Few places are as remote as the Arctic Circle.
It's a place of impeccable desolation and empty beauty. A place that calls both explorers and adventurers to set out across its 7.7 million square miles of permafrost, islands, and snow, and find peace. Or madness. And the Arctic Circle remains one of the last great untouched locales on this pale blue dot. It's a place where hunter Remi Warren wanted to hunt Muskox.
For those unfamiliar with Remi, he's a man who's hunted and guided just about everywhere on the planet. He's spoken about the importance of hunting as a driver of conservation, helped bring awareness to food procurement, and worked with indigenous hunters around the world to better understand their unique histories, practices, customs, and more.
And for this hunt, he partnered with Canada North Outfitting, an Inuit owned and operated guide business to bow hunt Muskox across the barren tundra. He did, however, have a bit of modern help in the form of both Ski-Doo and Polaris snowmobiles, as well as the outfitter's home-built tow-behind trailers.
According to the outfitter's site, "Throughout our 40-year history, Canada North Outfitting has provided a multitude of Inuit hunters with economic benefits and self-sufficiency associated with guiding, all the while carrying on with their hunting heritage. Supporting community, culture, tradition and conservation." They also work with local biologists in helping them understand the health of the herd through their harvests, something you see them collecting in the video above.
Canada North Outfitting, however, is non-denominational, as in it uses both Polaris and Ski-Doo snowmobiles. No East Coast, West Coast feud here. And it's understandable they use these machines in their hunting pursuits, as the vast nature of the Arctic Circle require something that's both tough enough to handle the rigors of the terrain, yet capable of moving quickly to track an animal's movement.
While Muskox aren't the fastest of animals, it's one that's largely remained unchanged since the last Ice Age. Meaning, it knows these areas far better than even Indigenous peoples of the area. They can disappear pretty quickly.
However, the outfitter makes use of one other accessory. One they build themselves. Remi describes it as a modified giant dog sled, but the Inuit call it a "qamutiik" which is essentially a tow-behind trailer for the snowmobiles. The qamutiik allows the guides to transport people or hunters across the ice and snow and not have them attached to their waists for long periods of time. It also allows Remi to glass while they move.
I won't spoil the end of hunt, but suffice it to say, the whole trip looks equal parts amazing and cold. I'm not sure I'd ever want to go, but vicariously living through Remi is still pretty cool.
