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!