ECHOES of
EXPLORERS
A Land and Sea Journey Around King William Island
ECHOES of EXPLORERS
A Land and Sea Journey Around King William Island
In August 2026, our team will travel to King William Island for a rare land-and-sea expedition through one of the most historically charged landscapes in the Canadian Arctic.
By kayak, we will attempt a full circumnavigation of the island’s coastline, surveying the shallow shores, islets, and landing places tied to centuries of Inuit history, Arctic travel, and the Franklin story. At the same time, a land team led by historian Tom Gross, will travel by ATV across key inland and coastal areas, following Inuit oral history, historical records, and landscape clues.
Together, the two teams will bring complementary perspectives to the same journey: one from the water, one from the land — united by a shared goal to better understand King William Island, its stories, and its enduring place in Arctic exploration history.
THE KAYAK TEAM
Kevin Vallely
RCGS Fellow, Explorer's Club Member
As expedition leader, Kevin brings decades of polar experience and storytelling expertise that will anchor both the safety of the journey and the clarity of its narrative. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a member of the Explorer’s Club.
Among Kevin’s many expeditions, he has rowed a boat across the stormy waters of the Northwest Passage to bring awareness to climate change. As part of a 3-person team, he broke the world record to the South Pole in 2009.
Nicky Hastings
Ultra-athlete / Adventurer
Nicky has an extensive history in backcountry travel and has completed numerous multi-day kayak expeditions including a 1750km kayak journey down the length of the Mackenzie River in 2016. She was an elite level cross country skier and trail runner, winning numerous ultra-distance running races over the years. She works for the Geological Survey of Canada and has wilderness first-aid training.
Julie Van de Valk
SAR team member and adventurer
Julie Van de Valk is a search and rescue volunteer with North Shore Rescue and an avid backcountry traveler. She is North Shore Rescue’s Training Officer, is a member of the team’s helicopter-based rescue (Class-D) team and leads the team’s mapping efforts. Recreationally, she enjoys traverses and long days out on skis, kayak, feet, or any other means, and loves her local coast range.
Her SAR expertise ensures preparedness in any emergency, while her passion for remote travel makes her an essential force on the team.
Ken Stanick
Adventurer and CEO
Ken Stanick is a seasoned adventurer with a passion for pushing the limits of human endurance in some of the world’s most remote and unforgiving environments.
Whether paragliding over the Coast range, racing the 715km Yukon River Quest, or pushing a rally car to its limits , Ken brings a spirit of curiosity, courage, and grit to every journey he undertakes.
THE LAND TEAM
Tom Gross
RCGS Fellow / Land Team Leader
Tom Gross is a Hay River, NT–based historian and independent Franklin researcher who has spent more than three decades searching for the grave of Sir John Franklin and the lost records of the doomed 1845 expedition. Driven by Inuit oral history, historical testimony, and years of fieldwork on and around King William Island, Gross has personally funded repeated searches into one of Canada’s greatest Arctic mysteries.
This summer, he will lead the land team by ATV alongside his daughter Pam Gross and Inuit knowledge-keeper Jacob Keanik.
Pam Gross
Ex-Deputy Premier of Nunavut /
RCGS Fellow
Pam Gross brings a deeply personal perspective to the land journey. As Tom’s daughter, with Inuit family roots, she stands at the intersection of two knowledge systems often treated separately: written colonial history and Inuit lived knowledge. Her presence helps frame the expedition not simply as a search through the past, but as a contemporary journey shaped by identity, memory, and respect for the people whose knowledge has long defined this landscape.
​
She is a Canadian Inuk politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut in the 2021 Nunavut general election. In 2021, she became the deputy premier of Nunavut.
Jacob Keanik
Inuit Knowledge-keeper / RCGS Fellow
Inuit knowledge-keeper and expert guide from King William Island. Jacob has appeared in a previous National Geographic Franklin documentary. Having worked with Tom Gross for many years, they know one another well.
