First impressions

Baffin Island from the air, May 1950.

Montie Ritchie spent several days at the end of May crossing the ice in the company of Inuit people and their dog teams.

The fiords and inlets on the coast remained icebound until the summer breakup began in late June.

The fiords, narrow coastal inlets from Baffin Bay, are characterized by sheer rock faces rising thousands of feet from the water’s edge.

A mountaintop view of one of the island’s many glaciers.