The North Pole is over: all teams to be evacuated
Posted: May 12, 2014 08:04 am EDT
(By Correne Coetzer) Eric Philips, Bernice Notenboom and Martin Hartley will also be evacuated from the ice, together with solo skier Bengt Rotmo. Two days ago Kenn Borek Air announced that the season’s flights over the Arctic Ocean will be stopped on May 12 due to the unstable condition of the ice.
According to news received by ExWeb, the Kenn Borek plane has left Resolute Bay for Eureka, where it refuels before the flight across the ice starts. The Twin Otter will depart from Eureka as soon as the weather permits.
The Philips trio started skiing the 780 km from the Geographic North Pole (90ºN) to Canada on April 4. On April 28, when receiving a resupply, they were relocated to the west due to extreme eastward drift and also forwarded to the south with the Kenn Borek Air plane.
Bernice reported in a blog post today they are currently 194 km from the coast of Canada and have been given a May 12 deadline for an ice pick up. "We have tried to get an extension but the answer is no."
Currently the team entered the area which Trudy Wohlleben at Canadian Ice Service calls “the trouble zone”. Bernice describes their terrain and weather, “We are currently dealing with challenging conditions, many leads of open water, problematic pressure ridges and add to that a cocktail of zero visibility, accumulative snow, easterly drift again and strong winds as a series of storms have been nailing us during the last 11 days."
She adds, "The road ahead is too unpredictable to risk without a safety net of a pick up in case of an emergency, an uncrossable lead or pressure ridge. Through the Canadian Ice Service we have been given updates and know that some more difficult terrain is ahead of us as the ice collides and stacks up vertically against the coast. The storms and relentless southwest winds has mobilized the ice and it is breaking up. You can tally the distances from our last 10 days, and you will see we can’t stick to progress despite committing to long and hard days in adverse weather and ice conditions. We have given it our best effort."
Previous:
North Pole update: Bengt Rotmo to be picked up
North Pole 2014: Bengt Rotmo to ski solo North Pole to Canada
ExWeb interview with Bernice Notenboom, the Arctic and the world’s climate
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 dist”nce 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
Sean Chapple's insights: Laying the Foundations for Success
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
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 #northpoleover
SOURCE
courtesy Martin Hartley, SOURCE
SOURCE
SOURCE
courtesy Arctic Ice Drift Maps 2013 : Image from http://www.arctic.noaa.gov / Mike O Shea and Clare O Leary, SOURCE