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Polar Expeditions 2005
Last updated: April 04, 2005
Note: List is preliminary and can be subject to change
Please note: Did we forget you or your friends?
Mail us at:
team@explorersweb.com |
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North Pole Unsupported Crossings 2005 |
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Arctic crossing (Russia) - 1725 km |
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American One World Expedition plans a crossing of the Arctic Ocean
in May 2005. American Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen will travel from
Cape Arkticheskiy, Siberia, to the geographic North Pole, then on to
Ellesmere Island, Canada. The team will be unsupported and the
expedition is scheduled to last four months. Lonnie was named one of
five Rolex Laureates last year.
(Another earlier Polar receiver of the Rolex award was Norwegian
Erling Kagge for his completion of the three Poles: SP/NP/Everest on
May 9, 1994.)
www.oneworldexpedition.com
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North Pole Supported Crossings 2005 |
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First female Arctic crossing (Russia) - 1725 km
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ABORTED
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Norwegian Liv Arnesen and American Ann Bancroft will make an attempt
to cross the Arctic Ocean. They will begin late February from
Arkticheskiy North Land, Russia and trek the 1725 km to Ward Hunt
Island, Canada where they expect to be by early June. This team will
use sails for travel and a drop with resupply. They also plan to
hitch a chopper ride over sections of open water if needed. Liv was
the first woman to ski to the South Pole (unsupported) and both
women made a supported kite-crossing of Antarctica together.
www.yourexpedition.com
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"Arctic North Pole" Unsupported 2005 |
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Ice-warrior for "Pole of Relative Inaccessibility" -
1170 km |
POSTPONED
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Fire fighter Jim McNeill will try to be the first person to reach
the "Arctic" North Pole, or "The Pole of relative inaccessibility",
the point in the Arctic Ocean furthest away from any land.
Jim reached the Magnetic Pole (app. 300 miles) with a five-person
team in 2003, but will attempt this springs 730 mile (1170km) trekk
solo and unsupported.
If successful this will be one of the longest unsupported treks
undertaken in the Arctic.
http://www.ice-warrior.com
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North Pole Unsupported 2005 |
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First female Solo for the North Pole (Russia) - 950
km |
ABORTED
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This year will see another attempt for a solo first female to the
North Pole: British Ann Daniels is picking up French/Finnish
Dominick's torch (Dominick Arduin perished last year on her
attempt). The mother of 4 was part of the first British all female
expedition to the South Pole (supported), the first all women's
expedition to the North Pole (supported) and have guided various
last degree expeditions to the North Pole. Ann hopes to make a full,
unsupported expedition, but will opt for a chopper lift over open
water and resupplies depending circumstances.
http://anndaniels.editme.com/TheExpedition
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Young Seok Park's Grand Slam (Canada) - 775 km |
Expedition
ongoing |
Korean ace Young Seok Park is attempting to complete an adventure
“Grand Slam.” After summiting all fourteen 8000ers (which he
completed in 2001), and foot-trek to the South Pole (in 2004), Mr.
Park is now on his way to the North Pole. If he suceeds, this will
be the first true Grand Slam accomplished by anyone. (The famous
"seven-summits" sometimes mentioned in relation to Grand Slam when
combined with polar treks are not the world's tallest peaks and thus
not a true Grand Slam.)
Young Seok Park (age 41), Sung Taek Hong (age 37), Hee Joon Oh (age
34), and Chan Il Jeong (age 25) all set out from Ward Hunt island
March 8.
www.parksgrandslam.net
www.donga.com/news/d_story/sports/northpole
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SP/NP Back-to-back (Canada) - 775 km |
POSTPONED
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The Primal Journey expedition will be going for both Poles, back to
back in 2005. 22-year-old Tarka L'Herpiniere a University student in
the UK will lead up the expedition with Patrick Wintertin, a 37 year
old television sports commentator in the UK. They plan on first
skiing to the North Pole from the Canadian side, unsupported in late
Feb/early March 2005. Following that expedition, they'll head down
South in the fall to go for the South Pole unsupported from Hercules
Inlet.
http://www.primaljourney.org.uk
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North Pole speed record attempt (Canada) - 775 km |
POSTPONED
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Four Northern Ireland explorers will attempt the record for fastest
unsupported to the North Pole from Ward-Hunt Island, Canada.
Team Members: Richard Dougan (Leader of the successful NI Everest
Expedition 2003), Richard Dunwoody (famous jockey), Hanna Shields
(Everest attempt 2003), Martin Duggan (Everest attempt 2003).
http://www.northpole2005.com
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Poletrack: Trio for the North Pole (Russia) - 950
km |
ABORTED
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Dutch Marc Cornelissen, American Doug Stoup and Norwegian Petter
Nyquist will join forces for a North Pole expedition this spring.
