Expeditions Schmitt lived for four years at an Alaskan Inuit village named
Anaktuvuk Pass before leading expeditions, some with the
Sierra Club. In 2003, Schmitt discovered one of the candidates for the title of "northernmost land in the world". Deciding that Greenland should name its own landmarks, he simply called it "
83-42" after its latitude, a name that has remained. Two years later, in 2005, Schmitt discovered a new islet revealed by the retreat of an ice shelf in East Greenland.
Uunartoq Qeqertaq, Greenlandic for "The Warming Island", lies 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The
Sierra Club reported on a Schmitt quote to
The New York Times: Schmitt was also credited with the July 2007 discovery of another candidate for the "northernmost" title, named
Stray Dog West by expedition member Holly Wenger. Stray Dog West, at 83º40'30", belongs to a shifting, semi-permanent archipelago locked in the sea ice north of Peary Land in
northeast Greenland, named the Stray Dog Islands. The first islet of the archipelago was discovered on July 10, 1996, by Steve Gardiner and Jim Schaefer and is commonly known as the 1996 ATOW Island after the 1996 American – Top Of The World Expedition. A 2022 survey by the
Leister Go North expedition later confirmed that 83-42, Uunartoq Qeqertaq, Stray Dog West, and all other islets north of
Kaffeklubben Island are not permanent islands, but rather icebergs covered with moraine material. These islets are temporary, as they shift and will break apart with continued melting and ice break-up. Schmitt was the first person to climb the highest point of the
Daly Range, part of the
northernmost mountain chain on Earth, as well as Alaska's
Brooks Range from
Point Hope to the
Mackenzie River, and made the first traverse of
Axel Heiberg Island, northern Canada. He also crossed the sea ice of the
Bering Straits to the
Soviet Union, and travelled through Inuit villages of eastern
Siberia. Upon his return, the
FBI detained Schmitt but released him without charge. == Personal life ==