Ellesmere Island

Thick ice covers about a third of the national park. Mountain tops poke up through the ice.

Long ago, ice also stretched out over the sea along the north coast.

In Quttinirpaaq National Park, ice fields are up to 900 meters thick, and small mountains called nunataks poke up through them to more than 2,500 meters. The ground underneath is permafrost: it stays frozen, and only a thin top layer thaws, so few plants can grow.

Along the north coast, a fringe of floating ice once joined the land. NASA says it formed about 4,500 years ago, but by 2008 it had broken into five separate ice shelves.

Parks Canada describes ice fields up to 900 m thick with nunatait reaching over 2,500 m, continuous permafrost under the park, and a shallow active layer in the glacier-free area that limits plant growth and soil development.

NASA's Earth Observatory (2008) reports that glaciologists deduced the northern 'glacial fringe' described by Robert Peary in 1907 formed roughly 4,500 years ago and was likely a continuous ice shelf of some 8,900 km². Much had disintegrated by the 1950s; by July 2008 five shelves remained (Serson, Petersen, Milne, Ward Hunt and Markham), and between 22 July and late August 2008 they lost 214 km², including all 50 km² of the Markham Ice Shelf.

In one valley, the summer is a bit warmer and wetter.

There, grass and flowers grow, and many Arctic animals come to eat.

Much of the park has polar desert conditions, but the Lake Hazen Basin is different. Parks Canada explains that it gets water from melting glaciers, is sheltered by south-facing mountains, and is influenced by an ocean current, the West Greenland Current. So it is warmer and wetter, with meadows of grasses and Arctic flowers in the short summer.

Lake Hazen, in the middle of the park, is one of the largest lakes north of the Arctic Circle.

Parks Canada calls the Lake Hazen Basin a thermal oasis: water from glacial runoff, a warmer climate in the shelter of the south-facing mountains and the influence of the West Greenland Current make its habitat richer, with extensive wet tundra meadows.

In the mountains, the dominant vegetation is cold-hardy sedges, grasses, mosses and lichens, and most plant cover is limited to moist places: hummocky tundra and wet meadows where water cannot drain away. Lake Hazen is one of the largest lakes north of the Arctic Circle.

Arctic hares gather in big groups. Musk oxen and wolves live here too.

Only one kind of fish lives in the park's lakes and rivers.

In the Lake Hazen Basin, Parks Canada says Arctic hares gather in groups of hundreds. Small herds of musk oxen and Peary caribou live there, with a few Arctic wolves, Arctic foxes and about 30 kinds of migrating birds.

The Arctic char is the only freshwater fish in the park. Out at sea, only animals that can live with permanent pack ice are regularly seen: ringed and bearded seals, narwhals and polar bears.

Parks Canada lists the basin's birds (snow geese, red-throated loons, common eiders, rock ptarmigan, snow buntings, ruddy turnstones, ringed plovers) and land mammals (Arctic hare, lemming, ermine, Arctic fox, Arctic wolf, muskox, Peary caribou). Freshwater systems have low nutrients and low diversity; Arctic char is the park's only freshwater fish, and many rivers hold only invertebrates.

The park includes about 2,375 km² of marine habitat with deep fiords. Epishelf lakes on the ice shelves support unique microbial communities, and the marine mammals regularly observed are those that live in permanent pack ice: ringed seal, bearded seal, narwhal and polar bear.

This place is very far from help. The weather can change fast, and polar bears live here.

Visitors must be ready to look after themselves.

Parks Canada warns that Quttinirpaaq is remote and rescue is limited. Visitors must be ready for extreme, fast-changing weather, unpredictable river crossings, high winds and travel in polar bear country, and must be self-reliant.

To reach emergency services, visitors carry a satellite phone, an InReach device or a personal locator beacon.

Parks Canada states that the area's remoteness and limited rescue capability increase the risk of natural hazards, and that all visitors must be prepared for extreme and rapidly changing weather, unpredictable river crossings, high winds and polar bear country, being self-reliant and responsible for their own safety.

Its guidance covers registration, camping safety and food management, terrain hazards such as rockfall, and communications: a satellite phone, InReach device or personal locator beacon to contact emergency services.