“Our only luxury, the whisky, is dangerously low, but apart from the whisky all other spirits are high,” reported Richard Weber. " Image of Conrad over Contact 3.0 some days back, courtesy of C. Dickinson / North Pole Classic (click to enlarge).
The Brisith Army's Polar Quest team has reached Resolute Bay, and hope to set off within days toward the Magnetic North Pole. Image courtesy of Polar Quest team.
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Arctic Wrap-up: Running out of whisky
Posted: Mar 31, 2006 11:37 am EST
(ThePoles.com) For weeks, Richard Weber and Conrad Dickinson have been dealing with open leads, pressure ridges, bitter cold, and damaged gear. That seems to be okay for the two, who knew conditions would be tough. But now they’re also running out of whisky, and that's worse.
In addition, they're also running out of time: They'll now have to cover 10 nautical miles per day if they want to reach the Pole before the agreed pickup deadline.
The Finns, who are behind Richard and Conrad, are not worried though. Soon, new skiers will set off from the Canadian coast. The Polar Quest team, consisting of British Army members, has reached Resolute Bay and they will start as soon as their sledges arrive on the next plane.
NP teams from Canada
North Pole Classic: Whisky, chocolate and deadlines
“Our ONLY luxury, the whisky, is dangerously low, but apart from the whisky all other spirits are high,” reported Richard Weber. “This afternoon we crossed a lead that was actually closing as we crossed it and pushing one layer of ice over another at about 1 foot per minute combined with loud creaking sounds.”
”We ended the day with two pieces of chocolate to celebrate crossing the 85th degree and also achieving our best mileage to date of 9.8 nautical miles. To reach the pole by our pickup deadline we have to cover an average of 10 nautical miles per day for the next 31 days.”
Airborne Rangers: Ice jigsaw puzzle
“The weather this morning was almost an exact copy of that on previous mornings: sunshine, temperature - 30 C, nasty cold wind - nothing that we’re not already used to,” reported the Finnish team.
“The icescape today could be described in one word: broken. It wasn’t impassable, but there were man-sized lumps of ice strewn all around us. Also, our path was crisscrossed with deep, frozen-over, 1 or 2 meter-wide old leads; none of them going in the right direction. Imagine yourself skiing through a giant jigsaw puzzle made of ice."
“Late in the afternoon, we found ourselves skiing on younger, more level ice. We are hoping for more of the same easy trekking in coming days.”
Magnetic North Pole teams
PolarQuest: Arrival at Resolute Bay
“We have all arrived safely at South Camp Inn in Resolute Bay after a gruelling 2-day journey,” reported the British Army team, sights set on the Magnetic north Pole.
“Unfortunately our sledges were not able to complete the internal journey from Ottawa to Resolute Bay with us and are following us on an alternate flight - we expect delivery of them on Saturday. The intention is then to be inserted into Winter Harbour on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, but this depends on the weather. Some other teams are waiting at Resolute Bay having been put behind schedule due to bad weather.”
Borge Ousland’s website
Mike Horn’s website
North Pole Classic 2006 website
Michele Pontrandolfo’s website (Italian)
Airborne Ranger Club of Finland NP expedition (English / Finnish)
Polar Quest expedition’s website
Ario’s Alone Across Alaska (Italian / English)
One World NP summer crossing website
Top of the World’s expedition website
Landry’s website
Canadian Arctic Holidays
Bettina Aller & JG Leynaud’ website (Danish / English)
Northwest Passage Polar Expeditions (dog-sledding NP teams)
Karl Bushby’s Goliath expedition
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