Two lines and a pic arriving from the Geographic North Pole said it all - Finland has skied to the NP without support for the first time in history. Image courtesy of the Airborne Rangers Club of Finland.
One day later, the UK Navy boys arrived at the Magnetic Nort Pole - and shot over this iamge over Contact 4.0 (click to enlarge). Image courtesy of the British Royal Navy.
LINKS
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Arctic Wrap-up: Mission Accomplished; Finland Airborne and UK Navy reaches Poles
Posted: Apr 30, 2006 09:36 pm EST
Two lines arriving from the Finns said it all:
"29.4.2006 MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
90 00 00 N W
The Unsupported Expedition of the Airborne Rangers Club of Finland planted its Finnish Flag at the Geographic North Pole today, 4/29/2006 at 1931 Finnish time (1631 GMT). All is very, very excellent with Our Expedition."
The UK Navy boys in turn reached the Magnetic North Pole - and offer a longer dispatch; "The Spirit of Adventure."
The Spirit of Adventure
"On 30 April at 0604Z after 26 days and 420 kilometres we gathered at a remote spot amongst the sea ice with beaming grins, shaking hands (a few hugs!) and congratulating each other ''we've reached the magnetic North Pole".
Now settled in our tent we are celebrating our arrival with hot chocolate and Navy Rum and enjoying a hot meal. We have a short period to wait now whilst Captain Greg Fenton RM coordinates our extraction with Kenn Borek Air, which we hope will be sometime in the next 6 hours. We have 1 litre of fuel and 2 main meals left!
As Expedition Leader it has been an honour and great pleasure to have walked to the Pole with Rob, John, Phil & Mat. As novices to Polar Arctic travel their achievement is remarkable and is testament to their courage, determination and professionalism. Ordinary men from the Royal Navy & Royal Marines they have achieved the extraordinary, they have done themselves, their families and the Royal Navy proud.
Our journey has presented us all with significant challenges, both mentally and physically, and we have each dealt with them in our own way. For me it has been to draw upon advice from my late father "Plan for the worst, hope for the best, but take what comes." We hope you have enjoyed tracking our trek and in particular the schools that joined us have had a great learning experience. We are looking forward to meeting up with the Polarwatch Expedition students to hear what adventures they have been up to.
Polar Quest would not have been possible without tremendous support from many individuals and organisations. Unfortunately we cannot name them all, but we would like to extend a special thanks to our Patron, the Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, the Royal Navy & Royal Marines for giving us this unique opportunity, to all our sponsors who have assisted us over the past 18 months, to our fellow adventurers who have advised and inspired us, to all those unamed supporters of the Polar Quest vision and last but not least to our families and loved ones who have never been far from our thoughts.
Finally we pay tribute to Lieutenant Edward Parry RN who first ventured into the High Arctic in 1818 igniting the Arctic spirit of adventure, we will read of his exploits with greater understanding and admiration.
Thank you for your messages of support which has provided us with great encouragement. We hope you have enjoyed following our progress and maybe inspired you to seek out a challenge?
Captain Sean Chapple FRGS RM"
Visit www.iridium.com to send an SMS text to 881621443141
The British Royal Navy 300-mile ski to the MNP was aimed at junior and novice members of the Naval service. Captain Sean Chapple, from the Royal Marines is expedition leader. In a second stage of the project, a different 6-strong Ice Party will conduct a 1,400-mile, 65-day, return ski to the geographical South Pole in November 2006. This trek is aimed at the more experienced ranks of the Naval service and when complete will be the first Royal Navy Expedition to the South Pole since Captain Robert Falcon Scott's 1912 Expedition.
The seven-member team from the Airborne Ranger club of Finland departed from Ward-Hunt Island (Canada) by the beginning of March. No Finnish have before completed an unsupported NP trip.
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)
Cecilie Skog’s blog on Dagbladet (Norwegian)
Thailand team's website (Thai)
Craig M. Polar Academy's dispatches
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