Archive for the ‘North Pole 2009 Peary-Henson Centennial’ Category

85.0654N,077.7453W

We finally got the green light and take off from Eureka at 9:30. Bellow
us Ellesmere island is shrouded in a frozen blanket of ice. Soon
the coastline replaces the mountaainous terrain and annouces what we
will navigate for the next five weeks or so. Troy, our pilot, puts down
on a smooth pan of ice. Smooth is relative of course as the plane
bounces like an ice shaker until it comes to a reassuring hum. The door
opens and the cold air of the pack ice hits us like a shot of
adrenaline. I was hoping to film the plane as it left us in the white
vastness. But a suspicious ding in the fuselage will have the pilots
confer with their base and standing is cold! Keith and I bid our
farewells and start moving. It is 2:15 and our coordinates are N
84:59:861 and W077:06:940. It will take about 400 miles to get us to
the pole in an estimated 35-40 days. The euphoria is soon replaced by
the effort and the heat generated from pulling the heavy sledges. We
navigate through an endlless field of rubble the size of cars. After 4
hours and 15mn we have made 4.1 nautical miles. We are spent and after
a delish meal courtesy of chef Heger, it is time to sleep Cold out!
Over and out.

By Sebastian–Resolute Bay/Eureka

Our six AM weather report comes in negative. Our team on the ice
reports low vis and we are back to bed until an eight AM update. At
nine thirty Steve at Ken Borek calls asking if we are ready to go and
to meet by the Ken Borek cargo area! Like two bats out of purgatory,
Keith and I are on the go. Reality sets in on the way, and we both
contemplate our impending experience. Wearing the big, white, cold
weather Napapijri outfit, I feel like an astronaut on the way to the
moon. Thank you Ale, Martino and Massimiliano at Napa in Milan for
getting these outfits customized in record time. They are warm, feel
great for the conditions and got a universal envious nod from the other
expedition teams here. Our friends at the South Camp Inn give us solemn
blessings, and we ride in silence to the airport. Outside the sun is
bright and the air crisp. Troy, our pilot, greets us by the hangar.
Troy had flown me off Devon Island this summer, after my experience
with the bear. He is a good man, and an ace pilot. Soon, the engines of
the Twin Otter roar on the runway, and the bird lifts into the great
white vastness that surrounds us. We are off and the journey ahead
finally sets in.

Two and a half hours and we land in Eureka for refueling. Stepping
out of the plane, the minus 43C temp is a stern reminder of what lies
ahead! A slight breeze, and that air stings like a fist of needles. A
seam on the fuel pump malfunctions and Keith and I, both giddy and
cold, run around the runway to keep warm. Eureka is a refueling station
and an outpost with a few barracks and a hotel catered to Arctic
researchers. An hour later, we board the plane. The plane begins
shaking as the engines roar. And roar. And roar. From the tarmack we
are ninety minute to our drop on the ice, at N85 latitude! “This is
it”, I hear myself mutter. When suddenly… the props relente, the
engine shuts down and the bird slumps back to its rest position:
weather has closed in on the ice and vis is no good again! We will sit
for a couple of hours and assess what to do next. The one thing you
can’t be mad at is weather, as Keith reminds me. I had silently thought
this to be relatively too good to be true.

We drive to the hotel, and soon accept that today will not be the day.

Out of the cold, dinner is served. There is nothing quite like
being in the thick of it to hear the nuances of how the ice up here is
changing. At our table, much of the talk is about how multi year ice
has become fleeting, systematically being replaced by new ice. The
pilots’ interest in the topic relates to putting down on the ice, since
thickness and rubble conditions are as relevant to them as visibility
and weather to land there. This confirms the scientific data I know all
too well, but it is interesting and refreshing to hear their point of
view. In fact, Arctic multi year ice (ice that is ten years old or
more) went from 80% twenty year ago to 3% today. New ice accounts for
the fragile conditions of the sea ice, and how rapidly the Arctic
summer ice can simply break entirely. It also factors why in a short
window of time, explorers will likely no longer have a window to reach
the pole as we are attempting to…

We will spend the night here tonight, and pray for our marching
orders in the morning. Next update is at 7AM. Hopefully, Sedna–the
Inuit goddess of the ice–will be on our side. We’d like to go now!

South Camp Inn, Reslolute Bay—Well it wouldn’t be the Arctic if weather
didn’t alter the best laid plans. We waited for the much anticipated
call at 6AM from a team on the ice for a weather update and the green
light from the pilots. Unfortunately, the satellite map points to a
weather system hanging over the pole and confirmation comes that
visibility is poor. We will get a further update at 8AM so back to bed.
By 8AM, visibility is still down and it doesn’t look like we will be
off today. Our flight is re-scheduled for tomorrow. Keith and I drive
to the airport to check on our sledges and weigh our cargo once more.
Including the re-supply we will be dropping another team on the ice, we
are at around 900 pounds. We test our weapon and fire a couple of
shells. Hopefully we’ll not have to use it.

