What is Auyuittuq National Park?

Auyuittuq National Park is a 19,089-square-kilometre Arctic national park on Cumberland Peninsula on Baffin Island in Nunavut. The park was designated a national park reserve in 1976 and a full national park (the first in Nunavut and the first to be co-managed with Inuit) in 2001 following the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. The Inuktitut name Auyuittuq means 'land that never melts', referring to the permanent ice cap and glaciers that cover much of the park.

The park's centrepiece is Akshayuk Pass (formerly Pangnirtung Pass), a 97-kilometre U-shaped valley running across the Cumberland Peninsula from Pangnirtung Fiord on the south coast to North Pangnirtung Fiord on the north coast. The pass is bounded by spectacular granite peaks, including Mount Asgard (2,015 metres, sheer-walled and famously featured in The Spy Who Loved Me, a 1977 James Bond film), Mount Thor (1,675 metres, with the world's greatest pure vertical drop of 1,250 metres), and Mount Odin (2,143 metres). The pass is a multi-day trekking route in summer and ski-touring route in spring.

The Penny Ice Cap covers about 6,400 square kilometres of the park's interior at elevations of 1,000 to 2,200 metres. The ice cap is a remnant of the Laurentide Ice Sheet that once covered most of Canada. Outlet glaciers including the Highway, Caribou, Schwarzenbach, and Fork glaciers descend from the ice cap to the surrounding fiords. The ice cap has lost about 30 per cent of its volume since 1958 due to climate change.

Park access is from Pangnirtung (population about 1,500), an Inuit community on the south coast, or from Qikiqtarjuaq on the north coast. Both communities are accessible only by air. Park visitation is small (about 250 to 350 visitors per year) due to the high cost and remoteness. The Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), Qikiqtarjuaq, Pangnirtung, and Iqaluit Inuit communities hold harvesting rights and co-management responsibilities under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. Wildlife includes caribou, polar bear, ringed seal, bowhead whale, narwhal, and species adapted to the High Arctic such as Arctic hare, snowy owl, and gyrfalcon. Sirmilik National Park, established 2001, protects 22,200 square kilometres of northern Baffin and Bylot Islands and is also accessible from Pond Inlet.