They’ve reached the Pole
Published on 27.04.2009 - Peary Centennial North Pole Expedition
The three members of the 'Peary-Henson Centennial Expedition 2009' arrived safe and sound at the North Pole on 25th April.
Same comment as for the two young Americans: the biggest difficulty they had to contend with during the final days of their adventure was the negative drift (to the south) which was pushing them backwards at a rate of two or even three nautical miles every day (3.7 or 5.5 km). Not only were they being carried backwards as they marched, but they also lost distance during the night as the sea-ice moved in a southerly direction. When they checked their GPS in the morning, they would often find themselves two or three miles further south than their position the previous evening. Which is enough to sap the morale of even the keenest troops!
But the three men kept on going and refused to become discouraged. Like Huston and Fish, they had to step up the pace of their progress as they approached the Pole, meaning they had to spend more hours on the move each day, while at the same time cutting back on their hours of sleep.
As they didn't send back a great deal of information about their rate of progress during the final three days of their trek, we're not very sure how quickly they were going. But what they did estimate with a good degree of accuracy is that they had to cover approximately 650 miles during this trek from the time they set out until they reached the Pole. Over the same period they each also lost between 15 and 20 kg in bodyweight.
One odd thing is that although Fish and Hudson reached the Pole on the same day as Dupré's team -albeit a little later- neither they nor the other expedition mentioned meeting the other at the North Pole!
