A Human Powered Female+ Climbing Expedition to Baffin Island
A Human-Powered Female+ Climbing Expedition to Baffin Island
A Jen Higgins Memorial Fund Trip Report
Completed by grant recipients: Shira Biner, Heather Smallpage, Natalie Afonina, and Kelly Fields.
(A note on language: While our entire team is female by sex, not everyone identifies as a woman. In order to respect the complex workings of gender identity we describe our team as female+)
The aim of our expedition was to complete a 250 km human powered climbing adventure to the east coast of Baffin Island and put up a first ascent as a fully female+ team. We were able to travel from Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River) to our basecamp at the end of Arviqtujuq Kangiqtua (Eglinton Fjord) and back by skiing on the sea ice, hiking over Ayr pass, skiing/walking a frozen Ayr Lake, packrafting part of the Kuugaaluk River and hiking over the tundra back to the village of Kangiqtugaapik. We had a snowmobile cache of some gear to our basecamp and a quad gear pickup by the outfitter where we took out at the Kuugaaluk River. Otherwise we travelled entirely under our own power. We put up a new line on the NW buttress of Eglinton Tower and although we did not climb to the summit of the mountain, our new route climbed to a flat spot on the top of the buttress 950m above our basecamp and involved 550m of technical roped climbing.
Our fully female+ team of four (Heather Smallpage, Kelly Fields, Natalie Afonina and Shira Biner) landed in Kangiqtugaapik on June 7 2025 and on June 9 we set off on the sea ice right from the village. We spent seven days skiing over 150 km on the sea ice from the village to our basecamp at the end of the fjord (Arviqtujuq Kangiqtua). It was a magical experience skiing on the sea ice past icebergs frozen in place. Sometimes there were large cracks in the sea ice that we had to navigate. We either had to do some big moves on our skis to step across the crack and then tug our pulks (toboggans we were dragging behind us that carried our food and gear) over the crack, or we had to head to shore where the crack ended. At times there were pools of meltwater on top of the ice that we had to ski through. Our team did see some fresh polar bear tracks one day while we were skiing, but luckily no bears.
We camped at the base of Eglinton Tower and scoped a potential line on it. After some days of rest we had a decent weather window so Heather, Kelly and Shira decided to go for it. They were able to establish a new line on the NW buttress of Eglinton Tower that involved 550m of vertical of technical roped climbing and including the approach was 950m from basecamp to the top of the buttress. Natalie chose to stay at basecamp, explore a bit of the surrounding area on foot and do radio check ins on the team.
To approach, the team scrambled up 400m over talus to the base of the rock wall. We quested up six lower angle pitches before we got to the steeper headwall. At the crux of the headwall Heather led a pitch up one crack system, then tension traversed moving delicately across less featured rock, over to another crack system and continued up it and into a chimney. The next pitch had a roof crux and Kelly had to aid through the roof section. We fixed our ropes to that point as it was around 3am and even though there was 24 hour daylight we needed some rest.
The three of us bivied on a tiny ledge and after some sleep continued upwards. After 12 pitches total we reached the top of the buttress we were on. The true summit of Eglinton was further along the ridge and another 300m of vertical. But this flat spot at the end of the difficulties we had climbed through was the perfect ‘summit’ for us. The rest of the route to the actual summit was a bit snowy with more steep pitches and we were moving too slow to cover that terrain. Plus we still had a long descent ahead of us. Many rappels and some tired hiking later we arrived back at camp, 49 hours after we had left.
After the climb and some rest the team decided that the sea ice was quickly melting and in order to take advantage of fast travel conditions on the solid ice, instead of the incredibly slow travel of meandering through a sea ice breakup, we left our basecamp earlier than planned. We skied to Ayr Pass and started shuttling loads of our gear by foot to Ayr Lake on the other side. It took three days to carry all our gear to Ayr Lake on the other side of the pass. We were fortunate that Ayr Lake was still frozen which allowed for quick travel, dragging our gear in our pulks on the ice to the Kuugaaluk River at the end of the lake. We decided to pause at the end of the lake to wait for another sunny day and maybe some more climbing on some of the peaks around us. We ventured up a couple pitches on one feature, but morale amongst the team was low. We bailed and returned to camp.
We loaded everything into our packrafts and started down the Kuugaaluk River. Being the Arctic, the river was still frozen in some of the flatter sections. We paddled one short class 2 rapid, some open water, some sections with small open channels next to the ice, but then had to drag our boats over parts of the river that were completely frozen. At the first class five rapid we left the river. We stashed most of our gear for a quad pickup by the outfitter and with just one big pack each hiked the final 25 km back to the village.
29 days after we had left the village and we had made it. We had safely completed this 250 km skiing, climbing, hiking, paddling journey across a variety of terrain in the Canadian Arctic and climbed a new line as a fully female+ team. Almost all new climbing routes on Baffin Island have been established by all male or mixed gender teams. This climb is the largest documented technical new line on Baffin Island by a femme/them team. In addition to gender, our group of four, at 5’1”- 5’4” and 115-130 pounds, is physically significantly smaller than most burly male teams climbing on Baffin Island. While our climb might not be as large as climbs established by all male teams of professional climbers who have put up first ascents to that area and we did not reach the summit of the mountain, we feel that our expedition is inspirational to the female and non-binary audience.
The Jen Higgins Grant for Young Women
The ACC is dedicated to helping young women pursue their adventure dreams with annual cash grants from the Jen Higgins Fund. Teams must include a young woman who is central to conceiving, developing and leading the trip.
The Jen Higgins Fund was established by friends and family to honour Jen Higgins after her death in 1997. Jen’s enthusiasm and generous spirit continue to live on by supporting young women in creative, self-propelled mountain adventures with this grant.
The post A Human Powered Female+ Climbing Expedition to Baffin Island appeared first on Alpine Club of Canada.