Baffin Island is the world's fifth-largest island. It lies mostly north of the Arctic Circle in Canada’s Arctic Archipelago. It is absolutely wild, perched on the fringes of our global, Westernized society. Baffin Island is the indigenous land of the Inuit, who have lived and thrived there for thousands of years.

Eric is a veteran to extreme expeditions. In 2010, he became the first person in history to complete expeditions to the South Pole, North Pole and summit of Everest in a 365-day period. In 2006, he completed the first-ever summer expedition to the North Pole. He’s making this expedition for reasons beyond setting the record.

Something about bikepacking Death Valley drew us in—maybe it was the iconic sand dunes, the deep canyons, salty-dry basins, or moving rocks, but more likely it was just the empty space and lack of cell service. What better way to get away from it all than to hammer pedals for a week in the middle of the largest National Park in the country?

The atoll is shaped for climbing, with 80 m high cliffs around its perimeter. The only way to get there is by boat, a day of sailing from Tahiti when the sea is fair, or longer and wilder when it’s not (which is what we got). In the 60s, some 3,000 people lived on the island, working in a mine… all since abandoned to rust and decay.