It took 28 grueling days but Kevin Vallely and his teammate Ray Zahab managed to ski across Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High Arctic, through intolerable frigid conditions.
“You’re going into windchill factors of -70, that kind of range,” Vallely told This is BC.
“We’re talking frostbite not in minutes, we’re talking frostbite in seconds. You put your hand out and I could see it going white.”
And there was always the concern about encounters with wildlife, but they didn’t cross paths with any polar bears on this journey.
“I know they knew we were out there,” said Vallely. “We were constantly running into tracks.”
But there were many brushes with another predator.
“Wildlife officials say if you happen to run into a wolf you stay a hundred metres back. Well they didn’t tell the wolves that because these wolves have no fear of human beings and they come right up to you,” said Vallely. “If they wanted us they got us, but they didn’t want us.”
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For the past 25 years Vallely has been travelling the globe, exploring some very remote regions.
“Not only cold but the jungles, Borneo, I’ve been with jungle patrollers in Sumatra retracing a death march, I’ve been to Siberia,” said Vallely.
He’s finished close twenty extreme expeditions now, following a childhood dream of one day travelling to the South Pole, which he completed with a team in 2009.
“For me it’s not a question about taking risks, even though there can be some. It’s all about unique experiences and going out there and being inspired and going where few people go,” said Vallely.
They’re still celebrating their most recent achievement, so Vallely hasn’t started planning his next adventure yet, but he can guarantee something will come up when the time is right.
“I’m 60. I’m an old guy. But who cares. I can do it,” said Vallely.
“I feel kind of blessed that I’ve been keeping myself super fit and strong for all these years, that I’m still able to do it and darn it, I’m going to keep doing it until I can’t”
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