Exploration

Frozen fjords and first ascents: Shira Biner’s Baffin Island odyssey

Episode 113

The 2025 Nat Gillis Adventure Photography Expedition Grant recipient discusses her journey leading a groundbreaking team in Canada’s North

  • Published Oct 28, 2025
  • Updated Oct 29
The team in front of the buttress they climbed on Eglinton Tower. (Photo: Natalie Afonina)
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In this episode of Explore, podcast host David McGuffin speaks with Canadian climber and expedition leader Shira Biner, who led the first female-plus team to establish a new 600-metre route on Eglinton Tower in the remote fjords of Baffin Island. Biner recounts the 2025 expedition, which was partly funded by The Nat Gillis Adventure Photography Expedition Grant awarded by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

The team skiing on the sea ice in Arviqtujuq Kangiqtua. (Photo: Natalie Afonina)
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Over 29 days, the team travelled entirely under human power, skiing 150 kilometres across Arctic sea ice with teammates Kelly Fields, Heather Smallpage and Nathalie Afonina to reach the towering granite walls of Eglinton Fjord.

From navigating crevassed ice and polar-bear country to sleeping on narrow ledges high above the fjord, Biner shares the physical and emotional demands of exploratory climbing at the edge of the world.

Through her work as an expedition leader and a climber, Biner explores the intersection of human-powered travel, alpine climbing and geographic discovery. Based in Squamish, B.C., she approaches mountaineering as both an athletic pursuit and a form of storytelling. 

In 2023, Biner received an RCGS Expedition Grant to support an alpine rock-climbing journey on the east coast of Baffin Island. In 2025, she received the RCGS Nat Gillis Adventure Photography & Expedition Grant, recognizing her leadership and visual storytelling in the North.

Shira Biner paddling a flat section of the Kuugaaluk River. Photo: Kelly Fields)
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The hamlet of Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River) with the sea ice in the bay slowly melting (Photo: Natalie Afonina)
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High on the wall looking across the fjord. (Photo: Shira Biner)
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Shira skiing on the sea ice (Photo: Kelly Fields)
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Kelly Fields near the top of the buttress. (Photo: Shira Biner)
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