Man, 71, departs on solo ski to ‘finish off’ past journey

John Dunn had a dream to ski, paddle and hike Canada from south to north. This month, he’s out to conquer the final section.

Paddle the coast of British Columbia? Done. Ski across Great Slave Lake? Complete. Ski and hike Canada’s Arctic islands? Finished.

If you look at Dunn’s map of his journey, dubbed simply the Journey North, it’s an impressive and almost-unbroken line of human-powered travel – with the exception of a tiny dotted stretch.

That represents a 200-km segment of the route west of Fort Providence that got the better of Dunn the first time around, so now he’s back to try again.

“I missed out a little section. I got waylaid by some soft snow and didn’t finish a little bit from basically 100 km west of Fort Providence up to Hay River. So I’m coming back to that little missing bit,” Dunn said on Tuesday as he prepared to set off.

He’ll ski westward from Hay River across Great Slave Lake and down the Mackenzie River to where he previously had to briefly abandon his trip seven years ago. Then he’ll double back up to Fort Providence to finish the leg.

“I’m doing this solo partly because it’s not something I could really sell to any friends as being something that they might particularly want to do,” he admitted.

“It’s a strange little thing to try to fill in this missing link, it’s rather of personal interest more than anything else.”

Born in England, Dunn worked in Australian mineral exploration before moving to Calgary, becoming a Canadian citizen and pursuing his dream of exploring and photographing the Arctic.

He has been a return visitor to the North for years, completing what he calls “longer wilderness journeys” that mostly involve skis.

Once the trips are complete, he travels to schools to talk about his expeditions and showcase the photos he takes.

It was during one such school presentation that the “missing bit on the map” reared its head, reminding him to return and finish the trip.

Asked how he prepares for this kind of solo travel, he said: “Perhaps not very well in this case, because I spent about the previous two months driving around in a car in Alberta and BC, doing talks.

“I’ll have to take it easy at the start and get some extra fitness as I go along. But I’ve got enough time to do it. It should all be fine, apart from the fact that this upcoming week is going to be a little bit colder than average, but that goes with the territory.”

More: See photos on John Dunn’s website

This trip is also a marker of Dunn’s 71st birthday. How he’ll better it for his 72nd remains to be seen.

“We’ll have to see about that,” he said.

“I’d still like to get up to the very high Arctic on some more trips, and maybe I’ll be way up on Ellesmere Island or somewhere next year. Who knows?”