Page 80 - Travel Leisure - USA (February 2020)

The Lutheran
church in Qaanaaq,
Greenland—one of
the northernmost
towns in the world.

A resident of Pond
Inlet, in Arctic
Canada, wears
traditional bone
snow goggles.

excursions. We were anchored in Markison Fjord,
an inlet on the eastern coast of Ellesmere Island
in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This was
midway through a 16-day voyage hopscotching up
I ’ M N O T S U R E I’ve ever experienced the western coast of Greenland and into the
sharper regret than in the fraction of a second northeastern extremes of Canada in pursuit of
between leaping from a boat platform and hitting starkly spectacular, rapidly changing landscapes,
the surface of the Arctic Ocean. The drop was rare wildlife, glimpses into local cultures, and,
only six feet or so, but that was long enough for apparently, freezing cold water. Thin membranes
my brain to respond to the sight of dark, ice- of new ice floated like transparent lily pads
strewn water flying up to meet me by shrieking, between the white bits and bergs calved from a
“You should not have done this!” Too late. I was nearby glacier. When I hit, the cold seized me
doing a polar plunge. like a full-body ice cream headache. I was wearing
I was on the Silver Cloud, a Silversea Cruises a safety harness, and as soon as I surfaced, a crew
expedition ship that carries 254 passengers— member started hauling me in like a big, cold,
though for polar sailings, it’s capped at 200, in sputtering fish. Above, more prudent passengers
an effort to prevent overcrowding during shore hung over their balconies, taking pictures.

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