The Aleutian Islands

Even for an elite kayaker, these remote Pacific islands are an intense place, challenging and inspiring in the same stroke, with back-breaking swells

- Sarah Outen

The NOAA Pilot describes the weather in the Aleutian Islands as being generally considered some of the consistently worst in the world. Low pressure systems — born from warm air from the Pacific to their south mixing with the frigid air from the Bering Sea to their north — spin eastwards along the island chain and onto the US mainland, driving its west coast weather. The water conditions are just as dynamic, powered by strong tides and currents, which heave and rush through island passes over a richly sculpted seabed, meeting a jagged, rocky coastline.

Wildlife abounds above and below the water, drawn here by the rich up-swellings and cold water. Hordes of noisy sea lions bark and honk from precarious rocky stages, while rafts of sea birds divebomb shoals of sand eels, or perch on ledges. Otters bob and float in family groups or giant nurseries, weaving in and out of the kelp beds. Spiky carpets of sea urchins cram the shallows and knobbly chitons graze the rocks in static herds. It’s like a wildlife sweet shop — there’s always something to look at, study and wonder on.