North Pole update: Team awaits relocation by air
Posted: Apr 25, 2014 01:03 am EDT
(By Correne Coetzer) After the evacuation of Yasu Ogita, only one team skiing Land-to-North Pole is still on the ice, Ryan Waters and Eric Larsen. Since 2010 there has been no successful ski expedition starting from land. See Stats below.
This week, veteran Norwegian Polar explorer, Borge Ousland, celebrated his 20th anniversary of reaching the Geographic North Pole solo, unassisted, unsupported from Russia (land), a distance of nearly a thousand kilometers. This was the first ever solo North Pole expedition and no one has repeated this feat (solo) from Russian ever since.
Eric Philips' team (Pole-to-Land) is waiting for a resupply today or tomorrow. Situating at longitude 54ºW, they have lost the battle against the strong and continues eastward drift. ExWeb has received word that they have asked to be relocated by air to 80ºW when they receive their resupply.
Trudy Wohlleben of Canadian Ice Service explained to ExplorersWeb that this team is starting to get into danger of being pulled into Fram Strait. She forecasts about the wind situation, “Winds should finally change from the persistent and problematic westerlies of the past couple of weeks to first northerly (Apr 28), then southeasterly (Apr 29-30) and then easterly (May 01) next week, giving teams on the ice a respite from the eastward ice drift.”
Ski Cape Discovery, Ellesmere Island, to the Geographic North Pole (90ºN)
Unassisted, Unsupported:
Yasu Ogita, Japan, solo
(start March 7, aborted April 20)
Yasu is back in Resolute Bay after being evacuated by Kenn Borek Air on April 23 after 48 days on the ice.
He started off with two sled, weighing 120 kg, as he had no intention to get resupplies. The "intense turbulent ice zones”, merciless blizzards with eastward drifts, leads (open water), and "uncertainties of the sea ice" slowed him down and made reaching the North Pole impossible with the amount of food he had, Yasu says. Although fatigue and frustration are overwhelming now, he says he takes advantage of the experience to see what he has learned.
Unassisted, Unsupported:
Ryan Waters and Eric Larsen (USA)
(Start March 15 at 83.043627N, 077.374263W)
Ryan Waters and Eric Larsen, completed their forth degree this week and crossed into 87ºN on Day 40, a mentally tough point, says Eric.
We are tired, that’s for sure, says Ryan. He emphasises that they have to concentrate every step to be safe as it is easy to make mistakes when tired; for example slipping on the ice or falling through without checking the condition of the ice first. Eric says he is so tired now that he messed up something every morning.
Ice conditions the past few days ranged from better ice to crazy, frustrating ice, "sparkling" pressured slabs and frozen leads, although the lead-ice still bowed under their weight. The wind calmed down, which stopped the backwards/south drift for a few days.
They guys added two and a half hours of actual skiing to their day which adds up, with breaks and camp take down and set up, to being outside for 14 hours.
Distances:
13.3nm/24.6km, 13.6nm/25.2km, 17nm/31.5km
Tracker: 25 Apr 2014 11:57 GMT
Latitude: 87.296 | Longitude: -56.004
Dist To Pole: 162.4 Nautical Miles / 187.1 Miles / 300.7 Kilometers
Starting from Geographic North Pole (90ºN) to Canada
Unassisted, Unsupported
Bengt Rotmo
The solo Norwegian started off in beautiful but slow conditions with a sidewards drift, Bengt’s home team manager, Lars Ebbesen, told ExWeb. He even had a bit of a back-drift/northwards during the night.
Assisted, Unsupported
Expedition Hope:
Eric Philips, AU, Bernice Notenboom, NL/CA, Martin Hartley, UK
(Start April 4)
Eric reported an old pressure ridge of 30 meters high, the highest he has ever seen. They filmed a lot, which takes a lot of time he says. "Martin is weighed down with camera gear, 2 x Nikon bodies, a bunch of lenses, a Sony video camera and lenses and a bunch of microphones."
They came across two wide leads, with many seals and polar bear tracks, but were able to cross them. A third one widened even more and they decided to camp and hope it would freeze over.
Position April 24:
87º 8’16.15”N, 54º 27’6.59"W
1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole Last Degree
Richard Weber and his 50+ team were airlifted from Resolute Bay to King Christian Island from where they started on April 24th.
Previous:
North Pole update: "Safe here is a relative term”
AdventureStats successful expeditions:
Land to Geographic North ’ole
2013: 1x car team from Russia
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 dr”ft 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:
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 (90ºN) to Canada
Unassisted, Unsupported
Bengt Rotmo
(still to start)
Starting from Geographic North Pole (90ºN) to Canada
Assisted, Unsupported
(Start April 4)
Eric Philips, Australia
Bernice Notenboom, The Netherlands / Canada
Martin Hartley, UK
Other:
MLAE 2014
(cars driving from Resolute Bay, Canada, to Russia)
Barneo Ice Camp /
Russian Geographical Society Expeditionary Center
situated in last degree North
(Open April 3-22)
Facebook Russian Geographical Society Expeditionary Center
Last Degree to 1996 Magnetic North Pole
Richard and Tessum Weber and team
(Start April 24)
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
Russian amphibious Arctic cars on the move from Canada
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
Dixie Dansercoer and Eric McNair-Landry to kite-ski 5000+ km around Greenland
Ray Zahab and team Baffin Island run 2014
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 #bengtrotmo
courtesy Yasunaga Ogita, SOURCE
courtesy Yasunaga Ogita, SOURCE
courtesy Yasunaga Ogita, SOURCE
courtesy Eric Larsen, SOURCE
courtesy Eric Larsen, SOURCE
courtesy Martin Hartley, SOURCE
courtesy Bernice Notenboom, SOURCE
courtesy Arctic Ice Drift Maps 2013 : Image from http://www.arctic.noaa.gov / Mike O Shea and Clare O Leary, SOURCE