North Pole season closed down with last flight
Posted: May 14, 2014 10:55 am EDT
(By Correne Coetzer) Kenn Borek Air’s Twin Otter reached Bengt Rotmo about 2pm on May 13 and Eric Philips, Bernice Notenboom and Martin Hartley 17h30 on the way back, reported Lars Ebbesen at the Norwegian home base to ExWeb. Bengt’s position on May 12 was at approximately 88-87ºN, 062ºW and the Philips team at 84.8ºN, 77.1ºW.
The pilot, well-know Troy, had a short weather window yesterday to pick up the skiers as weather was going to deteriorate. Eric Philips described their pick-up, "A cloud bank engulfed us an hour before the plane banked over us. We thought we were condemned to the ice for another week as the forecast was for continued bad weather and watched from a pressure ridge as Troy the pilot made at least ten passes in the distance before finally landing. We packed quickly and skied 45 minutes to the plane."
They stopped at Cape Discovery, their intended end point, to refuel and continued to Eureka Weather Station to spend the night there.
Wrap-up Canada to 90ºN teams
The season started off with 5 teams attempting to ski from Canada (Cape Discovery, Ellesmere Island) to the Geographic North Pole and two from The North Pole to Canada.
Gathered in Resolute Bay with 4 other teams, Italian solo skier, Michele Pontrandolfo, went home before the start due to Search and Rescue insurance money issues. Irish duo, Clare O’Leary and Mike O’Shea and solo Japanese skier Yasu Ogita started at Cape Discovery on March 7. On March 16 at N83.7, W077 the Irish team were injured when getting over a big blog of pressure ice, which overturned, and asked for a medical evacuation. Yasu Ogita, who prepared food for 50 days, realised that he was going to ran out of food on Day 42 when he asked for a pick up at 86º 16’43.8”N, 63º 38’43.8”W.
Both unassisted unsupported, the Norwegian and American teams started at Cape Discovery on March 15. On Day 1, Lars Flesland and Kristoffer Glestad aborted their expedition due to frostbite on their feet. Ryan Waters and Eric Larsen are the only team who completed the full route successfully this year; by skiing, snowshoeing, swimming, paddling and crawling to the Pole. It took them 53 days to cover the 770 km (distance in a straight line; no drifting, sled relays or detours around pressure ridges and open water added).
Previous:
North Pole: Bengt Rotmo talks to ExWeb from the Arctic Ocean
AdventureStats successful expeditions:
Land to Geographic North Pole
2014: 1x unassisted ski team from Canada
2013: 1x car team from Russia (did a crossing)
2010: 1x unassisted ski team from Canada
3x assisted ski teams from CA
2009: 1x unassisted ski team from CA
1x assisted ski team from CA
2008: 1x assisted ski team from Russia (winter exped)
2007: 1x assisted ski team from CA
Geographic North Pole to Land
2013: 1x assisted dog team to CA
2012: 1x unassisted ski and kayak team to Svalbard
2011: 2x assisted ski teams to CA
2009: 1x unassisted ski team to Greenland
2007: 1x unassisted ski and kayak team to Franz
Josef Land
1x assisted ski team to Greenland
assisted = resupplied
A note on the North Pole daily ski distances: They are calculated in a straight line from where the skiers start in the mornings and end in the evenings. What is not added, are all the detours around high ridges, ice blocks, rubble or leads (open water). Also not added are the negative drift and relaying sleds.
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.
Ward Hunt Island (Canada) start point calculates at 775 km.
A Degree of Latitude is 60 nm / 110 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
Ski Teams starting from Cape Discovery, Ellesmere Island, to the Geographic North Pole (90ºN)
Unassisted, Unsupported:
Team Eric Larsen and Ryan Waters
Last North Expedition:
Start March 15 at 83.043627N, 077.374263W
End My 6 at 90N
Ryan Waters, USA
Mountain Professionals Facebook
Eric Larsen, USA
Starting from Geographic North Pole (90ºN) to Canada
Unassisted, Unsupported
Bengt Rotmo
(started April 21)
Starting from Geographic North Pole (90ºN) to Canada
Assisted, Unsupported
(Start April 4)
Eric Philips, Australia
Bernice Notenboom, The Netherlands / Canada
Martin Hartley, UK
Greenland
Kite ski circumnavigation:
Eric McNair-Landry (CA) and Dix”e Dansercoer (BE)
Blog Greenland ICE Expedition
Facebook (Pittarak Expeditions)
Michael Chavarin (FR) and Cornelius Strohm (DE)
Yuri Klaver (USA to Greenland via CA)
Follow blog posts (with RSS feeds) in the live News Stream on ExplorersWeb.
Previous/Related
North Pole: Bengt Rotmo talks to ExWeb from the Arctic Ocean
The Hunger Game: Yasu Ogita recaps his North Pole expedition
Norwegian North Pole team talking to ExWeb from the high Canadian Arctic
Dmitry Shparo's Top 5 North Pole Tips
Irish North Pole team checking in at ExWeb from Resolute Bay
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
Sean Chapple's insights: Laying the Foundations for Success
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 #northpoleclosedown
SOURCE
courtesy Martin Hartley, SOURCE
SOURCE
courtesy Arctic Ice Drift Maps 2013 : Image from http://www.arctic.noaa.gov / Mike O Shea and Clare O Leary, SOURCE
