The Dark Ice Project (A. Hibbert & J. Miles)
Expedition News-Official Website
From 22.10.2012 to - Status: abandoned
Conquering the North Pole in winter
© Expedition website
Britons Alex Hibbert (polar photographer, 26) and Justin Miles (writer, lecturer and management consultant to sports and fitness organisations, 39) are planing a two-phase expedition. Their aim: reaching the North Pole from Greenland, unsupported, and during winter. They should leave from Qaanaaq mid-December.
Between mid-December 2012 and mid-March 2013, Alex Hibbert and Justin Miles will each haul over 400kg the length of the Nares Strait and then return unsupported. The purpose is to lay and prepare depots for a subsequent phase with the uiltimate goal of reaching the North Pole unsupported in winter. This has never been achieved. The Pole has also never been reached from Greenland -the final main route as yet untravelled.
The route for the first phase will cover up to 900 miles over fractured and mobile sea ice between the cliffs and glaciers of Ellesmere Island and North-West Greenland. The pair will set out from the Greenlandic Inuit village of Qaanaaq and travel north to the edge of the Arctic Ocean, before returning. The sea ice through these narrow straits is amongst the most dynamic and technically demanding in the world.
In the winter of 2013/14, the team will return and make their unsupported winter attempt on the North Pole using the route forged the winter before, hauling up to 1900 miles over seven months.
