The Torngat Line

The Torngats are the highest ground in mainland Canada east of the Rockies and almost nobody goes there. Roughly two hundred people a year set foot in the park, most of them for a day from a boat. We walk one hundred and thirty kilometres through the middle of it, north, and see nobody.

Why there are bear guards

Because it is polar bear country in summer, the park asks for it, and it is the right thing regardless. Joanna Merkuratsuk and her colleagues from Nain are with the party from the boat drop to the boat pickup — they are not an escort, they are two of the six or eight people on the trip, and they know the ground better than either guide.

They are paid at the Nunatsiavut rate, which is higher than the equivalent guiding rate in Norway, and that is reflected in the price. We would rather tell you that than pretend the price is about the flights.

The ground

There is no trail. There are caribou paths that go where caribou go, which is occasionally where you want to go. Expect boulder fields for a third of every day, tussock for another third, and the good gravel river flats for the rest. Twelve kilometres is a solid day here and we plan on eleven.

Two river crossings are roped. In a warm week the Palmer is knee-deep and pleasant. In a wet one it is mid-thigh and we sit on the bank for six hours waiting for it to drop, which we have done twice.

Weather and the bugs

July is warmer and buggier. August is cooler, clearer and has the better light, and we run four of the six departures then for that reason. There is no month without weather: in 2023 we had four consecutive days of horizontal rain in the Koroc and the party spent one of them entirely in tents.

What we will not do

We will not fly the party in to the high ground to skip the Palmer. It is possible and Nain operators will quote for it. The valley is three of the twelve days and removing it turns a traverse into a camping trip with a view.