HIGH ACHIEVERS: Ray Zahab, Kevin Vallely conquer epic ski journey of Ellesmere Island

By Martin Cleary

Ray Zahab of Chelsea, PQ, and Kevin Vallely of Vancouver went for a late-season cross-country ski outing in mid March.

But it certainly wasn’t your typical overland trek to share with family or friends, stop for a café coffee and have fun sprints to see who would be the fastest to the next pine tree.

This ski assignment was serious, dangerous and all business, but equally lined with the pure thrill and enjoyment of tackling difficult snow conditions in a blistering cold adventure. There was a 150-pound sled to pull their supplies, frigid cold temperatures and visits from several packs of Arctic wolves, who likely had little contact before with humans, as well as multiple muskox.

Epic was a good word to describe the journey for Zahab and Vallely, who are experienced and well-respected explorers. They needed 29 days and 19 minutes to complete their cross-country ski trip, travelling south down Ellesmere Island from Eureka, a small weather research base in Nunavut with the lowest average annual temperature in Canada, to Grise Fiord, a hamlet which is Canada’s northernmost public community with a 2021 population of 144.

A more accurate completion time for the Ellesmere Island expedition by Zahab and Vallely would be more than three years. They had discussed this northern Canada for a long time before taking their first run at it in 2022.

That year, unexpected challenges forced them to abandon their south-to-north trip after 10 days. Greatly disappointed, they were still determined to return to Ellesmere, after learning many valuable lessons.

Zahab, a former pack-a-day smoker who dedicated his life to fitness about 22 years ago and became a world explorer, was struck by a rare form of blood cancer (lymphoma) in 2023. He survived six brutal rounds of chemotherapy and monoclonal therapy. As the cancer was quietly building, an unassuming Zahab started and completed several other world adventures fuelled on Advil and coffee, but more seriously because he refused to quit. When his health reached a troublesome state, he was checked out and diagnosed with cancer.

Although the Ellesmere Island project was cancelled for a second year, all the boxes on the to-do list were checked in 2024 until a key partner withdrew and triggered a third delay. Never one to give up on a great idea, Zahab and Vallely remained determined to get to Ellesmere Island at some point.

Ellesmere Island, take four, started on March 8, 2025, when Zahab and Vallely departed Grise Fiord on snowmobiles under the guidance of Grise resident Terry Noah and team members Nolan Kiguktak, Silas Pijamini and photographer Howie Stern. Bombardier had shipped two snowmobiles to Grise Fiord two years ago for Zahab and Vallely.

Zahab and Vallely and their teammates revved their ski-doos for a 500-kilometre trip to the Ellesmere Island ski journey start line in Eureka.

Almost a month later with little contact with the rest of the world, Zahab and Vallely skied into Grise Fiord feeling exhausted, but exhilarated.

“Relief,” Zahab offered to describe the completion of a wild trip you’re not about to find advertised in any travel brochure.

“We’ve been trying to do this for so long. Exhilaration and relief. We finally got it done.”

Zahab has completed more than 40 expeditions around the world, either solo or in a small team or with his youth-inspiring impossible2Possible project. In 2009, Zahab, Vallely and Richard Weber of Chelsea broke the world speed record for an unsupported trip by a team to the Geographic South Pole.

On Nov. 1, 2006, Zahab, Charlie Engle and Kevin Lin ran an average of 70 kilometres a day for 111 consecutive days to cross the Sahara Desert from the west coast of Senegal, Africa, to the Red Sea. The trip covered 7,500 kilometres.

For four full weeks, Zahab and Vallely pulled a 150-pound sled with all their supplies, including a tent, stove and food, which was supplied by Farm Boy. Before the trip, they prepared daily food bags, which would give them 7,000 calories a day to fuel their endurance travels.

They carried a two-week supply of food and picked up another two weeks’ worth at about the halfway point. Protein and nutrition bars and dehydrated foods cooked on their portable stove were familiar fare for the explorers. The stove also heated their water.

Once on the snow, it was tough sledding.

“It was so cold at minus-30°C and minus-40 some days,” Zahab, who was bundled in a selection of Canada Goose clothing, said in a recent phone interview.

“Pulling the sled over the abrasive snow was difficult. There was no gliding. You were always pulling, working against gravity.”

Besides the cold temperatures and challenging snow conditions, Zahab and Vallely also had to confront unending climbs, thousands of feet of elevation, rolling terrain and snow drifts.

“We knew it would be hard going. But we learned if we’re going to do it in winter and to do it well, we must be prepared,” added Zahab, who skied up to 12 hours a day.

Sleeping also was a challenge for Zahab.

There were nights when the temperature was minus-40C and he would wake up at 3 a.m. shaking and craving warmth.

“I love the Arctic, but I don’t like the cold,” admitted Zahab, whose next project will be much warmer – pacing his wife in an ultramarathon this summer in preparation for her fall race in Morocco.

While there was no human contact during their Ellesmere expedition, Zahab and Vallely did have several visits from Arctic wolves (31 in total), muskox (22) and a solo Arctic hare.

“Three times the wolves walked to our camp. The chances of this happening were infinitesimal,” said Zahab, who didn’t fear the Arctic wolves. “They were just passing through.

“I wasn’t scared. A friend in Grise told me the wolves must be respected, but not feared. The beauty of our overland trip is you run into wildlife. We saw polar bear tracks everywhere, but didn’t see them. That was OK.”

So how was it that two men and a sled were able to conquer a challenging 500-kilometre ski across Canada’s northernmost island and the 10th largest island in the world?

“We didn’t think about the whole,” Zahab explained. “It was one day at a time. We focused on one day at a time.

“Kevin and I have been a long time together and were able to work things through. On tough days, if one of us was good and one of us was feeling bad, we become a unit of collaborative effort.”

Two men. Two communities. Too exhilarating.