Odds and Ends....Some Questions and facts

An 'off road' training day....




Here are some Facts and Questions and Answers that you may find interesting....


Will we see Polar bears?

Probably not, as they are normally found south of the latitude we will be starting from. They feed off seals and thus prefer to be where there is more stable terrain with permanent water where the wait for seals to surface is a bit more routine. They have been sightings on expeditions similar to ours, and I am holding thumbs that we do see 'one'. Just in case, we are carrying a shotgun which will be kept ready at the entrance of the tent every night!

What other wildlife can we expect to see?

We will probably see seals, maybe arctic fox in the early stage while still on the ice shelf.

There are no land based birds found in the Arctic Ocean area, and if we are lucky we may see these of the 3 most common Arctic Ocean sea birds: Black legged Kittiwake, Ivory Gull, Murre and Black Guillemots

How many human beings have EVER done what we are doing?

In answering this question, it's important to define what I mean by "what we are doing". For this purpose I have included only expeditions that have set out from the Canada side (not Russia), only those on foot and not assisted by dogsleds. Although our trip has one re-supply, I have included all expeditions that were unsupported (no re-supply)

It's hard to establish the the exact number, but its no more than 50 individuals. A few of these people, like Richard, have done it a number of times. Interestingly last year had the largest expedition failure rate, and the two years before that nobody attempted the route. This year there are five expeditions attempting the route, two of which are solo expeditioners. I wonder what the success rate will be and in which category we will fall?? (For those that are interested Pen Hadow, the first person to do this route solo and unsupported, provides a good insight into what it's like doing it solo, in his book entitled 'Solo'.) Many are of the opinion that Mother Nature, will take this challenge off the table' before 2018, and this is a strong motivation behind me wanting to do it now!

Will we see the Northern Lights?

In the first few weeks we would be able to see the Northern Lights, but will probably be sleeping after a hard day on the ice! I probably won't be that enthusiastic to get out of all those sleeping bag layers and then brave the midnight cold to try see them! I say the first few weeks, because from 21 March the North Pole will have 24 hr day light, so as we approach it our day light hours will be really long, with a strong dusk / twilight and little night light. Because of our high northerly latitude, and the fact hat we are walking further north each day the increase in daylight hours takes place very rapidly. At the beginning of the expedition (1 March or so) we will only have around 10 daylight hours, but this rapidly increases. In fact the reason why we cannot leave earlier than 1 March is mainly related to sun angle and daylight hours, because of the difficulty of flying into our departure point.

As we get into the expedition these longer day light hours will allow us to move onto a 'day cycle' that is more than 24 hours. This sounds strange and apparently our bodies will fight this change in rhythm. We would do this to increase the march time per 24 hours.

How will we navigate to the North Pole?

In the old days, the explorers used a combination of sextant, compass, and sun visual. That is not possible these days...mainly because the weather has deteriorated to the point that weeks can go by without seeing the sun sufficiently enough to be able to do sextant sun.

A compass is not much use. This is because firstly all compasses point to the Magnetic North Pole, Magnetic North and not True North. The Magnetic North Pole is located around 82 degrees North and 114 degrees West. Our expedition starts at roughly 83 degrees North and 70 degrees west, so virtually the same latitude as the Magnetic North Pole. So if w followed our compass's north pointing needle we would not head North (where we want to go) but West! Yes, there are tables that give you the correction (called Declination) between Magnetic North and True North. With this declination one can then offset the compass to show one where True North is. The problem with this is that because we are so far north and above the Magnetic North Pole, the declination changes rapidly as we move north, and also the earth's magnetic field is very haphazard right near the Magnetic North Pole. Both these factors render a compass virtually useless. The magnetic declination will change from 65 degrees west to almost 90 degrees when we are at the Pole. That actually means that near the Pole, if we are walking in the direction of 90 degrees North (The Pole) the compass would point directly right angles off to our left had side.

So, thanks to development we will use a GPS to track our position, as it gives true position co-ordinates.

Fortunately there will be some sun, often just a dull glow, but sufficient to do visual navigation in between GPS readings.

What is Pemmican?

