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The dangers
 Skiing to the North Pole counts as the hardest expedition on Earth today.
It was long considered impossible to reach the North Pole by foot. Many extremely skilled mountaineers, like Reinhold Messner, have been forced to give up their North Pole attempts.
The main danger to life is the presence of Polar bears. These man-eating predators are bold and aggressive because they don’t have natural enemies. T&T carry with them a shotgun, pepper spray and flares for protection. The shotgun will be kept outside the tent at all times to prevent from jamming. The constant danger of
bear attacks will rob T&T of much needed sleep at night.
Th ey will travel close to each other and there will be no listening to music or audio books.
Last year, a Japanese adventurer was found dead, frozen over in the ice. For some reason, he had fallen into an open lead and not managed to get back
up. It is important to keep the skis on at all times and check the thin ice using
the ski poles. Tom and Tina have practiced to swim in icy waters using dry suits, pulling the sleds behind.
The s leds are floatable and T&T have trained to boat in them. The team will try to go around open leads by all means and the swimming/boating will be used only as a last resort.
Should they fall into the water, they will roll in the snow to suck up as much water as possible and then hurry into the tent to try to dry up. The team only carries one set of clothing, so the situation must be avoided at all costs.
Because the expedition is unsupported and the team doesn’t use the aid of dogs or sails, T&T will have a rough time pulling the heavy sleds, especially over rubble with up to 5 meters/17 ft tall
pressure ridges. There will be four sleds in the first month of the
 expedition, each the weight of around 75 kg/150 lb. The team will thus proceed by pushing the first sleds for a distance, then coming back for the second set. In addition, the ice will move against the expedition, pushing the team an average of 2 km
backwards. Some days it is possible to ski for 10 hours and still not gain a single yard. That will add to the
mental challenge of the expedition.
A final, serious danger is the breakup of the sea ice around full moon. Due to the tidal change, the ice
t urns into a raging inferno,
-breaking up in instant leads, throwing rubble around and colliding into new pressure ridges. This event is very loud, violent and terrifying. There will be numerous threats to the expedition including the tent
falling in open water at night. T&T need to be as far from the coast as possible at this time of the month.
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