I like splashing around inside. he as the next man.
So he will be swimming from Canada to Greenland this week.
Athlete, explorer, author and cultural detective — best known as the host of Unexplained and Unexplored on the Science Channel — is Join General Aviation pilot Wesley Archer takes part in a historic expedition that tests endurance and willpower. Great Arctic Swim Expedition.
Fornal intends to become the first person to swim the 40-kilometer Nares Strait between Canada and Greenland. This project is his four years of loving work put together to illustrate the vicissitudes of climate change and the cultural loss that accompanies it.
Men accompany and guide Inuit hunters.
Arctic Adventures will be shot by respected filmmaker Emiliano Lupra for future documentaries.
The team will take off from New York on his August 7th single-engine flight to remote Arctic Canada, stopping at Iqaluit.
From there they undertake the perilous crossing to Karnak in Greenland.
After arriving at Qaanaaq, the team meets with Inuit hunters to assist with swimming and transports the team to Canada's Pym Island (a 120-mile open sea journey).
When weather and sea ice conditions permit, Fornal begins a grueling swim across the Nares Strait.
Wesley Archer is next to him in a kayak carrying food, water and other supplies.
Inuit support teams are also nearby to keep wildlife, such as giant Greenland sharks and territorial walruses, from getting too close.
In a recent interview, Fornal said they have been preparing for this epic swim for years.
"I have been training on the Hudson River. I love to swim, I love to swim in open water, I love to swim in difficult open water.
"We swam about 100 miles (100 miles) around the Isle of Islay in Scotland for over a week in very rough seas.
"It was great fun."
At the Islay Swim a few years ago, Fornal showed creativity as strong as his athleticism. He added samples from the many famous Scotch distilleries on the island to his back barrels to create a very unusual blended malt.
Fornal says that swimming in the Arctic is a winter adventure, and that regular ice bridges are a must when he swims all year round. Described as acting as a dam - round open water in North Water Polynya.
``This was the way it was supposed to swim. I have to swim now.”
As he explained, Nares Strait and Baffin Bay are the epicenters of global warming. Dramatic changes mean the loss of traditional Inuit culture and natural ecosystems.
"It's happening right before your eyes," said Fornal.
He is pleased to join the Inuit people of Karnark in this undertaking.
"This is their story, but it's also a story about water and ice. They've been there for thousands of years and I need to hear them. They tell me through swimming." It guides you."
This Arctic adventure is what Fornal has wanted to do for years.
"Swimming is actually a little further than I would have liked," he said with a laugh.
``But the North Pole. } He hopes the Great Arctic Swim Expedition will bring environmental and cultural awareness. "By focusing on one place and he Qaanaaq, the people who educate us about the area."
lbraun@postmedia.com
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