Jacob has deep experience of the land, its stories, and its conditions. His understanding of local terrain, oral history, wildlife, and travel routes will be essential to the land team’s work. Jacob’s role grounds the expedition in lived northern knowledge and ensures that the journey is shaped by the people who know this place best.
Kevin Cronin
Adventurer / Explorer
Kevin Cronin is a retired accountant living in Dublin, Ireland, with his wife Suzanne. They have four children and six grandchildren.
​
Kevin's Arctic credentials are considerable. In 2001 he crewed the Irish sailing vessel Northabout through the Northwest Passage from Ireland to Nome, Alaska, and by 2003–04 had completed a full circumnavigation of the Arctic, sailing over Siberia, Scandinavia, and home to Ireland. In between, he joined the Irish-Canadian expedition led by Dave Woodman that came tantalisingly close to locating the wreck of Franklin's Erebus.
Bill Moure
Explorer / RCGS Fellow
Bill Moure is a metallurgical engineer who owns a non-ferrous metal recycling and manufacturing business. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from the University of Alberta, and lives with his wife, Mary Lister, on a farm at Pigeon Lake, Alberta.
​
His life outside work revolves around the outdoors — hunting, fishing, and prospecting across Canada's north — and is the former Senior Captain for the South Pigeon Lake Fire Department.
​
Bill's fascination with the Franklin mystery began with Frozen in Time (Beattie & Geiger) and deepened after a 2014 visit to the expedition graves on Beechey Island — a journey that set him on course for King William Island's western shore.
THE HISTORY
The Franklin Expedition
The British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition, led by Sir John Franklin, departed England in 1845 with two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, in search of the Northwest Passage. King William Island played a crucial role in the expedition's tragic fate. In September 1846, both ships became trapped in ice off the northwest corner of King William Island, where they remained for over a year.
King William Island became the focal point of the expedition's demise. Franklin died on June 11, 1847, while the ships were still trapped. By April 1848, the surviving crew abandoned the vessels and attempted to march south across the island towards the Canadian mainland. The island's harsh environment and lack of resources contributed to the crew's suffering, with many perishing on its shores.
Archaeological findings on King William Island have provided valuable insights into the expedition's final days, including the discovery of human remains, artifacts, and the pivotal Victory Point Note. This note, found in a cairn on the island, remains the only known written record from the expedition, detailing their abandonment of the ships and Franklin's death. King William Island continues to be a site of ongoing research and discoveries, shedding light on one of the most infamous tragedies in Arctic exploration history.
Inuit History
Inuit have inhabited King William Island, known as Qikiqtaq in Inuktitut, for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence suggests that Paleoeskimo occupation of the region, including King William Island, dates back approximately 4,500 years. The rich oral traditions and legends associated with the island, such as the story of the ancient Tuniit people, further underscore the deep-rooted Inuit presence on King William Island.
Roald Amundsen
King William Island played a crucial role in Roald Amundsen's historic Northwest Passage expedition from 1903 to 1906. Amundsen anchored his ship, the Gjøa, at Gjoa Haven on the island's east coast, where he and his crew spent two winters conducting magnetic and meteorological observations. During this time, Amundsen learned invaluable Arctic survival skills from the local Netsilik Inuit, which would later prove essential in his successful South Pole expedition.
THE ROUTE
King William Island
-
The island, known as Qikiqtak in Inuktitut, has been an integral part of Inuit life and culture for thousands of years.
-
King William Island is more than a backdrop—it is a character in the story. From the chilling silence of Franklin’s final march to the lessons Amundsen learned from Inuit knowledge, this island has shaped the narrative of Arctic exploration for centuries.
-
Gjoa Haven, our start and finish, is named after Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen's historic ship after he wintered there on his successful transit of the Northwest Passage.
-
An extreme tundra climate defines the island's environment.
-
Barren-ground caribou, muskox, snowy owl, peregrine falcons and polar bear inhabit the island.
EXPEDITION PARTNERS
