North Pole skiers tent bounded in blizzard
Posted: Mar 23, 2014 02:32 pm EDT
(By Correne Coetzer) Yasu Ogita reported during the week that he was blown back 2 km by the wind and yesterday he was storm bounded, as Ryan Waters and Eric Larsen.
A few days ago Ryan and Eric had two polar bears following them unnoticed, which were eventually stopped 15 feet from the two men.
Cape Discovery, Ellesmere Island, to the Geographic North Pole (90ºN)
Unassisted, Unsupported:
Yasu Ogita, Japan, solo
(start March 7)
Reports sent over to ExWeb from Yasu’s home team in Japan:
March 20th:
Location: N83º 39 49.0 W077º 37 55.1
Weather: Cloudy skies
Temperature: -24ºC
His physical condition is good but he is getting exhausted, Yasu reported. He struggled with minor leads, about 2 meters in width and rough ice due to continuous wind from the day before. "I was able to earn only 1 km within 5 hours in the morning due to these problems. I am also struggling with the weight of folding kayak but I still think that I should not abandon it because I expect some leads coming."
March 21th:
N 83º 43 96.8 W077º 37 80.6
Distance covered: 8.3km
Weather: Clear
Temperature: -28ºC
Hs remarks: "Physical condition is good. No rough ice in the afternoon and I feel that I am walking on the large ice flow. I expect that I can earn more distance from tomorrow. I abandoned one of the sleds but I retrieved it because of possible rough ice coming. I expect that I can find the lead opened from south to north."
March 22nd:
N 83º 42 92.1 W077º 19 1.0
Distance: 0 km
Weather: Blizzard
Temperature: -20ºC
Yasu says he is maintaining good physical and mental condition although he could not travel today due to blizzard. "The blizzard has driven the ice where I am camping 2 km to South and 4.3 km to East from the last position. The wind has been weakened although still strong. I want to know when this blizzard is passing."
Ryan Waters and Eric Larsen (USA)
(Start March 15th)
Ryan described a "crazy story” on March 19th as they stopped at the end of a section and happened to turn around, two polar bears were "walking casually" behind them in their trail, "and I mean right behind us. A mother and her cub who had been following us for a few hundred feet just kept walking toward us as we began to yell and reach for our flares, rather anxiously I might add. Eric managed to get the gun out of a sled as I shot the third flare at the them which finally stopped their progress. A couple bear-banger shells from the shotgun finally sent them running off! Startled and kind of in disbelief we paced off the distance from where we had been to their prints where the finally ran, 15 feet."
The blizzard started as the two men were ready to leave the tent, reported Ryan. “After careful consideration, with regard to ferrying loads and having the trail disappear from spindrift instantly, in the total whiteout through big ice chunks that are very easy to ski right off and not know what comes next, we decided to get back in the tent to wait for better weather."
It was a frustrating day in the tent as every moment counts for them to gain distance, Ryan said. They laid inside their vapor barrier liners in their sleeping bags as they couldn’t burn their stoves. The team don’t get resupplies so they are in the unfortunate position not to have fuel to warm themselves.
Distances:
March 20th: 1 mile?
March 21st: 2.25 nm / 4.14 km
March 22nd: 0 km
Position March 23rd 15:12 GMT
N83.208, W076.807
Barneo Ice Camp
In Russia preparations are underway to open Barneo Ice Camp, which is built on an ice floe about 89 degrees North every year. Victor Boyarsky told ExplorersWeb that he and the Vicaar people operating at the Camp, are soon leaving for Longyearbyen, Svalbard, "to keep the situation under control”.
They are also keeping an eye on the progress of the Barneo preparations. On March 17th the Mi-8T helicopters departed Russia to fly 3000 km in search for the suitable ice floe. Equipment and freight to build the camp, including the tractors to prepare the runway and the building staff, are ready in Murmansk, Russia, to be air-dropped by an Ilyushin-76 plane.
A note on the 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.
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: Norwegians evacuated due to frostbite
North Pole: Irish team injured and evacuated - update: Norwegians also off
North Pole Norwegians and Americans flying to Cape Discovery - updated landed and skiing
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
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)
Ryan Waters, USA
Mountain Professionals Facebook
Eric Larsen, USA
Starting from Geographic North Pole (90N) to Canada
Assisted, Unsupported
'Arctic March' team:
Eric Philips, Australia
Bernice Notenboom, The Netherlands / Canada
Martin Hartley, UK
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 Eric Larsen, SOURCE
courtesy Arctic Ice Drift Maps 2013 : Image from http://www.arctic.noaa.gov / Mike O Shea and Clare O Leary, SOURCE