Canada
Auyuittuq National Park
Granite spires taller than the Alps in an Arctic landscape with no trees and no mercy.
Mount Thor's north face drops 1,250 metres in a single vertical plunge — the greatest vertical drop on Earth. No overhang, no slope, just granite falling away into a valley of ice and tundra beneath Baffin Island's permanent summer sun.
Auyuittuq — 'the land that never melts' in Inuktitut — is a landscape of bare rock, ice, and tundra on Baffin Island, Nunavut. No trees grow here. The Akshayuk Pass cuts 97 kilometres through the park between fjords, a multi-day hiking route across Arctic tundra and glaciers that ranks among the most extreme long-distance treks in the world. Penny Ice Cap, one of the few remaining glacial remnants of the last Ice Age, is visible from the trail. The park's granite peaks — including Thor, Asgard, and Breidablik — have become legendary among big-wall climbers, their sheer faces drawing alpinists from around the world.
Solo
The Akshayuk Pass is one of the most remote and demanding multi-day hikes in Canada — no trees, no facilities, no other hikers. You carry everything and navigate by map through a landscape of raw Arctic grandeur.
Friends
A group expedition through the Akshayuk Pass is an Arctic adventure that tests everyone equally — glacier crossings, river fords, and the satisfaction of traversing Baffin Island on foot.
- Mount Thor has the world's greatest vertical drop — 1,250 metres of sheer granite face, more than any cliff on Earth.
- The Akshayuk Pass cuts through the park between fjords, a 97-kilometre hiking route across Arctic tundra and glaciers.
- Penny Ice Cap, one of the few remaining glacial remnants of the last Ice Age, is visible from the hiking trails.
- No trees grow here — the entire landscape is bare rock, ice, and tundra under 24-hour summer sun.
Everything you eat here, you carried on your back — and it's the best meal of your life.
Inuit guides share dried caribou jerky and Arctic char at camp between glacier crossings.
Hot ramen cooked on a camp stove at 1,000 metres hits like a Michelin star.
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