The expedition took place in April 2002.
Travel was on foot, pulling heavy sleds containing all the equipment
required for survival in this beautiful but harsh environment. We camped on the ice carrying with us all our
food, water, shelter and other essential provisions. The weather
can change rapidly without warning and strong winds capable of flipping a
sledge are common. We expected a mixture of snow, mist and brilliant
sunshine with the temperatures as low as -20c. We got all that and
more. Polar bears were not a
problem as they stay out on the pack ice away from the Inuit hunters and
any females that gave birth to cubs in the park have migrated to the
northern pack ice in search of food.
We hoped to take around 10 days to complete the 140 mile
expedition, depending on weather conditions. We actually took 7½
days. We expected to use a mixture of walking and cross country
skiing. In the event, we walked the whole way because most of the
snow had been blown off the ice - even if it was there, we wouldn't have
been able to ski because all our bindings broke in the extreme cold!
TOP TIP - don't take plastic bindings.
For navigation we used
traditional map reading skills where land features were visible, a
standard compass and "sun compass" for directional bearings.
We also took a G.P.S (Global
Positioning System) to enable the expedition to continue to make progress in restricted visibility and even in total white
outs.
For communication, we took an HF radio and an Iridium
satellite phone (which didn't work). In addition, there are HF radios in all the
emergency huts along the route that are monitored by the park
authorities. TOP TIP: check all your equipment before you leave.
   
[ Why? ] [ Preliminaries ] [ Getting There ] [ Days 1 and 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Days 4 and 5 ] [ Days 6, 7 and 8 ]
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