Adventurer apologises over ‘first’ Baffin Island claim after Inuit backlash
Camilla Hempleman-Adams, 32, battled temperatures as low as minus 40C during the 13-day, 150-mile expedition in Canada.
A British adventurer who claimed to be the first woman to solo traverse Canada’s largest island has apologised after she was criticised for her “ignorance”.
Camilla Hempleman-Adams battled temperatures as low as minus 40C and winds of 47mph during the two-week expedition.
The 32-year-old covered 150 miles on foot and by ski while pulling a sledge, and finished in 13 days – a day faster than expected.
The solo trek across Canada’s largest island took Ms Hempleman-Adams from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung, through the unforgiving landscape of Auyuittuq National Park.
Members of the native Inuit population said her claim was incorrect and said people living there having travelled the same route for generations.
Writing on Instagram, Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, an Inuit artist based in Ottawa, said: “If you look deeper you’ll see a larger problem: erasure of Inuit on our own lands.
