A Northwest Passage cruise reveals a winter wonderland but it’s the residents I won’t forget | Canada Voices

I’m sitting in a large room that reminds me of my high-school gym, except the wall is adorned with cork in the shape of a large inuksuk and there are tables crowded with people playing a distracted game of bingo. It’s a Thursday afternoon in late August, but many of us are wearing layers of wool, waterproof pants and thick socks. Between calls of “B-11″ and “N-38,” we speak to our hosts, members of the Inuit community of Gjoa Haven (Uqsuqtuuq in Inuktitut) who gamely respond to every question we ask, even the personal ones.

One of the two Inuit women at my table speaks with pride about her son, who is days away from leaving to attend the University of Calgary. I hear about the town of about 1,500 people, the only community on the remote, massive King William Island in Nunavut, its traditions of hunting and fishing and how kids have to travel south to get a postsecondary education. Bingo is a regular community event and they are happy to include people like me, passengers on Arctic cruises who pay to take part and have the opportunity to speak for a couple of hours to real people about their everyday lives.

It’s the 13^th day of my bucket-list trip on HX Expeditions’ Through the Arctic Labyrinth cruise, 25 days aboard the MS Fridtjof Nansen along the Northwest Passage. I have marvelled at polar bears, the Northern Lights, massive fjords and ice floes. I have learned some of the histories of doomed and successful journeys through the passage, and have been stunned over and over again by the constant natural beauty, first along the coast of Greenland, then in Canada’s North.

But in Gjoa Haven, I’m struck by something else entirely: the realization that this marvellous, friendly, extraordinary place isn’t in a foreign country. It’s Canada. My country.

That feeling strikes me again when I stop at a Co-op grocery store, which is full of fellow travellers gawking at the tiny selection of groceries with sky-high prices. I like to stop at supermarkets everywhere I travel, but this one is unusually sparse. I choose a chocolate bar and head to the cash register to pay. My wallet is full of Danish kroner (the trip started in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk) and American dollars (we were later stopping in Nome, Alaska, and then flying to Seattle), but I’m taken aback when I have to come up with three loonies. Once again, despite feeling a world away, I’m reminded that I’m still in Canada.

Inuit guides in each community

On its way from Greenland to Nome, this Northwest Passage cruise has a high number of stops within Canada.

We visited small towns such as Gjoa Haven, Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik) and Cambridge Bay (Iqaluktuuttiaq), all in Nunavut and with populations of fewer than 2,000 people, but also tinier places such as Ulukhaktok and Sachs Harbour in the Northwest Territories, with populations of 482 and 105, respectively.

The community stops followed a predictable pattern – a guided tour in small groups led by Inuit residents and an option of paid excursions, ranging from hikes and exploring on ATVs to cultural activities.

In Cambridge Bay, we also got to try a small plate of different meats and fish, from muskox to Arctic char. (My advice: Watch out for the narwhal. A delicacy for some but for me it was akin to eating smelly rubber.)

The community visits were engrossing in every way, but the real charm was the Inuit guides, residents who weren’t polished or seasoned but willingly and honestly answered questions and showed quiet pride in their communities. Sometimes they spoke of relatable concerns, such as complaints that their kids spent too much time on screens, but then they would describe something decidedly unrelatable, such as what it was like to be on their first polar bear hunt.

This is only the second year that HX has run this particular excursion program, which was created in conjunction with the Inuit communities. Several years ago, HX approached Inuit communities along the route to become partners and help develop experiences for passengers that would be led by residents and represent their priorities, with all revenue staying in the community.

“I found there is generally a positive response when you’re giving people agency to showcase themselves, their lives, their communities in a way that they’d like to,” says Alex McNeil, a Toronto-based HX employee who worked with an Indigenous group to help develop the program.

My sailing also had Inuk cultural ambassador Alayna Ningeongan on board. She’s a fun, twentysomething who spoke at our daily information sessions and gave talks about her own experience in the North, including taking part in her first family polar bear hunt at 14.

Ningeongan didn’t shy away from politics and criticism of how the North has been treated in this country, though she always prefaced her comments by saying that it was her personal opinion. Among passengers, she was adored for her good humour and kindness, and the fact that she seemed thrilled that we were visiting a part of the country that most people don’t ever see.

