North Pole update: Ice conditions poles apart
Posted: Apr 10, 2014 07:10 am EDT
(By Correne Coetzer) Eric Philips, Bernice Notenboom and Martin Hartley, who started skiing from the Geographic North Pole on April 4, reported good, but cold weather, gliding sleds, small pressure ridges and a southern drift.
This team skis mostly with the drift to Canada in contrast with the teams starting from Canada who mostly have to ski the miles again they drifted back. Bernice reported on the first day at the drop-off, the two hours they took to get settled in the tent, they already drifted 1 kilometer away from the Pole towards Canada.
The Americans, Eric Larsen and Ryan Waters reported pulling sleds in soft, sticky snow, which felt like "anchor dragging”. They, as well as solo Yasu Ogita, struggle forward with high pressure ridges and difficult conditions.
See below a summary of the successful teams on the Arctic ice the past 7 years.
Cape Discovery, Ellesmere Island, to the Geographic North Pole (90ºN)
Unassisted, Unsupported:
Yasu Ogita, Japan, solo
(start March 7)
News from Yasu’s home team in Japan says that he is maintaining good a physical condition, although the expedition is mentally demanding because he does not cover as many miles as expected. Conditions varied from poor visibility due to snowfall, a 2km re-frozen lead, smooth ice, rough ice and deep snow. Yasu has not yet encountered exceptionally big leads where he has to use his 14 kg kayak yet, and considers abandoning it.
Temperature: -30ºC
Distances:
14.5km, 9.6km, 5.6km, 9.6km, 15.1km
Position April 10, 21h33:
N85º 16' 65.8’' W76º 0' 60.2”
Ryan Waters and Eric Larsen (USA)
(Start March 15: 83.043627N, 077.374263W)
The guys seem to get acclimatise to the cold as Eric wrote the hard work in the sun and no wind made them sweat on Day 26. But when they stop, to film and for a break, they start freezing. Ryan reported about snowfalls and no wind to blow the fresh snow away, which made sledge hauling conditions hard.
Day 25 they encountered some of the worse pressure areas he has ever seen, says Eric, who has already skied twice this route to the North Pole. Pans were 15-20 meters wide, but then they were faced with 15-20 ft high pressure ridges.
They have already a noticeable amount of weight
Distances:
4.8nm/ 8.9km, 7.0nm/ 12.9km, 8.59nm/ 15.9km
Tracker: 10 Apr 2014 02:51 GMT
Latitude: 84.725 | Longitude: -75.539
Dist To Pole: 364.9 Miles
Starting from Geographic North Pole (90ºN) to Canada
Assisted, Unsupported
Expedition Hope:
Eric Philips, AU, Bernice Notenboom, NL/CA, Martin Hartley, UK
(Start April 4)
The team arrived at the North Pole at 1am, slept by 3am and up at 9. Skiing by 12h30 on a very good surface, towards Canada, reported Eric Philips. They covered over 12km in 5 hours. Mostly first-year, not much pressure. The second day they encountered only small pressure ridges and some small frozen leads,
The team crossed a small lead, 3m wide, using the amphibious sleds as a raft.
A relatively warm start made way for -31C. Eric reported, "I skied all day dressed in base layer and fleece, using my food and activity to stave off cold. Bernice suffered in the cold today, her body finally realising that the bitter Arctic has no respite. Martin lethargic but plodding on.” Latest temperature: -40 degrees.
12km, 12km, 14km, 15km, 14km (in 7 hours hauling),
Barneo Ice Camp /
Russian Geographical Society Expeditionary Center
situated in last degree North
(Open April 3-22)
Last Degree teams and dogsled teams moved through Barneo. 50 Russian skydivers landed at the camp after the IL-76 dropped them fro trainning, as well as well as fuel and equipment, in difficult weather conditions when the fog moved in.
Temp: -30ºC
Position April 9: N89°12.562’, E012°41.425’
Greenland
Eric McNair Landry and Dixie Dansercoer are delayed by the weather in Tasiilaq, but the time is coming soon, Eric told ExWeb yesterday. "The whether in Greenland has been good for the last two days and once the scheduled [helicopter] flights are dealt with the pilots will be ready to take us to the ice!"
News from Finland has been received from Jaakko Heikka, who will be leading four Fins, Nina Teirasvuo, Jouni Tanninen, Heini Koivuniemi and Matias Utriainen, unassisted ski expedition across Greenland icecap from West to East (Point 660 to Isortoq). They plan to start on April 16th and if all goes well, to arrive to at Isortoq on May 14th. The members have previously crossed Vatnajökull glacier together in March-April 2012 (except for Matias Utriainen) and have done a three-week unassisted ski traverse of Spitsbergen in April 2011 (except Nina Teirasvuo). Jaakko added, if successful, Nina and Heini will become the 2nd and 3rd Finnish females skiing across the Greenland icecap. (Johanna Nousiainen in 2010 being the first.)
MLAE 2014 Russian Cars
April 9:
Coordinates overnight 69° 18,664'N, 138° 20,938'W
Odometer: 2822km
Good ice conditions. One of the trailers of the Green caravan broke beyond repair.
110 km to drive to the Alaskan border.
Baffin Island Cycle
Ben Rockett has completed a bicycle ride across a part of Baffin Island, according to his Twitter report.
Previous:
Cornelius Strohm and Mika Chavarin to attempt Greenland Circumnavigation: ExWeb interview
North Pole 2014: Bengt Rotmo to ski solo North Pole to Canada
North Pole: Ryan Waters fell in the water; Tractors airdropped; Greenland season to start
AdventureStats successful expeditions:
Land to Geographic North Pole
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 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:
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 21)
Greenland
Kite ski circumnavigation:
Eric McNair-Landry (CA) and Dixie Dansercoer (BE)
Blog Greenland Ice Expedition
Facebook (Pittarak Expeditions)
Michael Chavarin (FR) and Cornelius Strohm (DE)
Finland Greenland
Jaakko Heikka, Nina Teirasvuo, Jouni Tanninen, Heini Koivuniemi and Matias Utriainen Homepage/blog
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
courtesy Eric Larsen, SOURCE
courtesy Eric Larsen, SOURCE
courtesy Martin Hartley, SOURCE
courtesy Eric Philips, SOURCE
courtesy Sergey Panteleev, SOURCE
courtesy Sergey Panteleev, SOURCE
courtesy Arctic Ice Drift Maps 2013 : Image from http://www.arctic.noaa.gov / Mike O Shea and Clare O Leary, SOURCE