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 April 16, 2003 -
84 degrees North off Siberia, one of the most
experienced climbers in the world, Mr Park and his team, is on a very
different challenge - skiing to the North Pole. South Korean adventurer
Park Young Seok belongs to the small band of men who has all 14 of the
worlds 8000ers under his belt.
After completing the 8000ers he went on to the climb the highest peak on
each continent, know n as the Seven Summits. Last out was Mount Vinson,
Antarctica where Park planted the South Korean flag on the summit November
25 , 2002.
 These
two achievements make him one of the leading adventurers in modern
history.
Mr. Park still wants more - the next goal is set for another great
adventure feat "The Three Poles" consisting of scaling Mount Everest and
reaching the North and South Poles of the earth. With Everest already in
the bag Park, together with six countrymen is now taking on the North Pole.
The expedition this far
 The
team set out from Cape Arktichevsky
Russia on March 4
for the 950 km long ski
trek to the Pole. The last few years the ice in the Arctic region has been
deteriorating leaving wide open leads of pitch black 4000 m deep water. This
year proved to be no
different. After a few days the team came across a wide lead, the decision
was to make camp and wait for the lead to freeze over.
That same day they caught up with French adventurer Dominick Arduin who
had fallen
into the water. Dominick was waiting for rescue chopper and the Koreans
decided to
take the opportunity to get lifted over the lead, and in fact over the
whole area with
troublesome ice - about 1 degree in total . Despite the fact that the
expedition is no longer unsupported and a clean chase for the three poles
is over , Mr. Park and the rest of the team is still toughing it out towards the Pole. The Last
Position update places them on 84 N with about 660 km left.
Expedition members:
Park Young Seok, Kang Chul Won, Joeng Yong Kwon, Lee Hyun Jo, Kim Eun
Kwang, Oh Hui Jun, Choi Bo Shik
Expedition website
Climbers with all 8000 meters
People with the three poles
Image credits to
www.parksgrandslam.com
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