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.