“I hope you have the chance to actually meet the people and connect with them on another level – their respect, care and understanding,” she told the group one night.

She also said she hoped that we would get excited when we spotted polar bears along the way. That made me laugh hard. She certainly didn’t have to worry about that.

Polar bear buzz

The 316 passengers aboard the MS Fridtjof Nansen were a serious, though certainly not sombre group. They attended lectures on the Northwest Passage and its explorers, the environment and all things science. Like me, many signed up for the science boat, which brought passengers out on Zodiacs to help take samples for the scientists aboard.

On days when there was a sighting of a polar bear, however, the mood lifted considerably. Everyone became giddy. For hours after, the boat was abuzz with passengers sharing photos.

Sightings of polar bears were announced over the public address system, which you could turn off in your cabin. But on the first of two times we experienced the Northern Lights, everyone received an announcement in the middle of the night. One of the expedition leaders later admitted he used the emergency system: It was apparently better to wake everyone up than risk their ire the next day.

We were lucky with the weather – daily temperatures hovered around 5 to 10 degrees. I was surprised by the lack of ice and the smooth waters during the Canadian part of the trip. Arctic cruises always come with the warning that conditions can force plans to change, but while we were delayed a couple of times because of heavy fog or rain, there was only one cancelled excursion, Beechey Island, but that was because of a polar bear that would not move

We saw up close the staggering size and beauty of the Canadian Arctic. I was most surprised by the Smoking Hills on Cape Bathurst in the Northwest Territories, which I learned about for the first time on this trip. They are cliffs with naturally burning rocks that have been smouldering for thousands of years. The type of shale reacts with oxygen, producing heat, smoke and gases, which makes it look like the cliffs are on fire.

In our daily briefings we heard how our excursions fit in with the historic voyages of explorers such as Sir John Franklin and Roald Amundsen, but it was a Canadian history moment that moved me to tears.

Dundas Harbour on Nunavut’s Devon Island was the site of a devastating forcible relocation by the federal government of Inuit families in the 1930s and 1940s. As a newspaper editor, I had read and edited stories about the call for an official apology, which Ottawa finally delivered in 2025. But it was emotional to walk through the ruins of the abandoned RCMP camp, on what is now the largest uninhabited island in the world, and seeing the cemetery, along with stones from Thule people’s settlements from hundreds of years ago.

My sailing included almost two weeks of daily visits in the Canadian Arctic and was bookended by visits to Greenland and sailing days with stunning vistas and lots of ice. The cities of Sisimiut and Ilulissat, Greenland’s second and third largest towns with populations of more than 5,000, were gorgeous, with brightly painted buildings, and, to my delight, plenty of sled dogs summering before hunting season begins.

Greenland’s Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, brought some of the most dramatic winter scenery imaginable. More than 50 kilometres long and about five kilometres wide, it breaks into icebergs that can be up to a kilometre high. A separate paid excursion took us by boat around the fjord, where we could sometimes hear the roar of breaking and cracking ice.

The last four days of my epic journey on board the MS Fridtjof Nansen were continuous sailing, from the Northwest Territories to Nome, passing slowly through icy water full of floes. A winter wonderland.

Throughout the cruise, I was mesmerized by undeniable natural beauty, but in the end those dramatic scenes were eclipsed by experiences I didn’t expect: the glimpses into everyday life of the Inuit people we met along the way.

If you go

HX Expeditions’ Northwest Passage crossings begin again in August, 2027. Sailings run 25 days and start at US$25,840 per person, double occupancy, including meals, drinks, expedition team programming, guided landings, science activities, gratuities and WiFi. Airport transfers to and from remote ports at the start and end of your cruise are also included. The dress code is casual and the ships hold up to 490 passengers with amenities such as a fitness centre, infinity pool and a spa.

Passengers are provided with a warm coat but the key is to dress in layers, with at least one being wool. The most important pieces of clothing to bring are waterproof pants and shoes for Zodiac trips. For land excursions, however, you must wear rubber boots provided.

Daily briefings and evening lectures are fun, very social and a good chance to get answers to any questions as well as meeting people. Take advantage of them.

The writer was a guest of HX Expeditions, which did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.