At midnight last night Borge Ousland and Mike Horn reached the Lance support ship, thus completing their early-winter trek across the Arctic Ocean.
They finished alongside their support crew of Bengt Rotmo and Aleksander Gamme, whom they joined up with earlier in the day.
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Ash Routen is a Writer for ExplorersWeb. He has been writing about Arctic travel, Mountaineering, Science, Camping, Hiking, Outdoor Gear for 5 years. As well as ExplorersWeb, he has written for Red Bull, Outside, The Guardian and many other outlets. Based in Leicester, UK, Routen is an avid hiker, camper, and arctic traveller who writes about the outdoors around a full time job as an academic. |
Thank God! They are safe! I’ve been following this expedition all the way from the planning. A few of the updates that described the ice conditions were scary and had me seriously concerned about their safety and wondering is this expedition really worth the risk. I don’t know about you but I’m glad it’s over. Glad they are safe!!
It was a support Team or a rescue Team ?
Support team, Ousland and Horn refused to receive food from them and completed without resupply.
https://www.arctictoday.com/polar-trekkers-progress-is-halted-as-food-runs-out/ and https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2019/12/russian-icebreaker-set-out-tromso-course-ice-locked-german-research-ship would suggest rescue.Was not the original plan to reach the sailing vessel that they launched from ?
the sailing vessel that launched them is in Alaska.. not sure it could get from Alaska to Svalbard in the time frame allowed.
From Mike Horns website ” Once the two explorers are dropped off on the ice, Pangaea will make a U-turn and sail around the floating sea ice via the North East Passage (NEP) along the northern Russian coastline until they reach northern Norway. Once in Norway the boat and its crew will be on standby and wait for Mike and Borge to finish their traverse. Once finished, Pangaea will pick the pair up where the sea ice ends, at approximately at 80°N above the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. “
The level of excitement of this expedition is unmatched. Great finish! Awesome job!