“Save the polar regions” !

Published on 12.03.2009 - General Info

The expeditions to the Arctic scheduled for this spring season 2009 are now online. It's as if all ten or so of the adventures that we will be following this spring have decided that there is a single, dominant message behind their reasons for taking on the elements: there is an urgent need to save the polar regions and we have to do everything we can to ensure that politicians take a serious look at and do something about the effects of global warming.

And is this another effect of global warming? Because for the first time, many of the spring 2009 Arctic expeditions are setting out a good three weeks ahead of the usual timetable. In the past, we have become familiar with explorers departing for the icy wastes in the period between 15th and 20th March. This year, 5 out of the eleven or twelve expeditions we will be tracking left at the beginning of March. Is it because our Arctic travellers are afraid that they might be caught out by an early thaw on the pack-ice? It's a question we'll be sure to ask them when the time comes.

So this year we will be following 11 or 12 expeditions.

Four expeditions are attempting the classic trek between Ward Hunt and the North Pole:

Eric Larsen (who has not yet confirmed his departure),
Lonnie Dupré (who is guiding two clients, Stuart Smith and Max Chaya),
The Briton Christina Franco (who has already abandoned her attempt) and
Two young Americans (Tyler Fish and John Huston).

Five expeditions will be attempting various feats in Greenland:

Adrian Hayes (who is due to attempt a crossing from south to north accompanied by Devon McDiarmid and Derek Crowe),
Two Danes (Jesper M. Ganc-Petersen and Erik B. Jorgensen) who were originally taking the route from Thulé and back via the south of the island, but have now rethought their trip and are setting out from the south of Greenland (Kangerlussuaq), heading to the far north-eastern tip before coming back down to Thulé. In all, this is a trek of 3 500 km, which they hope they will complete in four months.
Two young sportsmen from the Channel Islands (Simon Elmont and Steve Wright) will be attempting to cross the island from west to east, setting out from Kulusuk and heading for Sondre Stromfjord.Â
Also out on the Greenland icecap are four teachers sent out by the Fuchs Foundation (remember that during the 2007-2008 Antarctic season another team of teachers had the experience of their lives in the Ellsworth Mountains, see our reports).
And finally, there will be a Finnish expedition consisting of six members (Timo Stenros, the expedition leader, Kossila Kari, Kokko Jani, Parkkinen Teija, Suhonen Arto and Västinsalo "Rami" Raimo); they will be setting out from the west coast (Kangerlussuaq) and ending their trek at Isortoq on the east coast.

Two final expeditions should be marked with a special asteriskÂ on account of the unusual nature of the route for one and the composition of the team for the other.

Ladies first: four Scandinavian women (Vera and Emma Simonsson, two Swedish sisters, and Ingebjoerg Tollefsen and Kristin Folsland Olsen, two Norwegians), nicknamed the 'Baffin Babes', will be setting out from Qikiqtarjuaq (on the east coast), heading for Clyde River, then down to Pont Inlet. Their trip covers approximately 1400 km, which they believe they will accomplish in 80 days, taking on fresh supplies at Clyde River.
Finally, we will also be following the expedition led by Pen Hadow. This is without doubt the most ambitious of all the expeditions this season. Hadow has put together an adventure that is the result of the collaboration between a number of representatives from the community of polar explorers and some of the most famous scientific institutes in the world. Accompanied by the well-known British adventurer, Ann Daniels, and the similarly accomplished polar photographer, Martin Hartley, Pen Hadow will set out from 81°N 130°W to cover the 1 000 kilometres from there to the North Pole. Initially, Hadow had planned to depart from the Alaskan coast at Point Barrow. But that route was probably too long, especially in view of the scientific tasks the expedition will be responsible for conducting along the way. The three team members will be out on the ice for about a hundred days.

Other expeditions on the programme this season.

The Norwegian, Cecilie Skog, will be guiding two clients, Silje Hanum Padøy and Linn Yttervik, in a crossing of Greenland, and finally,
there is the adventure of Greenland's Ole Jørgen Hammeken, who aims to mark the centenary of Robert Edwin Peary's expedition by retracing the journey taken by the famous American explorer. Hammeken will set out from Cape Columbia and attempt to reach the North Pole with dog sleds in the same time as Peary.

Because we do not have much information about these final two expeditions, we are not yet sure whether we will be able to track their progress.

One final observation:
For the past 12 years, 'antarctica.org' and now 'explorapoles' have reported on the main polar expeditions each season, both in the Antarctic and the Arctic. And in all that time, we have never seen such a sustained rally of calls to protect and save the polar regions as there is this year. Whether it's the 'Baffin Babes' or seasoned professionals such as Dupré, Hadow and Larsen, or some of the younger explorers who are only now embarking on their first polar adventures (such as the Danes, Jesper M. Ganc-Petersen and Erik B. Jorgensen, in particular), all of them are dedicating their various attempts to making the public at large more aware of the vital need to safeguard the polar environment. Obviously, using adventures such as this as a way of getting the message of the serious problems facing our planet across to a wider audience is a concept that works!