St. Lawrence University professor plans to kayak through Northwest Passage
POTSDAM, New York (WWNY) - A St. Lawrence University professor is preparing to go on the expedition of a lifetime in the Arctic Circle.
Her goal? To navigate the Northwest Passage by kayak in a single season.
Eileen Visser is a biology professor at SLU. During her free time, she likes to kayak and paddle along St. Lawrence County’s rivers and waterways.
Now, Visser is about to take part in an expedition that she says has not been attempted by humans: to traverse the Northwest Passage in the Arctic Circle by kayak within a season, before winter blocks the passage.
“There’s been people that have pieced it together. Done a little bit, gone away for the winter, gone back and done a little bit more and there’s been some overland passages, but nobody ever in human power has gone the entire Northwest Passage under human power,” she said.
Visser will travel with three other expeditioners and begin the 2,200-hundred-mile journey in Bylot Bay near Greenland and head west, ending in Tuktoyaktuk within the Northwest Territories of Canada.
“This expedition couldn’t necessarily have been done before within a single season. This is because of weather changes that the ice will remain north just long enough for this expedition to be completed in a single season,” said Tom McGuire, who’s also taking part in the expedition.
Visser and the rest of the expedition group plan to begin their journey on July 1 and hope to finish by the end of September or the beginning of October.
“We have provisions for 60 days to get to Cambridge Bay which is our halfway point, but I secretly hope we can get there in 45. If we can do it - it depends a lot on weather,” she said.
Temperatures will be cool and near zero-degree Fahrenheit and the sun will never set below the horizon.
If the expedition should end early for any reason, Visser says it will still be an adventure she’ll never forget.
To track their trek, click here.
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