October 2, 2005 

B.C. trucker strike slowed arctic exploration

By TIFFANY CRAWFORD

VANCOUVER (CP) - After a world-first trek across the frozen tundra it was going to take a lot more than a long night's sleep in a warm bed or a steaming cup of hot joe at a cozy coffee shop to cure Chris Bray's homesickness. 

Paradoxically, it wasn't the sunny shores of his home country that the 22-year-old Australian adventurer was missing. 

Instead, Bray was longing for numbing minus-40 weather, fog so thick you can't find your campsite for days and being confronted by a pack of unpredictable Arctic wolves. 

"When you're out there it is all so exciting and it becomes your life and that becomes normal and then as soon as you immerse yourself back in society where everyone is busy, you feel it would be nice to get back there because everything is so simple but so exciting," said Bray. 

Bray and fellow Australian Clark Carter, 21, set out in July to hike the 1,000 kilometres across Victoria Island, deep inside the Arctic Circle. 

If successful, they would have been the first people ever to traverse unsupported across the ninth-largest island in the world, the eastern half of which is embedded in the frozen Arctic Ocean. 

However, the pair did not quite reach the far side of the Canadian island, in part because of an ugly B.C. labour dispute. 

Deadly winter gales forced them to be picked up on Day 58 of what was to be a 65-day endeavour. 

Still, the two-man team was the first to even attempt the extremely dangerous excursion and Bray says they were "thrilled" to have made it as far as they did. 

"We didn't set out on this thing to reach an end goal, a particular spot on the map. We went out there for the adventure and the journey and the fun and we certainly got our fair share of that," he said Saturday, shortly after the pair's return. 

A five-week strike by container truck drivers at Vancouver-area ports earlier this summer threw a wrench in their plans to complete the journey. 

Clark and Bray's kayak-like sleds called Paddleable Amphibious Cart (PAC) - a hybrid sled, canoe, cart and white-water kayak with detachable wheels that the 21-year-old Carter invented - were held up in a container while the strike continued. 

With their sleds locked away, the two watched as their small window of 65 days before the onset of winter closed in, and with it their dream of making it across the island. 


But Bray, whose past expeditions include a week wading through waist-deep snow in Tasmania and a sojourn in an igloo on the Australian Alps, said that in fact the strike enriched the experience. 

"We lost three weeks of summer so we could have got further in that window but I think we actually benefited because we got to see the change in seasons, we got to see the beginning of winter, the animals change colour into their white furs," he said. 


Summer on Victoria Island is confined to July, with daylight extending 1,000 hours. Temperatures typically hover above the freezing mark compared to winter temperatures that plunge below minus-40. 

Creamy white polar bears, beluga whales and muskox entertained the weary hikers as they schleped through heavy mud and snow through long, arduous days of perpetual light. 

But Bray said one of the most awe-inspiring moments was when he and Carter came face-to-face with white Arctic wolves. 

"In the last few days a pack of wolves came within a metre and a half of us. Not many people are lucky enough to experience that," he said. 

"That was pretty magic." 


The trek itself was gruelling. Clark and Bray returned with frostbite on their hands and aching backs from towing more than 150 kilograms of gear on their PACs. 

But the arduous conditions weren't enough to make either push "the big red button" to have someone pick them up until the onset of winter made it impossible to continue. 

"Even in the worst of times we were able to look at it and think these are going to be the times we look back on and remember," said Bray. 

He praised Carter and said their trek strengthened their friendship, having barely known each other prior to the journey. 

"There are times when things were so stressful or particularly painful you would want to snap back at him but you really wouldn't because you can't walk off and cool off for a few days," he said. 

"You're putting your life in the other person's hands daily." 

The two adventurers collected research and data for Environment Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service. Among their findings, fossils which have yet to be determined and beluga bones. 

"The fact that it was just so untouched and perfect was so amazing about the whole thing." 

Bray and Clark will now head back to Australia, but not without first planning another trip to the Canadian Arctic. 

"We miss it already," said Bray. 

Anyone interested in their adventures can visit www.chrisbray.net.