Sponsors

	Kokatat is the leading Manufacturer of Dry Wear. It is hard to find Clothing of higher quality to protect us from the harsh conditions in the arctic. Well, it would be hard if Kokatat would not be there. They create the highest quality Drysuits and underwear we know and we are very proud that we can call Kokatat a sponsor of the Ellice River 2003: By Fair Means! expedition. Kokatat provides: Drysuits: Dura Gore Drysuits, which are especially well suited to open boaters. Insulation wear: Core underwear and Polartec insulation Destination Paddelwear: Supplex Pants and Paddling Shirt for warm conditions and quick drying. PFD's: Pro Fit Tour, one of the best Lifejackets on the market. Hats: XCR Norwester and Surfskin caps as head protection in nasty weather. Drysuits may seem overkill to some people. In fact not many paddlers take Drysuits on trips in the far north. However, we look at our drysuits as a lifeinsurance on icecold waters. We wear them not only when shooting whitewater, but also when paddling the vast expanses of the very cold northern lakes in nasty weather or when walking on ice in the early or late season. A Drysuit can save your life in the wilderness.
	First Air is THE Airline serving the canadian north with scheduled air flights for 28 destinations. We are very happy to call First Air one of our sponsors. Since we will end our tour in the remote community of Ikaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay), which lies in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, they are our only way out! OK, we could go by barge. But hey, this takes a hundred years and we have jobs, too. First Air is providing transportation for the two of us and is shipping the canoe back to Yellowknife.
	ZRE is the leading manufacturer of high end Carbon Bent-Shaft Paddles. Since we will have to cross some mighty lakes, we need paddles that know how to spell the word efficiency. The Whitewater is a very tough, yet light Carbon Bent-Shaft of just over 300g. We use these paddles for all but whitewater paddling, where we use backferry technique. When we encounter big lakes or open water in general, we usually start eating up kilometers. We do this by using the sit'n'switch technique. Every few strokes, the stern paddler will tell the bow paddler to switch sides using the "Hut" command. In some german conversations, especially in high winds, this can be quite confusing and triggers weird behaviour of the bow paddler.
	Grateful Heads makes helmets for whitewater paddling. The helmets are extremely light, since they use Kevlar. This makes the helmets perfect for us: super light on the portages and extremely tough when shooting whitewater or carrying high loads over boulder fields. We use the models Hwag and Drop Zone. Very few people use helmets on wilderness trips today. We look at them as one of the most important pieces of equipment on remote rivers. A Helmet can make the difference between the trip is over and "Hej Heinz, look how I scratched my helmet!"...
	Hilleberg the Tentmaker is the number one tent manufacturer in the world. Hilleberg tents are known as the best on the market in terms of weight, craftmanship, toughness and wind stability. We use a Nallo 3 GT tunnel which weighs only 2.5 kg. The GT extension is especially usefull for paddlers since they usually carry more gear along and it makes dressing easier in foul weather. We choose red as a signal color. In addition to the tent, we take a ultralight tarp, the 10 UL, which measures 3.0x3.5 m. It weighs only 0.5 kg. Since we will travel through bear country, we do not cook inside the tent. The tarp serves a out "open-air-kitchen", far off the tent. Tent and tarp are 3.0 kg together. This is really hard to beat and most other tents would be heavier than that, without the tarp!
	We like quality food and Walkers Shortbread provides food of superb quality! Their Shortbread products are made from high quality ingredients only. Further, it is an excelent energy source. In cold weather and, with a constant level of aerobic work over long hours each day, the human body needs fat. The butter found in Shortbread is far superior to the low quality vegetable oils found in most comparable products. We take about 7 kg of Shortbread Fingers on the trip, which will be one of our main energy sources above the tree line.