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IQALUIT - Two young adventures, a brother and sister team, successfully completed a 3,300 km kite-ski trek across the Northwest Passage in 85 days, arriving in Pond Inlet on June 11.

Siblings Sarah and Eric McNair-Landry celebrate their arrival in Pond Inlet on June 11 after kite-skiing 3,300 km across the Northwest Passage. - photo courtesy of Pittarak Expeditions

"Nunavut is a kite-skiing paradise," said Sarah McNair-Landry, 25, one-half of the team making up Pittarak Expeditions.

She along with her brother Eric, 26, left Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, on March 19. Their route was based on a trip first sailed by Roald Amundsen in 1906.

The pair are well-known adventurers in the territory based in Iqaluit, and are the children of Matty McNair, owner and operator of Iqaluit-based expedition outfitter NorthWinds.

Sarah, also a cinematographer, has crossed the Greenland Ice Cap five times and is the youngest person to travel to the North and South poles.

Eric, a web designer, is the youngest person to ski to the South Pole, has crossed the Greenland Ice Cap six times and has kite skied more than 8,000 km in total.

Their last trip together was a kite buggy adventure across the Gobi desert in Mongolia.

With many trip options on the table, they decided this time to stay at home.

"We got to explore our own backyard," said Eric.

They started preparing for their adventure last November.

After leaving the NWT, the McNair-Landrys stopped in Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak, Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet.

Their longest day was 153.7 kilometres. Throughout the trip they went over cliffs, tundra, sea ice and snow mostly by kiting, but sometimes by foot or skiing.

Along the way, Sarah and Eric encountered wolves, squirrels, muskox, seals, fox, birds, caribou and polar bears.

"We saw seven bears in all; some of them were great encounters," Sarah said.

When they were heading towards Arctic Bay after crossing the Boothia Peninsula heading out to the Boothia Strait, they were faced with open water.

They set up camp and decided to sleep and see in the morning if they would change their route.

Despite having a bear fence up, a bear crossed the fence, waking them up at 4 a.m. on May 8 as it was pouncing on their tent.

"I jumped out of my sleeping bag, started kicking the tent and we we're both screaming," said Sarah.

Eric grabbed a shovel.

"It was ready to take a bite, I swung as hard as I could with a camp shovel, about two feet long and then swung the shovel again," Eric said.

Sarah shot at the bear twice, both shots missing their target, and it eventually left.

In the next 12 hours they saw five more bears.

Their style of transport was weather dependent. If there was no wind, they would ski or walk.

"We were just destroying sleds at an unprecedented rate," said Eric, adding they went through 12 in total on the expedition.

At each community, they stopped and picked up food that was flown in on Canadian North, which donated cargo and the flights for the adventurers. The National Geographic Society was a major sponsor as were a number of gear companies.

When they arrived in communities, the pair did their best to rest but also spent time educating residents about their trip.

Students in Pond Inlet had been following the duo via their blog, tracking their mileage and using it as the basis for math projects. In Kugluktuk, one day after school, 30 to 50 students got to try a small trainer kite. Four kiters from Cambridge Bay escorted the pair out of their community.

Sarah and Eric are now taking a break but are already planning future expeditions and hope their trip has encouraged others to give kite-skiing a shot.

"It would be fun to see the sport grow within Nunavut," Eric said.

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