The team also wants to raise awareness on the global warming and
will place out a number of weather beacons on the ice. The skiers
will start out from Russia, hoping that an early start will help
them to avoid the problem of open water. They aim for an unsupported
full trip, but the objectives are not firm; "it will depend on
circumstances, like the weather," says Marc. The team will also
sport new pulks of Marc's own design - 260 cm long, built in one
rounded piece, with wider runners to improve their stability in the
moment of hauling them over pressure ridges and rubble areas.
http://www.poletrack.com/
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| North
Pole Dog Sledge 2005 |
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Speed record attempt to solve Peary controversy (Can) -
775 km
Expedition ongoing
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British explorer Tom Avery will lead a five-member team to the North
Pole in a bid to solve a riddle that has been stirring the Arctic
community for decades: Peary's disputed expedition to the North
Pole. The team will travel the same route (Cape Columbia), with
dogs, sleds built on exactly the same design as Peary's, and 4 food
and fuel caches placed at exactly the same point as Peary's (Goodsell/MacMillan
Camp at 84.29N, Borup Camp at 85.23N, Marvin Camp at 86.38N and
Bartlett Camp at 87.47N).
One of the big question marks over Peary's journey to the Pole was
the 5 days it took him to reach the Pole from Bartlett Camp - a
journey of 133 miles. This expedition hopes to prove the Peary
skeptics wrong and match the 37-day record. In nearly a century of
polar exploration, the fastest journey to the North Pole since
Peary’s took 43 days.
Team members are Tom Avery, Andrew Gerber, George Wells, Hugh
Dale-Harris and American Matty McNair (recently back from guiding a
spectacular South Pole traverse).
Ultimate North dispatches
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| Other
North Pole 2005 |
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90 Degrees North in the footsteps of Fridjtof Nansen -
660 km
POSTPONED
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Back in 1895, Fridjtof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer attempted to
walk to the North Pole along with Hjalmar Johansen. They left their
ship at the 84th parallel and made it as far as the 86th, the
furthest north anyone had reached at the time. British Richard
McIntosh and Jeremy White will attempt to do the same as Nansen and
Johansen, 110 years later. In 2005 the duo plans to go unsupported
from the 84th parallel to the Pole, and back.
www.90degreesnorth.co.uk
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| Siberia
2005 |
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Expedition Siberia - 3,500 km
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Expedition
ongoing
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This part of the world is one of the few remaining places on earth
that is virgin territory. This is a genuine journey of discovery."
Mikael Strandberg and Johan "Delta" Ivarsson are out on a grand
journey through Siberia stretching over 3500km. They face among the
lowest temperatures on Earth, following the River Kolyma in
northeast Siberia, headed to a very isolated research station: the
Northeast Siberian Research Station in Cherskii, near Ambarchik Bay.
In 1997-98 Mikael and his wife Titti traveled 3000km through
Patagonia by horse and more recently in 2000 they explored all clans
of the Maasai, 1000 km through East Africa.
www.siberia.nu
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Vancouver to Moscow - 18,000 km
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Expedition
ongoing
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No sails, no engines - just raw human energy. From Vancouver to
Alaska, across the Bering Sea and into Siberia, two BC adventurers
Colin Angus and Tim Harvey row, walk and bicycle their way. The trip
is an 11 month, 18,000 km journey that will take them to Moscow
using only human powered modes of transportation.
Colin has traveled the 7,000 km length of the Amazon River in a raft
- from the first trickles of melting snow in the Andes to the
Atlantic Ocean, and sailed across the Pacific Ocean (much of it
solo) as a teenager. Most recently he completed a descent of the
5,500 km Yenisey River through Mongolia and Siberia. He has authored
two books for Random House and co-produced two documentaries for
National Geographic, one of which garnered awards at the Banff and
Telluride Festivals of Mountain Films. Tim spent seven months in
Central America, funded by the Canadian International Development
Agency to work as a photographer on biological inventories of
threatened marine and wetland ecology.
http://www.vancouvertomoscow.com/index.php
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| Bering
strait 2005 |
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Bering strait - 100 km |
Expedition
ongoing
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Belgian Dixie Dansercoer, 42, and Alaska resident Troy Henkels, 37,
are planning to ski/sail across the Bering Strait. Their ultimate
goal is to make the trip in both directions. Return trip will be by
ski or balloon. Depending on ice conditions, Dixie and Troy will
attempt to cross in March of 2005.
