A 25-year-old and a 22-year-old from the US have finished one of the wildest trips of the year: an almost complete circuit of Baffin Island, the world's fifth-largest island, using a mix of skis, backpacks and packrafts. Caleb McDaniels and Henry Penfold started and finished in Iqaluit, Nunavut's capital, covering 3,262km in 145 days between late May and mid-October.

The route was about 20% skiing, split roughly evenly between hiking and paddling for the rest. The pair insist it wasn't an attempt at a formal circumnavigation — only two dog teams have ever done that — but a line drawn from satellite imagery, chosen for scenery rather than record-keeping.

The crunch came at the end. From Igloolik, there were 1,130km with no villages or resupply points. They left carrying 82kg of food, far too much to carry on their backs, so they loaded it into their packrafts and paddled the first 644km. Sailing helped: with trekking poles as masts and sails cut from an old tent, they hit speeds above five mph downwind, spray flying off the bows.

Packrafting also shaved a big chunk off the overland section — they paddled across two huge lakes, including Nettilling, the largest lake on any island in the world. But the final 483km was on foot, and the last 160km into Iqaluit was brutal: postholing through snow-covered boulder fields and half-frozen marsh in drysuits, breaking through thin ice constantly, and chipping frozen shoes solid each morning. They completed the whole final stretch in 40 days.

Wildlife was a highlight and a hazard. McDaniels once stumbled within a few metres of a sleeping polar sun-basking polar bear, retreated quietly, and got the shotgun and flares ready before paddling out fast. In Foxe Basin they nearly ran over a snoozing walrus, and on Nettilling a curious seal spent half an hour playing with their boats, even bumping a hand with its nose.

Why does this matter to regular travellers? Mostly as a reminder of what the Canadian Arctic is: vast, roadless and seriously remote — the kind of place where a 'final leg' can be longer than many countries are wide. For most of us, Baffin isn't a route to copy but a destination to respect. Day-trippers and polar cruise passengers get a taste of it; anyone dreaming of more should start with guided trips out of Iqaluit rather than self-supported epics.