The night is cold. Really cold, even inside the tent. A good exercise
nonetheless, as there were a few things that I can adjust. Not the
least of which is face gear at night. Frost is setting in my stubble
and steam explodes out of my nostrils. It keeps me up for most of the
night. I fall in a calming meditation. For hours, I reminisce and
contemplate my close encounters with the bear this summer. The tension
of his approach, the suspended reality. And the charge. I re-live those
moments again and again, imagining different scenarios down to the most
dire. Internally, I feel my heart pounding as it had then, alone on the
ice, fueling each vessel in my body and pumping it with the adrenaline
that fires up every cell and lights me up like a firework. I feel
alive, damn it! I am alive! It is addicting.

Those bears are magnetic. Odds are we will not see them on our way to
the pole, as bears don’t need to venture this far North in the winter
time for food. Sightings of them are rare at the latitudes we will be
traveling. But tracks are not uncommon, a constant reminder of this
fierce lord of the ice.

When morning comes, my feet are cold, my face is cold, and we have not
slept much! Keith fires up the cooking stove which soon fills the tent
with a welcomed nod to civilization. Luckily this time, we only need
walk a hundred feet and we are back inside the comfort of the South
Camp Inn! Better enjoy that while we can. Final packing of the sledges.
They weight in at about 190 pounds including fuel which is better than
I had anticipated. Once packed, we bring them to the airport to be
weighted. Payload is critical for the Twin Otters that fly the white
desert of the Arctic. We have confirmation, weather pending, that we
will be wheels off at 7AM. T minus 10 hours. And so it begins…

Another day going over the pack list, and shedding a few more pounds
off the loads. We are waiting for Keith’s sledge to arrive in Resolute
as it did not make it on time for the scheduled flight on the way in.
Fingers crossed that it arrives today by cargo, otherwise we will lose
a day. We stop by the Ken Borek charter flight office
to confirm our drop on the ice Monday—in two days! You need to be armed
with patience in the Arctic as flight delays are not the exception but
the norm. On our trip here, last summer, we spent a good twenty percent
of our time losing to weather delays. But there are always rich
encounters in Resolute; people, who just like us, wait for the go ahead
on their way to make their dream come true. At Aziz’s South Camp Inn,
where we stay, there is always a motley crew of inspiring adventure
seekers carving their own notch into the history books. All their
stories make ours pale in comparison.Take Tarka and Catlin for
instance, who have crossed the Chinese Gobi desert
on foot—over 4,000 kilometers in six months; or their North/South
crossing of the Africa continent. On bicycles. Or Michele who is on the
footing of departure for a solo ski trip from the South Camp Inn to the
magnetic 1996 North Pole. He will set off tomorrow morning as well.

Tonight we have decided to set the tent outside the hotel and sleep
there, to test our systems one last time before leaving. After picking
the sledge from cargo, we suit up and step into the dark cold to build
our tent, pulling one sledge of equipment including our blogging
technology: an iridium sat phone, an HP iPack and software provided by
The Human Edge to link all this together and uploaded on the server. Everything seems
to be working OK, even if the batteries need some time to warm up from
the frigid temperature. It is minus 36C! We have decided to camp very
close to a pack of sled dogs—they sleep outside—in the event that a
polar bear might chose to tuck us in!

It is so cold, frost soon builds inside the tent, and on our faces. You
must not put your face inside the sleeping back as condensation will
built in the bag, turn wet and never dry. So no tucking of the head
under the blankets! Periodically, some of the dogs begin barking, and I
wonder if we will have a visitor tonight. The weapon sits outside the
door, loaded…

Woke up today to find Keith already downstairs, sorting out our food.
We spend a few hours organizing our food allotment for the first twenty
days, which is when we will get our first re-supply. This process is a
fine balance between calculating each meal’s caloric intake and
exacting it against the precise weight we will be pulling. It is a
virtual science, and the magic number should not exceed 2.4 pounds of
food each per day for a caloric value of around 7000! It’s like a real
jigsaw puzzle! Servings of blended mixes of bacon and cranberries(!),
butter, soups, stews, nuts, dried fruit, cheese, Herbalife protein
shake and power bars, electrolytes, candy and cereal are each carefully
examined to meet the exacting criteria of the unforgiving scale. Keith
is a strict numbers cruncher. I am so used to carrying extra camera
weight that I am somewhat loser in the approach. But I know that out on
the ice, after a few days of intense effort, I will be cursing the
extra butter!

