Luke Judge

All the North Pole teams experienced negative drifts that challenged their psychological strength. They were drifting south almost as fast as we were walking north reported some of the teams. Headwinds were cold.

On Lake Baikal the Czech team, Vasek Sura and Pavel Blazek finished their crossing and a five-man team is circumnavigating Lake Baikal on bicycles.

Unassisted (No resupplies), Unsupported teams:

Tom Smitheringale – solo, Ward Hunt Island

Toms home team reported that he crossed someone else’s tracks, which he described as bizarre, in the middle of the arctic; it was the last thing he was expecting. They were a couple of days old, Tom considered following them but decided against it, the prospect of seeing someone not altogether appealing.

Tom reported that he has a couple of frostbitten fingertips that have turned black and they get quite painful when they thaw out in the tent at night. Doing things such as putting my boots on becomes quite painful.

He gives some ways how he keeps himself motivated in the tough conditions:

For me the focus is getting through every day without making any mistakes or breaking something. To do that gives you such a great feeling of accomplishment. It’s just a real celebration.

It just comes down to experience and how you measure extremes, the bottom line is you have to want to be here more than anything else. Having a good routine takes the edge out of hardship as well.

I just try to say positive all the time; that’s not to say you don’t have your low moments.

How your life experiences relate to what you are doing now plays a big part too.

Position March 21: 84°15.965N, 074°09.334W
Past few nights negative night drifts: 2.9 nm, 2.5 nm

Michele Pontrandolfo – solo, Ward Hunt Island Start

Barbara DAndrea from Micheles home team sent the following news through to ExplorersWeb: On March 18 Michele traveled 5.9 km, but during the night he experienced a 5 km [2.7 nm] drift to the west.

He was aware of the drift immediately after making camp, but it was too late to move the tent, and too tiring, Michele reported. Because of this he slept little and badly and woke up very early in the morning in order to recover the distance said Barbara.

Position March 18: 83° 43,063′ N, 074° 17,539′

Amelia Russell and Dan Darley – Cape Discovery Start (McClintock Inlet)

In negotiating some thinner ice Amelia went briefly up to her knees.

The two reported that they now tend to feel chilly the whole time. Teams with no resupplies dont have extra fuel to heat themselves in the tent at night.

They also dont have the luxury of extra food dropped with resupplies and Amelia said they dream of food. I find it difficult to believe that in my pre-Arctic life and in the real world, it is possible for long periods of the day to walk to a special building called the supermarket (without needing to don three layers first), and in exchange for a few small bits of metal (which one may handle safely with bare hands! Imagine that!) you can get whatever food you like.

And you can get different things every day if you like. It sounds incredible and so far from my current reality.

With the negative drift testing them mentally Amelia wrote, These are the days that define the trip I think, we can either give in and decide we’ll never make it to the pole, or redouble our efforts and really battle for progress. We’ve been trying to stay positive and we are still getting closer to our goal every day.

Position March 21: 84.8429N, 078.0245W
Negative night drifts: 2 nm, 1.8 nm, 2.2 nm

Ben Saunders – solo

Ben wrote that the Twin Otter was packed with his gear, ready to drop him at the edge of the Arctic Ocean. His planned start date is March 22 and planned duration of his speed attempt, 30 days. According to his website his sledge weights 60 kg.

Ben said as he walked under the wing toward the door at the back, he felt butterflies for the first time. But, he added, he felt happier than he can recall feeling in months.

Assisted (Resupplied), Unsupported teams:

Christina Franco – Cape Discovery Start

Christina had her first proper swim on March 19 and swam across quite comfortably she reported in her voice dispatch. The next day she swam again because she was surrounded mostly by water. Her dry suit was filled with water and left her with wet clothes.

She had to make camp to dry her clothes and to find a clear opening for her resupply to be dropped. She could only find such a spot one hour away in the wrong direction.

Christina said it was incredibly hard to motivate herself against the negative drift. On March 20 she said her position was further away from the Pole than the day before.

In the latest dispatch Christina said she received the resupply. The plane dropped it by parachute and it landed about 50 meters from her tent. She took the day off to re-pack her sled and found renewed energy.

Position March 21, Day 19: 84.2121N, 080.5125W
Negative drift: 0.4 km/h

Richard Weber (guide), Tessum Weber, David and Howard Fairbank – Cape Discovery Start

They came across a huge lead, reported their home team. The only way to cross it was to put on their dry suits and swim across. Tessum had to swim first to break the thin ice as he was swimming across. They had many problems with their leaking suits.

Howard reported the lead was about 150 across and took an hour to cross.

Yesterday the team also received their resupply. The Weber home team described the resupply process: The four teams were resupplied by Summit Air Aviation on March 21. Dave Mathieson, our pilot, left Yellowknife (N.W.T.) on Friday [March 19]. He flew to Resolute (Nunavut) to pick up more cargo at the famous Aziz’s South Camp Inn.