Dixie successfully traversed the Antarctic in 1998 with Alain
Hubert. In 2002, Dixie and Alain, both from Belgium, tried to ski
across the Arctic Ocean. The expedition started in the unusual and
bold point of the New Siberian Islands. After a hard battle fighting
rough currents, Alain and Dixie were forced to call it quits after
69 days. Troy climbed on Mount Everest as a finalist in the Toyota
Global Extremes challenge TV program. He turned back at 25,000 feet,
short of the 29,035-foot summit.
http://www.circles.cc
http://www.beringodyssey.com
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| Magnetic
North Pole 2005 - Return trip |
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Magnetic North 2005 - 800 km |
ABORTED
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Matt Coates and Matthew Hancock are skiing from Cape Isachsen to the
Magnetic North Pole and back. The team will fly out on 6 March to
Ottawa, where they will visit the Geological Survey of Canada, to
meet the scientific team who have the latest estimates of the
position of the Magnetic North Pole. They will then fly to Isachsen
via Resolute. From Cape Isachsen, they will then ski and kite the
400 km each way to the Magnetic Pole and back. The team will be
measuring snow thickness for the European Space Agency along the
route.
One week out, frostbite to their fingers
forced the skiers to abort the expedition on March 23.
http://www.magneticnorth2005.com/
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| Polar
races 2005 |
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The Polar Challenge race - 560 km |
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A Magnetic Pole polar race is set to take place in 2005. Teams will conduct
training weeks in Norway and Greenland before flying to Resolute Bay
where in April they will race each other to the North Magnetic Pole.
http://www.polar-challenge.com
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Polar Race 2005 - 560 km |
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The race will take place in April 2005. So far teams from South
Africa and Australia have entered. They race on foot or ski, towing
supplies on pulks, passing through 3 checkpoints on their way from
Resolute Bay to the finish at the North Magnetic Pole. The race, for
the Wedgwood Blue Ice Trophy is organized by David Hempleman Adams
who recently ballooned across the Atlantic and Jock Wishart, an
Atlantic Rower and Polar adventurer.
http://www.polarrace.com
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North Pole Marathon - 42 km |
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Athletes again compete in sub-zero conditions on the Arctic ice as
the North Pole Arctic Marathon 2005 takes place. From Svalbard the
contestants will be flown on Russian Iljusins to Borneo, the
drifting Russian research station where the 26.2-mile marathon will
begin.
http://www.npmarathon.com
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| Greenland 2005 |
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Greenland crossing in support of Doctors Without Borders -
650 km |
In April 2005 two young Danes, Mads Hjelmar,22, and Thure Kjaer (greenland
resident) will set out on a West to East unsupported crossing of the
Greenland Icecap. The expedition is collaborating with NGO Doctors
Without Borders (Medicines Sans Frontieres), raising funds for the
organization. The skiers have chosen a rather original way to get
money for the Docs': A number of Danish enterprises will donate 10
Danish Krones (roughly $2) for each kilometer the two Danes walk.
The route chosen for the traverse is about 650 km long, from
Kangerlussuaq on the west coast to the village of Isortoq on the
east coast.
http://www.coldfeet.dk/
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| Svalbard 2005 |
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Svalbard 2005 expedition - 450 km |
Expedition
ongoing
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A Finnish five-man journey to the "iciest coasts of the world".
March-April, the men are going to ski 450 km over the glaciers all
the way to the northernmost corner to reach the 80th latitude, in
approx. 28 days. Expedition leader: Pete Mäkelä. Expedition members:
Vesa Luomala, Seppo Virtanen, Olli-Pekka Lahti and Sami Nytorp.
http://www.svalbard2005.com/enindex.html
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Svalbard: Training Grounds for North Pole 2006 - 450
km |
Expedition
ongoing |
For two years, Spaniard Jose Mijares called the Arctic “home” and
ran an Ice-Bar, a bar where everything from the furniture, floor,
walls, and even the bar itself, is made of ice. This Svalbard
traverse is a prep for his ultimate goal; skiing unsupported to the
North Pole in 2006. Mijares and Jesus Ramirez, a long time
backpacking mate, will complete a skiing circuit through Svalbard.
He estimates the trip will take approximately four weeks. “We will
go unsupported, passing by Pyramiden, unless we have really serious
problems.” Jose Mijares completed the classic Greenland crossing (Kangerlusuaq
to Isertoq) in 2002; traversed Inari Lake from Ivalo to Nuorgam and
crossed the Baltic frozen sea following Parallel 65º from Oulu to
Pitea in 2003. He has also skied across Swedish Lapland through the
Kungsleden route and Norwegian Lapland from Karasjok to Alta.
Independent expeditions to Svalbard must obtain a permit prior to
departure, including an insurance policy that will cover a rescue.
Also, traveling with a gun is mandatory.
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