Rick has arranged for us to invite the elders to dinner. This turns out
to be a great thoughtful gesture. The elders bless our dinner and share
with us the manner in which climate change is affecting their lives.
The indigenous cultures of the Arctic are the first line of casualty
from the changing conditions. Reliant on hunting both culturally and
economically, they find themselves handicapped by warmer trends
preventing the freezing of sea channels, which enables them to cover
vaster hunting grounds for seal, caribou, musk ox, narwhal, and yes,
bear. The Arctic is a desert, with very little food. It takes 500
square miles to feed one person in the Arctic. The Inuit use the hunt
for food and hide, as they have for the last few thousands of years.
Less hunt means more reliance on commercial food, which is very
expensive up here, given the distance it needs to travel. A shortage of
jobs in these communities creates a socio-economic instability, and
introduces delinquent behavior as is commonly seen in underprivileged
communities around the globe. Only this time, the loss of a culture, in
such a short time, can be linked directly to activities perpetuated
thousands of miles away. Odd though it may be to sum up this way:
excessive carbon emissions in our cities are leading Inuit to poverty
and delinquent behavior. Their culture endangered, they truly put a
face to global warming. After the dinner, the elders sign the Polar
Explorer flag that will be flying on our tent every night. And they
bless our trip.

Outside the sun is hanging low on the horizon, casting a pink glow on
the frigid landscape. Keith and I decide that tomorrow we will ski out
and test our gear one last time before departure. We will sleep on the
ice, preferably near a pack of dogs. They provide good warning for the
bears! One was sighted outside the hotel just three days ago!

Early flight out to Iqaluit today. It takes another three and a half
hours to reach Iqaluit, just at the edge of the Arctic circle. A lay
over there gives us time to make some last minute food shopping and
check the local museum which I visited last summer. It feels
comfortable to be here again, this time walking around in the dry snow.
Our flight is delayed, and I run into Paul who flew most of  our
chartered rotations last summer around Ellesmere island. It is nice to
catch up. The plane finally takes off for another three hours up north,
with a short stop in Naninsivik. These are familiar steps, retracing
the itinerary of the summer, but for one detail: when we landed in
Resolute in early july, temperatures had hit a historical high of 67F
degrees. Today, the landscape is covered with a sheet of white, and
upon walking out of the plane, the air explodes in my lungs like a shot
of adrenaline: it is minus 36F degrees! Aziz, owner of the South Camp
Inn, meets us at the airport and it is nice to see him again. Resolute
is a town of 200 people, but it is the logistics center for all
activities in the high Arctic. Aziz is an invaluable ally in this
frontier town: he has a solution for almost everything. Joining us from
the plane is an Austrian man who has traveled all the way here to shoot
a polar bear. My heart skips and my stomach turns when I realize that
he does not mean using a camera…. Inuit are allowed a limited quota of
bear kills per year. Some can be sold to outsiders for $35,000. One
man’s blessing is another man’s curse.

It has taken five planes and two days to reach this outpost in the
middle of the freezing Arctic, some 3500 miles north of Los Angeles.
Luckily, my friends at Climate Partner will offset the carbon
generated from this trip. Keith and I are excited to be here. The hotel
brings back all kinds of memories and some nostalgia. I spent over a
month in and out of here last summer, dreaming of coming back to try
the Pole. We are here now!

Departure is finally upon us, after months of training and preparation!
A seamstress works late into the night to affix the sponsor patches
onto the outerwear. Meanwhile, back at the fort and with the company of
a handful loyal friends, I stay up all night finalizing the remaining
items on my to do list, and complete packing. I guess one could always
use a few more days.

By 6AM, it is time to leave for the airport. Isaiah has gifted me with
a pimped out iPod for the long trail. And Mikhail will oversee business
affairs while I am gone. T-Mac will keep the house and care for Guerra,
my dog. I am blessed. They drive me to the airport, and after a
powerful send off, the plane takes off for Ottawa where I overnight and
meet Keith. A quick dinner and catch up and then lights out. Neither of
us slept last night.

Today, the city of West Hollywood made a proclamation of my departure
and gifted me with a certificate and a proper send off at city Hall.
The mayor promised me the keys of the city upon my return!

Earlier in the day, KTLA came by the house to run a story on the
technology that will be with us on the ice. I will run this blog using
an HP iPack PDA and Iridium satellite phone liked though a Human Edge
software to upload text and lo rez photographs. Additionally we went
through the declination of magnetic North Pole versus geographic North
Pole (they are not the same) and why a GPS is critical on top of a
compass for distance traveled, speed of travel, etc. We covered the
custom clothing Napapijri made for me and the importance of a fur ruff
around the hood—and no, it is not a fashion statement! The ruff is
critical to create a “micro climate” around the face and to trap
moisture to reduce excess freezing around the face.

Later, Warren Alny from NPR’s All Things Considered  had me on the show
discussing the importance of creating an international treaty for the
protection of the Arctic, and how different the Arctic is today than it
was a hundred years ago.

The Ward Hunt Island ice shelf. Straight ahead, some 460 miles, lies the North Pole. Beyond the ice shelf lies an endless patch of broken ice, made of pressure ridges fragmented by the increasing thawing and freezing, and the enormous force of currents forcing the ice onto the

continental shelf. Pressure ridges and “leads” of open water, along with the often frigid temperatures are the leading challenges of North Pole expeditions.