Saturday night, the plane flew to Eureka, a weather station on Ellesmere Island. At the first crack of dawn this morning, our pilot Dave left Eureka, after receiving the teams’ positions on the ice.

The resupplies were parachuted to all four assisted teams. Howard said in his blog their sleeping bags accumulated moisture by 0.3 kg per day, but they received new, dry ones in their resupply.

The Weber home team said, [The resupply] won’t only be a physical break, it will also be a huge mental break.

Latest position: 85° 44.4N, 081° 10.0W
Negative drift: 0.2 knots/h; 2.5 to 5 nm per day.

Sarah McNair-Landry (guide), Linda Beilharz and Rob Rigato – Ward Hunt Island

The team reported that they have increased their traveling hours to 8.5 hours of pulling in an attempt to reach 85°N, however the drift continues.

In their latest dispatch they said they traveled mostly on large old pans, which was good.

Position day 20, March 19: 84.854000N, 073.716166W
Negative drift: 0.1 to 0.2 kts/h; 2.1 nm

Eric Larsen, Antony Jinman an Darcy St Laurent – Cape Discovery Start

Yesterday Eric said in his latest dispatch, two days ago he was at his lowest physically, I had pulled a three-in-a-row navigation shift just to give AJ and Darcy a break and paid the price.

This morning I had to hide my face in my big blue mittens for several silent sobs. The stress of backwards drift, a miscommunication on resupply dates, AJ’s sporadic knee problems (and consequent frustration), the overall scale of what we’re doing, missing Maria, ice conditions, unforgiving cold… was starting to feel like a bit too much to bear.

Luckily, I’ve been that overwhelmed before and know that with a small start, just one step, you can begin whittling away at all that impossibility.

Position March 22: 84° 57.057′N, 077° 58.719′W

Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia:

Vasek Sura and Pavel Blazek

Zuzana Pinova from the Czechs home team reported to ExplorersWeb that Pavel and Vasek finished the crossing on March 19 at 1.01 pm Irkutsk time (GMT+8). They walked 647 km altogether and it took them 24 days and 6 hours.

Kevin Vallely and Ray Zahab

Finished see previous Lake Baikal story.

Winter Cycle Circumnavigation

Christopher Pike (USA), Maikey Lopera (USA), Federico Pisani (Venezuela), Marcus Tobias (Venezuela) and Eric Noll (USA) are currently cycling around Lake Baikal reported Nicole Catalano, Communications Manager of Pacific Environment to ExplorersWeb.

According to the expedition team this is the first ever human-powered winter circumnavigation of Lake Baikal on mountain bikes. The lake is frozen at this time and they are riding entirely on snow and ice for an estimated 1300 km in 43 days.

The bicycles have 29-inch wheels and fat tires laced with nearly 300 carbide steel studs to provide traction on ice. The cyclists aim is to promote environmental conservation in Russia and therefore they work together with Pacific Environment.

Pacific Environment supports conservation efforts in the Lake Baikal region and is currently working with several local communities on environmental issues impacting the Lake.

Over the past century, Lake Baikal has faced major threats from development. On the southern end of the lake, the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill polluted Baikal for more than 40 years, discharging dangerous chemicals chlorine and associated dioxin byproducts directly into the lake. The mill was just recently reopened by the Russian government after being closed for nearly 2 years.

Today, plans for development of a zinc and lead mine and construction of an International Uranium Enrichment Center in the town of Angarsk also threaten the lake environment.

Another elusive threat to Baikal comes from irresponsible gold mining in the portion of the lakes watershed located in Mongolia, reported Pacific Environment.
See more details on the websites below in the links.

Links to:
Polar Rules and Definitions
Polar Statistics
What is solo?

Links: Canada to Geographic North Pole (90°N)

Unassisted, Unsupported:
Tom Smitheringale – solo, Australia
Michele Pontrandolfo – solo, Italy
Amelia Russell and Dan Darley – UK
Ben Saunders – UK

Assisted (Resupplied), Unsupported:
Christina Franco – UK/Italy
Eric Larsen, Antony Jinman and Darcy St Laurent – (Erics website) USA, UK, Canada
Antony Jinmans website, UK
Richard Weber (guide), Tessum Weber, David and Howard Fairbank
Howard Fairbanks blog, South Africa
Sarah McNair-Landry (guide), Linda Beilharz and Rob Rigato – Canada, Australia

Lake Baikal
Vasek Sura and Pavel Blazek – Czech Republic
Kevin Vallely and Ray Zahab – Canada
Lake Baikal Winter Cycle Circumnavigation blog
Lake Baikal Winter Cycle Circumnavigation website
Pacific Environment website

Other Arctic expeditions:
Ann Daniels, Martin Hartley, Charlie Paton – 85°N to 90°N, UK
Jim McNeill and 2011 Ice Warrior Arctic Pole team – UK
Jim McNeills blog – UK

dry Suits czech team, drifts