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North Pole Dominick: Netherlands to provide thermal camera for search
18:11 p.m. EST Mar 14, 2004
Dom's website brought a spark of good news today. