North Pole Norwegians and Americans flying to Cape Discovery - updated landed and skiing
Posted: Mar 15, 2014 11:26 am EDT
(By Correne Coetzer, updated Mar 15 14:32 EDT) "In the air and on our way to Cape Discovery!” tweeted Eric Larsen 26 minutes ago. The two teams have been waiting for good flying weather to fly to their start point at the Canadian Arctic coast since their original scheduled departing date, March 7th.
[Updated Mar 15 14:32 EDT: Eric tweeted 12 minutes ago: "Hello from Cape Discovery. Last North Expedition is starting right... Now!” Location: 2014-03-15 Latitude: 83.043627 Longitude: -77.374263]
Larsen and Ryan Waters (Last North Expedition) have packed 55 days of food in their 144 kg / 317 pound sledges. They use Acapulka Arctic Challenge 230 with custom Granite Gear sled covers.
Norwegians Lars Flesland and Kristoffer Glestad have packed food for 45 days; each sled weights 110 kg, distributed between a main sled (Acapulka MAC 160), a paris-pulk and backpack.
On the Arctic Ocean ice
Yasu Ogita’s home team, Kentaro Fujii and Hakase Oki, sent over the following reports about the solo skier to Explorersweb:
Location March 13th:
N83º 17.164, West longitude of 77º 57.393
Distance covered: 5.7km
Weather: Clear
Temperature: -36ºC
His remarks: "Physical condition is very good so far. Tough rough ice zone was over during the morning. I saw not too much rough ice zone in the afternoon. Pulling two loaded sledges prevents me from walking faster.”
Update on March 14th
Present location: N83º 20.01 W077º 46.132
Distance covered: 5.8km
Weather: Clear
Temperature: -35ºC
His remarks: "Physical condition is very good. Rough ice is still around. I encountered the biggest rough ice I have ever seen, but I was able to detour the area. Sore molar is getting better now. I want to know the status of other team.”
Irish team, Clare O’Leary and Mike O’Shea, who started with Yasu on March 7th, reported that they will get their first food and fuel resupply "over the weekend”. That implicates that the resupply is in the Twin Otter with the Americans and Norwegians. The Irish is the only team skiing direction Canada to GNP who is getting resupplies.
Latest news as per their home team on Facebook March 14th: "All is well with the team. Spoke to them as they were waking up this morning. Tough going with deep snowdrifts to deal with at the moment.”
Tomorrow, March 16th is full moon, which could make the movement of the Arctic Ocean’s ice difficult for the skiers.
Aborted Canada to Greenland trek
Frenchman Vincent Cochin, who started on March 3rd, aborted his expedition after 9 days out, due to a frozen toe. Before setting off, Cochin, said in his blog that he was going for the longest unassisted, unsupported Polar distance record by traveling, according to him, 2300 km from Kugaaruk, Nunavut, to Qaanaaq, Greenland. This distance record is currently held by Norwegian Aleksander Gamme, who proofed to have had well a prepared and well executed expedition on Antarctica in 2011-12, skiing 2260 km in 87 days.
According to Canadian news source, CBC, Cochin said he now realizes that choosing the right equipment and testing it out beforehand is really important.
Read more here about the rescue by three search and rescue members from Taloyoak, and the subsequent comments about Cochin's attempt.
A North Pole expedition covers the full distance between land and the Pole (90ºN).
The Cape Discovery route (Canada) to the Geographic North Pole is 780 km in a straight line and without the negative drift.
Ward Hunt Island (Canada) start point calculates at 775 km.
Geographic North Pole is at 90ºN
1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole:
78° 35'42.00"N, 104° 11’54.00”W
Resolute Bay: 74° 41.808N, 094° 49.402W
Follow the teams' blogs (those with RSS feeds) in the live News Stream on Explorersweb.
Previous/Related
North Pole update: A large rough ice zone at the start (Updated)
NASA: Warm Rivers Play Role in Arctic Sea Ice Melt
Norwegian North Pole team talking to ExWeb from the high Canadian Arctic
North Pole 2014: first skiers flying to their start point
Dmitry Shparo's Top 5 North Pole Tips
Irish North Pole team checking in at ExWeb from Resolute Bay
2014 North Pole start: the waiting game is on
The cost of Arctic travel: Jerry Kobalenko talks to ExWeb
Yasunaga Ogita talking to ExWeb from the high Canadian Arctic
North Pole 2014 full route ski expedition list
ExWeb interview with Ryan Waters, "an unwritten and unexplainable mental edge”
ExWeb interview with Eric Larsen, "a mix of poetry and hell to the North Pole”
ExWeb interview with Bernice Notenboom, the Arctic and the world’s climate
Ray Zahab and team Baffin Island run 2014
Vincent Cochin to sledge-haul 2300km Canada to Greenland
Teams starting from Cape Discovery, Ellesmere Island to the Geographic North Pole (90ºN)
Unassisted, Unsupported:
Yasu Ogita, Japan, solo
(start March 7)
YouTube
Team Eric Larsen and Ryan Waters
Last North Expedition:
(start March 15)
Eric Larsen, USA
Ryan Waters, USA
Mountain Professionals Facebook
Team Kristoffer Glestad (24), Norway and
Lars Mangerud Flesland (25), Norway
(start March 15)
Assisted, Unsupported:
Irish team Clare O'Leary and Mike O’Shea
The Ice Project Expedition
(start March 7)
Starting from Geographic North Pole (90N) to Canada
Assisted, Unsupported
'Arctic March' team:
Eric Philips, Australia
Bernice Notenboom, The Netherlands / Canada
Martin Hartley, UK
1996 Magnetic North Pole
Matt Stowers and Kev O’Brien
(Aborted)
Northern Exposure live tracker
Canada to Greenland (Kugaaruk and Qaanaaq)
Vincent Cochin
(star” Marc“ 3, aborted March 13)
Blog (personal)
Blog (Nanook expedition)
Follow blog posts in the live News Stream on ExplorersWeb.
Weather links:
The Arctic Weather products link on the Canadian Ice Service IPY Legacy page
Two-day sea ice drifts for the whole Arctic Ocean on the Danish DMI website
ENVISAT ASAR images on the Polarview website
Canada Weather Office satellite image
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
University of Illinois cryosphere images
Wayne Davidson’s Extremely High Horizon Refraction
#polar #northpole2014
courtesy Eric Larsen, SOURCE
courtesy Yasunaga Ogita, SOURCE
courtesy Lifeproof Irish North Pole Expedition, SOURCE
courtesy Arctic Ice Drift Maps 2013 : Image from http://www.arctic.noaa.gov / Mike O Shea and Clare O Leary, SOURCE