INUVIK - With a confidence born from experience and an upbringing in the North, an adventurous sibling duo sat in the Cafe Gallery on March 18 and prepared to take off from Inuvik and start their estimated 75-day kite skiing journey through the Northwest Passage.

"Right now I'm in the midst of a whole bunch of chaos trying to get this expedition up and off the ground, which we're hoping should have happened about an hour ago, but we're still here," said a near frantic Eric McNair-Landry, who was trying to fix last-minute glitches in software used to update a blog that he and his sister Sarah are using to chronicle their journey.

"But once we get out there, stress reduces and it's going to be wonderful," he said.

Eric and Sarah set out from Inuvik attempting to kite ski - and cross-country ski when the winds is scarce - the approximately 3,000 kilometres along the Northwest Passage from Tuktoyaktuk to Pond Inlet on Baffin Island in Nunavut.

"Back in the day you used to leave and you wouldn't even call home, there would be no way of communicating. You'd be lucky to get a letter off in two years and what not," Eric said, frustrated with the minor bit of technology stalling their departure.

"Today it's quite the opposite. The sponsors really demand that you have a lot of contact with the outside world," Eric explained.

"Eric and I have been doing expeditions for a while," Sarah said, describing how she and her brother decided to set off on this extreme adventure. "A lot of (the treks) are in other countries, and we are both from Nunavut and have been living there for a long time so the idea of doing an expedition in our back yard is very attractive and the Northwest Passage has so much history around it."

The siblings may be young, Sarah is 24 while Eric is 25, but they come with years of experience. Growing up in Iqaluit molded them into hardy adventurers, with influence from their parents.

"Both my parents run an adventure tourism company and they've both guided to the South and North Pole, and my mom guided the first women's trip to the North Pole in 1997," Sarah said.

Both siblings have guided and been involved in expeditions all over the world, from crossing the Gobi desert to kiting in Antarctica.

Sarah completed a 100-day journey with a team of four dogs while Eric holds the world record for the longest distance travelled by kite skiing in 24 period at 595 kilometres. But even with all their experience, this excursion is nothing to scoff at. The two are hoping to arrive in Pond Inlet by the end of May but they are relying heavily on wind to get them there before the ice begins to melt.

"We basically need the wind to be able to make the trip," Sarah said. "We have to average about 40 kilometres a day so without the wind, it's a long distance."

They will both have the wider-planked skis used for kiting as well as cross-country skis for when there's no wind, which will slow their progress considerably. They each will be pulling sleds full of gear and supplies that will weigh anywhere from 65 to 80 kilograms.

"We have good tents and we have good equipment, so if a blizzard comes up we can peg the tent down and wait it out," Sarah said. "We have a gun to protect us from polar bears, and a lot of it's just good judgment.

"I mean we all do this for the challenge, that's really what I love, it's that you challenge yourself in new ways," Eric said before the two of them had one last hot coffee and headed on their way.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.