Wow! Have just spent three weeks on Baffin Island which is situated west of Greenland in northern Canada. Life in the arctic is tough, especially when staying in a tent. I think the best thing after three weeks without a shower was to finally be able to shave my legs;-) I went in a group of ten, and the aim of the trip was to base jump from the various peaks surrounding what is called Sam Ford Fjord, which is 7 hours on a snow mobile from the nearest little town. So it is not the place to break a leg or to deploy your canopy to low and get stuck on a talus of a mountain! Not to mention being caught by an avalanche, a polar bear or just bad weather on top of a 6000ft cliff. In short, it is a place you need to play it safe. When so done, it is the best playground ever!

I have to say we were really lucky with the weather: it was sunny and stable for over a week. We even had temperatures above freezing! Guess we need to thank global warming for that. The ice was melting rapidly as we were there. One of the reasons to go in the spring is that the cliffs we jump dive right into the fjord so in the summer there’s nowhere to land. At the end of our trip the cracks on the ice were huge and difficult to cross.

We went exploring different cliffs and would always search higher and further. The ascents weren’t too technical, but still sketchy, and we had to use crampons and ice axes which meant we were jumping down whole sports stores. We had to stuff all our equipment underneath our clothing and could hardly move when we were ready and geared up. Having all the heavy gear affected our flights, but from these altitudes we would have free falls around 40 seconds and still pull so high it took us minutes to come down. But long canopy flights in these surroundings are incredibly beautiful so we didn’t mind. All in all it was adventure from beginning to the end, and with 11 jumps in my pocket I have to say it’s the best trip I’ve been on.