Jim: “I have a highly motivated group of high-performing individuals, now we have to gel them into the most effective teams possible.” Image courtesy of Jim McNeill (click to enlarge)
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Jim McNeill and his Ice Warrior team’s final training for the North Pole of Inaccessibility
Posted: Jan 20, 2010 10:29 am EST
(ThePoles.com) Briton Jim McNeill and his team of 14 novice “environmental explorers” are in Svalbard for a training boot camp before setting off on their expedition to the NP of Inaccessibility.
Here goes a press release from the Ice Warrior Arctic Pole Expedition:
Announcing the Ice Warrior Arctic Pole Expedition to benchmark the state of the Arctic Ocean and reach the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility for the first time.
Veteran polar explorer Jim McNeill begins his extreme High Arctic boot camp in Svalbard, Norway, a mere 600 miles from the Geographic North Pole.
He will be training 7 female and 7 male novice environmental explorers to become competent, safe polar travellers and to undertake one of the most important bits of citizen science - ever.
The aim
The aim of the 80-day expedition is for trained novices - ordinary people from all walks of life - to travel from the northern coast (79° 20‘ N, 105° 27‘ W) of Canada to the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility (85° 47‘ N, 176° 9‘ E).
They will be gathering raw, unbiased scientific data about the true condition of the Arctic Ocean.
Why are they doing it?
The premise for their expedition is: if we’re not looking very carefully at what is happening to our Polar Regions, how do we know that what we’re doing - with respect to tackling global climate change - is actually making any difference?
Being a benchmarking process the data gathered will mark the start of an ongoing initiative to “Ground Truth”.
What are they doing
The journey itself is expected to be around 800 miles taking into account the ice shift (the movement of ice floating on the Arctic Ocean). The expedition is divided into three legs, each of around 26 days duration, with different teams with on each, all led by Jim.
An extra goal
On route - around Day 50 - the team will reach the Magnetic North Pole in its then current position (85° 11’N, 133° 7’ W).
Latest news
The 4-week intensive High Arctic training kicked off January 13th – February 8th. They will learn how to live and travel in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, coping with wind chills down to –80°C.
Their extreme training includes developing systems to deal with emergencies such as: injury, hypothermia and frostbite; tent blow-downs and kit failure, as well as learning how to deal with potential crises including practise cold-water immersions at –30°C and re-warming techniques, along with the threat of polar bear attacks.
Jim McNeill says: “These are really exciting and critical times. I have a highly motivated group of high-performing individuals, now we have to gel them into the most effective teams possible, set their expectations and focus their energies. Each needs to be able to push the bounds of human physical and mental endurance: the better our training, the better our chances of success.”
“But this Boot Camp is going to be hard. Ambient temperatures may drop to –30°C and without the sun coming over the horizon (Svalbard is in a constant state of darkness) the team will not have the opportunity to warm up. They will have to cope with the practicalities of surviving in such a harsh environment.”
The science behind the expedition
Ice Warrior was formed in 2001 to emulate the “Golden Era” of exploration creating worthwhile and purposeful expeditions available to anyone with the right attitude and characteristics. Since then our aim has been to deliver the reality and truth of global climate change.
In 2005 Jim McNeill set up an agreement with the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) to provide “Ground Truth” data.
Jim says: “From a scientific perspective we are setting out to gather unique sea-ice data from an area that has seldom, if ever, been measured. Importantly, the measurements we will be gathering will also validate the satellite data.”
The rationale behind the science
Far from confusing the general public with more data, Ice Warrior’s aim is to report clearly - and precisely – the actual on-ice conditions.
Jim McNeill explains: “One of the major problems I see is that the general public (and I include myself in this) are baffled, bemused and confused over the differing conclusions drawn by scientists through modelling the data in different ways. We will be repeating this data-gathering process annually to produce comparative data year-on-year and in a way anyone can understand as well as providing the data sets to the scientific community.”
Forthcoming newsflash: April
The sea-ice data Ice Warrior will be gathering is overseen by world leading climate change scientists from the Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Jim McNeill says: “We’re delighted that Walt Meier will be joining us on the ice for three weeks in April. Ice Warrior’s team scientist Bjorn Erlingsson, will also be conducting some unique measurements. Watch this space.”
Jim McNeill has attempted to reach the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility on two previous occasions. In 2003, he contracted a life-threatening flesh-eating disease (Necrotising Fasciitis) in his left ankle and was unable to leave base camp in Resolute Bay, Canada. His second attempt in 2006 was thwarted by disintegrating sea ice, some 130 miles into the journey on Day 17. END
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