It is a traditional primary food used by the North American Indians (Inuits and Dene) people and was found to be ideal for fueling the body's needs in cold climates. It has a very high fat content and originally had Reindeer as its meat ingredient. It basically consists of 1/3 dried meat, 1/3 animal fat, and the last third a mixture of dried fruit and (have to have) cranberries. Here is a picture of one wrapped dinner portion for our expedition. (You can see the cranberry 'spots')
Will we have to swim?

As explained in another Posting, the ocean ice can fracture due to the movement of the sea below it. When it fractures the wind and currents then drive the fractured pieces apart forming open water 'leads' or channels. These leads can be up to 1 kilometre wide and many kilometres long and typically run east west. When we come to these leads first option is always to look for a way to walk around them. ie find the shortest way to the end of the channel. Sometimes this may prove fruitless, and we will then have to don our dry suits and get into the water and swim across the lead. We are hoping that this doesn't happen, but we are prepared if it does happen. The sleds float, so it's just a matter of packing our backpacks, snow shoes, ski's and poles onto the sleds, putting our dry suits overall our clothing, then tied to the sled slithering into the cold Arctic Ocean, and starting the big swim! The last of the major oceans I haven't swum in!

When will we use ski's and when snow shoes?

In the first half of the expedition, we will use snowshoes virtually all the time. This is because of the amount of ice rubble and other obstacles we anticipate along the way, and also the ice should be pretty thick. The snow shoes give one more leverage when needing to pull the sled over obstacles, and for me not really slower than ski's. Ski's will be necessary in the later part of the trip when its warmer and the ice is flatter but also thinner and more 'mushy'. The ski's provide about 3 times the surface area so make it less likely that we fall through the ice.

Falling through the ice and into the water in one of the worst things that can happen on the expedition. Richard has fallen in once on a previous expedition and doesn't talk fondly of the experience! All your clothing gets soaked, it's bloody cold, sometimes difficult to get out as the edge of the ice just breaks as you lean on it to pull yourself out. Once you are out of the water the water in your absorbent clothes freezes making perfect fitting, ice clothes! The way you deal with it is you just have to start walking as fast as possible to try and warm up, until you find a spot to set up tent so you can dry the gear with the stove heat in the warmth of the tent. Apparently this takes at least 6-8 hrs. Just thinking about it ensures I will be very cautious not to fall in! This involves 'prodding' the ice with my ski pole as we move through thinner ice. Blackish ice tends to be the first warning.

How do we get re-supplied?

Around about Day 20, hopefully we will find a suitable spot on the ice where a small aircraft from Resolute can land. Using satellite phone communications we will direct the pilot to this landing spot, and providing the weather is ok he will fly out land drop off our pre-packed re-supply goods, and then take off immediately. If for whatever reason the pilot can't land the re-supply pack will be dropped by parachute. Basically the re-supply pack consists of food, replacement gear if any has failed / worn, and a replacement outer sleeping bag for each of us.

The replacement outer sleeping bag is 'needed' as after 20 days our original outer sleeping bag will have at least 8kg of ice in it. Even with the vapour barrier liner to prevent moisture absorption, the outer bag still sucks up about 400g of moisture a day. The problem with this is twofold, in that it adds unnecessary weight and also significantly reduces the insulation effectiveness. Due to the temperature gradient from our bodies at 37 C to the outside temperature at say - 45 C some where in the three sleeping bag layers the temperature will be zero C and that's where the moisture from our clothing and bodies freezes forming ice in the down, as it tries to get out of the sleeping bags. This point generally is only in the outer bag, and hence us needing to replace only that sleeping bag. Those who are unsupported and don't have a resupply would tend to carry a second outer bag.

Oh, and then the best part of the re-supply........ :
We will get two days of 'luxury food' in the re-supply pack. This being food that is unsuitable to carry on an expedition but our favourites, 'exotics' and something to really look forward to....and a break from fat and pemmican! Wow, was it nice shopping in the supermarket for these treats..... Four roast chickens, blue cheese, tinned fruit, condensed milk, real chocolate cookies, a carton of french wine and a few other 'treats'. We will have one and a half days of gluttony on the ice, before getting back to the daily march and pemmican routine again.