Ben. And I thought that now that we were all together, our travel ordeal was finally over. Little was I to foresee the weather that delayed and cancelled our flights, airplane mechanical malfunctions, unforeseen stops, but we finally made it all the way up to the very North. 

Grise Fiord was the last heated spot, and from there we travelled North amidst snow and ice in local transportation called qamutiiks (wooden sleds pulled by skidoos). We bounced over sea ice, frozen snow in between the Arctic cordilleras in search of the elusive white wolves. Although we found many signs of them; a musk ox kill will two polar foxes feeding on it, pugmarks and tracks, we didn't have the opportunity to see them. We did get to see a musk ox male that had recently been pushed out of his role as protector of his herd. As we watched him grazing, a flock of ptarmigans flew down and our guide explained that the birds followed the musk ox as they were instrumental in digging up food from under the snow, making it accessible to the birds, foxes and other animals that shared this harsh landscape. We later encountered the herd that now had a new leader; due to the hunting pressure, they were quick to flee and thundered up a ridge kicking up snow and ice in their wake.  

It was the ultimate wildlife experience but prooved to be to harsh for me. When Patrick and Ben return to fulfil this quest in a few years, I will not be able to join them. But the memories of these incredible landscapes will remain with me forever....places where so few humans have stepped foot! 

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