Lonnie Dupre during his second North Pole expedition. Image courtesy of Lonnie (click to enlarge)
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ExWeb interview with Lonnie Dupre, “I still sleep with my stove pumps”
Posted: Jul 08, 2009 08:35 am EST
(ThePoles.com) On 25 April this year Lonnie Dupre reached the North Pole for the second time. Both times he started from the Canadian side. In the spring of 2009 he reached 90°N on skis and the previous time, in the summer of 2006, on skis and canoe-sled.
Lonnie was a guide for a PolarExplorers Peary-Henson Centennial 2009 Expedition with teammates Stuart Smith and Max Chaya. In an interview with ExWeb’s Correne Coetzer he compared his two NP expeditions and talked about the hardships.
Explorersweb: Tell us a bit about your last expedition the NP pls.
Lonnie: The ice off Cape Discovery (our starting point) though adds 5 mile to the trip is always better then leaving from the more pressured area off Ward Hunt. It’s also better to start a bit more west to counter the east and south ice drift.
The trip started out at –55°F and was very cold most of the trip only to warm near the very end. We got caught in a low pressure system which blew us east at an alarming rate directly into the middle of the Trans-polar drift. The normal 4-mile per day drift to the south was accelerated to 8 mile per day and we had a fight on our hands. To counter the drift we skied 14 hours per day.
Explorersweb: What was the highest latitude that you have kayaked?
Lonnie: 71°N in Greenland and 89°59’N by canoe in the Arctic Ocean 2006
Explorersweb: How did the summer and spring North Pole expeditions compare?
Lonnie: A summer expedition to the North Pole is far more difficult due to all the open water, fog, deep slushy snow and trying to stay dry. It also require unconventional equipment...a cross between winter camping and kayaking.
Explorersweb: What was your greatest challenge on this year’s expedition?
Lonnie: Dealing with the leaky MSR stove pumps. Even at a balmy –20°F, the O-rings in the pump assembly shrunk and leaked. As a result I had to sleep with the stove pumps and wear them under my parka each day. I still sleep with my stove pumps:) All the expeditions on the ocean this year had the same problem.
Explorersweb: What would you have done differently?
Lonnie: Not much other then perhaps taken some silicone/rubber o-rings.
Explorersweb: What characteristics would you say make a good teammate?
Lonnie: An optimistic happy-go-lucky.
Explorersweb: What advice would you give to someone who wants to ski to the North Pole?
Lonnie: Spend 3 weeks training at –40°F.
Explorersweb: Future plans?
Lonnie: Antarctica Crossing...stay tuned:)
Lonnie Dupre (guide, USA), Stuart Smith (USA) and Max Chaya (Lebanon) arrived at the North Pole on 25 April 2009 after skiing 53 days from Cape Discovery, Canada. The expedition received resupplies and was organised by PolarExplorers.
Born in 1961 and raised on a Minnesota country farm, Lonnie Dupre is descended on his mother’s side from Jacques Cartiér, the French explorer and founder of Quebec.
Living in Minnesota, Dupre wondered just how far “north” actually went. He began to look at maps and read everything he could about cold places and the people who lived there. Shortly out of high school, he loaded up his rundown pickup truck and left for Alaska on what was intended to be a three-week adventure. He wound up staying three years, making a living as a commercial salmon fisherman and carpenter. During that time, he and a companion flew into the remote reaches of the Brooks Range, planning to winter there. In the end, they had to snowshoe back to civilization with little more than the clothes on their backs. But by then, Dupre was hooked on the Arctic.
Returning to Minnesota, he instructed and guided dog sledge trips in the northwoods for outdoor enthusiasts through Wintergreen Adventures in Ely, Minnesota. In 1989, with the Cold War drawing to a close, he and 11 others completed a joint Russian/American 1,200 mile dog sled and ski expedition called ‘Bering Bridge’ through the Russian Far East to promote peace and cooperation between the two superpowers.
Striking out on his own in 1991, he organized and led the Northwest Passage Expedition, making a 3,000-mile, first winter, west to east transit of the Canadian Arctic route by dog sledge. In total, he has organized or participated in seven major Arctic expeditions.
In 2001, Dupre and his teammate John Hoelscher of Australia became the first to circumnavigate Greenland. They traveled the 6,500 miles of rugged island coastline by dog team and kayak.
In 2006 Dupre and Eric Larsen made their second attempt to cross the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole. They started on May 2 from Ward Hunt Island (Canada), had a resupply at 87 degrees north. They reached the NP on July 1. Originally they planned to continue from the Pole until they reached Greenland - but called off the attempt two days after reaching the Pole. Being a "summer" trip, the team carried their loads on canoe-sleds, which they used to paddle across frequent open water leads.
Dupre currently lives in Grand Marais, Minnesota with his wife Kelly. He is 48 years old.
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