Canada's insider blog

Teresa Earle has spent 15 years exploring Canada’s North, but she still has a yearning to see more. With bucket lists all the rage, we asked Earle to come with her own life list for discovering new lands North of Sixty, delivered to our media centre one amazing experience at a time.

Auyuittuq National Park (NU)

It’s a tad off the beaten track and no small feat to explore, but someday I want to hike in Auyuittuq. This landscape is the complete package: a place of rare physical beauty and extremes, rolled up with a host of Arctic icons. I want to tackle the hike through 97-km (60-mi) long Akshayuk Pass at the height of the fleeting Arctic summer—a two-week trek past sheer rock cliffs, jagged peaks including Mount Asgard, glaciers radiating out from the Penny Ice Cap and Mount Thor, which features the world’s greatest vertical drop. Hardy wildflowers will be in bloom, and the birding should be pretty good, too.