Mike’s 2002

North Pole

Expedition

Inspired by Tim Jellard, I joined

the “Alpine Club of Canada”.

In addition to many fun

adventures I saw an ad in a

2001 news letter looking for

explorers willing to join a 3

man arctic expedition to the

North Pole.

Well, who can say no to that!?

This expedition was not a paid-

for “adventure tour” with a

guide. It was just us three guys

planning the route and

logistics – all from different

cities in Canada.

Our 2001 plans fell through but

our 2nd try in 2002 proceeded.

But which “north pole”? There

are 2 to chose from.

We sought the magnetic north

pole (the one a compass

points to).

Magnetic

North Pole Geographic

North Pole

Did you know ?

The MNP is a moving target,

randomly drifting as much as

100 km in a year!

1600

1700

1800 1900

2000

MNP drift over past 400 years

MNP drift over past 105 years

I was training for this expedition

at +40°C while I was working in

the middle east in 2001(for

BAPCO) and then at +35°C

while I was in South America in

2002 (for Sonacol).

Not exactly simulating arctic

conditions!

The Plan:

3 guys skiing

8 dogs pulling supply sled

Begin at “Resolute Bay"

ski 700 km to MNP

3 week food budget

= 37 km per day

radio in for return flight

MNP

Resolute Bay

Did it the plan work?

Did we make it?

Well first, how about some pics

Packing up the gear

Summer in downtown Resolute Bay

Komatik (supply sled)

Typical landscape – or should I

say “icescape”

On a sunny day

Home sweet home…

Satellite phone (for pizza delivery)

Our gun that couldn’t fire

Every day would we spent

4 hours to break camp in

the morning, ski for 8 hours

and then spend 4 hours to

make camp in the evening.

Breaking camp

The dog food. Really!

Making water for cooking

For our athletic output and

fighting the constant cold

we needed to consume

more than10,000 calories

per day

Spent a rest day at a northern mine

Steak!

Snow blindness

Tough dogs

So how cold was it?

Temperature in a fridge: +4

Temperature in a deep freeze: -18

Warmest temp we had: -25

Coldest temp we had: -45

Temperature in a freezer: -4

So - did we make it?

Well, we had a few problems:

snow blindness

thin ice

stray dog

frozen gun

polar bears

group dynamics

But mostly due to uncommonly

rough ice our daily progress was

often less than 10 km, but we still

needed to eat > 10,000 calories

each day.

After coming some 400 km we

exceeded our food budget.

We had no choice and called in

for our plane and what took 21

days to accomplish was undone

in 2 hours.

Our ride home

21 days out, 2 hours back

But at least we made it back alive:

The solo skier who went after us fell

through thin ice and died.

It’s a dangerous and wild place

out there. Proceed with caution!