The Barnes Ice Cap is an
ice cap
In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than are termed ice sheets.
Description
By definition, ice caps are not constrained by topogra ...
located in central
Baffin Island
Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada, the second-largest island in the Americas (behind Greenland), and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is (slightly smal ...
,
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...
, Canada.
Geography
It covers close to in the area of the
Baffin Mountains. It has been thinning due to regional warming. Between 2004 and 2006, the ice cap was thinning at a rate of per year.
The ice cap contains Canada's oldest ice, some of it being over 20,000 years old. It is a remnant of the
Laurentide Ice Sheet, which covered much of Canada during the last
glacial period
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...
of the Earth's
current ice age. Generator Lake is located at the southeastern end of the ice cap.
Exploration
A team from Laramie, Wyoming, United States, made the first bicycle traverse of the Barnes Ice Cap in 1995.
The team was sponsored by the Wyoming Alpine Club and included brothers Mike and Dan Moe — some of the first people to complete the Continental Divide mountain biking route from Canada to Mexico — along with Sharon Kava and Brad Humphrey.
After crossing the ice cap, the team abandoned their bikes and sleds at on August 22, 1995, to expedite their travel over boulder fields to Baffin Bay. They intended for the bikes to be picked up later. All members of the 1995 party died of hypothermia after an aluminum boat captained by Innumariik guide Jushua Ilauq of
Clyde River was capsized by a breaching bowhead whale. Ilauq alone survived due to wearing a cold-weather survival suit, and lived until 2025.
In 2009 geologist Kurt Refsnider stumbled upon the bikes by chance. The story of the expedition was chronicled by a childhood friend of Mike Moe, writer Mark Jenkins in ''
Outside
Outside or Outsides may refer to:
* Wilderness
Books and magazines
* ''Outside'', a book by Marguerite Duras
* ''Outside'' (magazine), an outdoors magazine
Film, theatre and TV
* Outside TV (formerly RSN Television), a television network
* '' ...
'' magazine in 2006 and 2022.
See also
*
List of glaciers
A glacier ( ) or () is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly defor ...
References
Bodies of ice of Baffin Island
Arctic Cordillera
Ice caps of Canada
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