A well-equipped rich kid claims no one has ever crossed the Arctic by canoe and sets out to be "the first". Of course we can imagine Inuit in bygone centuries have done it, and we know the Hudson's Bay Co. Set up shop in 1670; the Voyageurs routinely made the voyage from Great Slave Lake to Hudson's Bay during the fur trade back in the 17th and 18th centuries. Shoalts ignores all that history, and doesn't even mention the most intrepid, or insane, Canadian paddler, Don Starkell, who crossed the Arctic solo via Hudson's Bay westward to Tuktoyaktuk, across the Arctic Ocean in a kayak, without any air-drops or fancy tech, just maps and a compass, maybe a sextant, and a good watch. Starkell's books, "Paddle to the Arctic" and its predecessor, "Paddle to the Amazon", about his 12,000 mile canoe journey from Winnipeg to the Amazon River, are the definitive canoe adventures, and Starkell is a Canadian paddling legend. For Shoalts to completely ignore all that underlines what is wrong with this documentary. Aside from all that missing context, it could also do with a lot more nature footage and less of the in-tent monologues about his big toe. He can't pronounce "musk ox" correctly, always saying "muks ox" or "muks oxen" when there's just one. And here's a burning question: how do you paddle that pristine wilderness and not even try to catch a fish, not even once? Could have supplemented his diet of freeze dried meals with fresh protein and Omega-3 fatty acids. The biggest blunder for me is that this 'expert paddler' seems to not even know that a canoe is made to travel in either direction; that is, either end can serve as the bow. When solo paddling you would use the 'back' end as the bow because the seat is closer to the centre and you won't have that problem of the front end riding too high. Basic canoe skill that is totally lost on this city boy. Also, gondolas in Venice do not 'pole' to move through the canals, they have a large single oar over the stern and the gondolier paddles the boat. Any informed paddler can tell you this, or even someone who has seen a photo or video of a gondola in action. I agree with other commenters saying this would have been better as a YT series; as nature doc, it fails simply by the lack of nature footage; as adventure doc it merely shows a well-heeled rich kid with air-dropped supplies and loads of tech, encountering not much difficulty and achieving his goal. But to be clear, he was never "first".
Review of Alone Across the Arctic
