Auyuittuq National Park issues travel advisory

Joavee Alivaktuk from Alivaktuk Outfitting drives his snowmobile towards the entrance to Auyuittuq National Park. But heading out on the Pangnirtung fiord sea ice is getting dangerous, Parks Canada said April 11. (PHOTO BY SARAH MCMAHON)

Travellers to Auyuittuq National Park, beware.

Parks Canada says that due to unseasonably warm weather the travel route on the Pangnirtung Fiord ice, between Pangnirtung and Overlord (the south entry to Akshayuk Pass), is “deteriorating and becoming unstable.”

Access will still be possible on foot overland, Parks Canada said in an April 11 travel advisory, but snowmobile travel with an outfitter or ski travel on the ice may soon be impossible.

Parks Canada suggests visitors planning a trip to the park, which starts or ends in Pangnirtung, contact the Auyuittuq National Park office in that community to discuss the current conditions and receive updates.

Visitors must be prepared to enter and exit the park in this area using the overland route along the fiord, Parks Canada said.

And, all visitors must be prepared to adjust their travel plans to enter and exit the park at the North Pangnirtung Fiord near Qikiqtarjuaq or travel the additional 31 kilometres overland between Overlord and Pangnirtung.

Parks Canada planned to reassess the park areas are being reassessed April 11 and again later this week.

By the end of May travel conditions to and from the park, due to ice break-up and snow melt, should have returned to seasonal normals, Parks Canada said.