A 500 mile ski expedition across Northern Canada’s wilderness
from Mayo to the Arctic Circle
Project Executive Summary
In 1943 a first nation tracker called Alex Van Biber was hired by the United States Army to scout a possible route for the Canol pipeline supply route as part of the war effort. His expedition saw him head North across the remote wilderness of the Mckensie Mountain range to Norman Wells. This pipeline was built to supply oil to Alaska to defend against the Japanese.
Alex’s expedition spent 42 days crossing the mountain range on unbroken trails by ski and snow shoes with temperatures between -50 and -60 for over 10 days of the expedition. The Mckensie mountain range draws super chilled polar air and has an average winter temperature of -50.
A small team will re-trace the route of Alex’s historic expedition covering as much of the orginal route as possible.
