by Drew Nylen
There is something that pulls me to places that have so little life, places of emptiness. For a few months in the summer, sun shines 24 hours a day and the land in the high arctic transforms to a dusty gravel expanse from being locked in it’s icy winter prison.
In these conditions I get to travel and live on the north coast of Somerset Island an uninhabited island in the central Canadian Arctic and have been for the past 5 years.
Leaving my small shack there is no designated way to go, there is no right or wrong distance to run and the colours of the rock are unchanging for as far as you can see. This is so far away from the notion of roads, trails and races, it is the great ancestor of those things.
Movement is so much a part of the life in the high Arctic. A land of great migrations. The root of running and movement lives here, it is pathless running, it is intimidating and freeing. Anything can be the objective and any distance the goal. Running is how you interact with this place, how you measure distances and the passing of time.
Video by Drew Nylen, Beringia Ambassador, guide, skier and an avalanche technician. PATHLESS - Running In The High Arctic is shot in the Canadian arctic archipelago where Drew spends his summers running the large gravel plateau of Somerset Island.
You can follow and contact Drew via Instagram @drewnylen.
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