In Sellwood Bay, Northwest Territories, Vallely?s rowing team saw a chunk of ice that looked eerily like an outstretched human hand. They dubbed it the ?hand of Franklin? after John Franklin?s lost expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. Photo: Kevin Vallely
North Vancouver architect Kevin Vallely has a unique side profession: he is an internationally recognized explorer. He?s set a record for the fastest trek across Antarctica to the South Pole and was the first to ski the Iditarod sled dog race trail. He?s retraced a WWII death march through the jungles of Borneo and has biked the length of the frozen Yukon River.
Recently, Vallely was part of a team of four adventurers that attempted to traverse the Northwest Passage completely under human power in a row boat, in a single season. By doing so, the team hoped to demonstrate the profound effect that climate change is having on the world: ice loss has begun to open up the historically impassable seaway. In 2007, the passage was ice-free for the first time in recorded history. The team braved frigid waters that could bring on hypothermia within minutes of exposure, winds that blew their boat backwards, and close encounters with ice that came close to crushing their vessel. The conditions were dreadful, and they ran out of time before finishing the traverse, with the ocean starting

to freeze over at the end of August.
The evidence of climate change surrounded them?particularly the overall decline in sea ice. ?Just a ce...