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Two fanciful expeditions to cross the Northwest Passage — one on jet skis, the other in a rowboat — have been turned back after crews found that their path through the Canadian Arctic was blocked by ice.

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A group of Americans filming a reality TV show radioed for assistance from the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier after getting pinned by Arctic conditions on Sept. 3.

“The group had encountered ice, high winds, cool temperatures and felt they were not safe and were at risk if they did not request rescue/evacuation assistance. No injuries reported,” said Rachelle Smith, regional manager of communications for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, told the Iqaluit-based Nunatsiaq News.

The seven men, filming a show called Dangerous Waters, are circumnavigating the globe on personal watercraft. This season, the goal was to cross the Northwest Passage, round the southern tip of Greenland and finish off by pulling into London, England.

Instead, they were bogged down by plummeting temperatures, a polar bear ripping apart one of their tents and the ocean freezing underneath them.