Piksuk Media’s six-episode series about the 2010 Nunavut Quest traditional Inuit dog-sledding race on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. An inside, participatory look at a week of high drama and magnificent Arctic landscape.
EPISODE ONE
Inuit from across Canada’s eastern Arctic gather for the annual Nunavut Quest week-long traditional dog-sledding race. They have prepared for months, making equipment and getting their dogs in shape. Just getting to the starting line is an expedition through a frozen wonderland.
EPISODE TWO
17 teams, — 180 dogs — have gathered at Pond Inlet. 115 helpers on 45 snowmobiles hauling food, fuel and all kinds of supplies set out ahead. Our destination is Clyde River, 500 kilometres away. But first we face ground drift, tricky ice and rugged mountains.
EPISODE THREE
Climate change hits the Nunavut Quest: warm weather and soft snow exhaust dogs and machines. One musher loses his team and is penalized; youngsters challenge the old guard.
EPISODE FOUR
It’s been a winter or weird weather, and one night nature springs a bad surprise: The sea ice under our camp cracks open, and we’ve got to move, fast! It’s a lesson in the new realities of a changing Arctic.
EPISODE FIVE
300 kilometres into the race we find ourselves in a magical world of glaciers, deep valleys, towering peaks. It all comes together at Pilaktuaq, the island that’s “cut with a knife”.
EPISODE SIX
We’re running out of time, so the mushers vote to stretch the final legs of the race. If they only knew… But the excitement builds as the crowd in Clyde River hails the mushers as heroes.