Alert

Understand

thumb|300px|A mountain range on Ellesmere Island Queen Elizabeth Islands is the northernmost populated place on Canadian land, 4,654 km north of Middle Island and Point Pelee. This is the land of the midnight sun: months of sunlight in summer, months of darkness in winter.

thumb|Landing at Tanquary Fiord, Quttinirtaaq National Park|upright=1.5

More than one-fifth of the island is protected as Quttinirpaaq National Park. Barbeau Peak, the highest mountain in Nunavut (2,616 m or 8,583 ft) is located in the British Empire Range on Ellesmere Island. The most northern mountain range in the world, the Challenger Mountains, is in the northeast region of the island. The northern lobe of the island is called Grant Land.

Get around

There is an airport van that meets the Borek plane when it arrives from Resolute. One may travel by dogsled or snow machine with an Inuit guide from Grise Fiord.

See

thumb|Hiking alongside Air Force Glacier, Quttinirpaaq National Park|upright=1.3 Fort Conger, about 100 km south of Alert in Quttinirpaaq National Park, was built by the US Army Signal Corps in the 1880s as a base camp for an attempt to reach the North Pole. It was used by Robert Edwin Peary during some of his Arctic expeditions. In 1991, some of the structures at Fort Conger were designated as Classified Federal Heritage Buildings. Marine wildlife, iceberg, Beluga whale and polar bear watching Thule and European expedition sites can be viewed nearby

Do

Hike Grise Fiord's glaciers and ice caps Snowmobile and boat trips, hiking, walking, photography Spend a night in an igloo.

Buy

With the possible exception of some local handicrafts or locally-caught fish and game, expect practically everything to be very expensive. This is a remote location where everything has to be flown in or brought by boat. The storekeeper has to cover shipping costs not only on the merchandise but also on fuel for heating the store and running a generator.

Sleep

Grise Fiord Lodge in Grise Fiord is one of few accommodations available.

Connect

Conventional landline telephony is available in Grise Fiord in Nunavut's area code +1-867. Calls destined to Eureka and Alert are placed by calling a federal government number in Ottawa, plus a four-digit extension; voice and data is brought into Eureka by military satellite link then overland to Alert. Bandwidth, unsurprisingly, is somewhat limited.

Mobile telephones have no signal in most Canadian High Arctic points outside the three territorial capitals. There is wireless network at Grise Fiord, provided by Qiniq and Bell Mobility. Satellite telephone coverage is poor; Iridium works all the way to the North Pole but systems that rely on satellites parked above the Equator may fail to communicate – especially if the satellite's location is anywhere other than exactly due south – as they simply disappear below the horizon.

Post office boxes are available in Grise Fiord; the addresses are PO Box nn, GRISE FIORD NU, X0A 0J0 Canada. Mail to CFB Alert is carried by military aircraft from CFB Trenton.

Stay safe

thumb|Eureka station|upright=1.3

Quttinirpaaq is polar bear country. Whiteouts and hazardous winter conditions are not uncommon; avalanche risk and glacial conditions are common, while adverse weather may delay departure or return for days. Untested water must be boiled or disinfected before consumption in the wild. Access to first aid is limited; self-reliance, map, GPS navigation and complete safety equipment are a necessity. Magnetic compasses are useless in this area due to its proximity to the magnetic north. Experience and training in wilderness travel, knowledgeable companions and/or the services of an outfitter or experienced guide are a necessity.

Any rescue in the park or in uninhabited portions of the island is an expensive and arduous task, as resources may need to be brought in from outside Nunavut. Park visitors must notify authorities of their arrival and their safe return to avoid the unnecessary launch of a very expensive search expedition.

See also cold weather; the island has lots of that.

Go next

Resolute Sisimiut, Greenland is also relatively close geographically, but there are no scheduled connections.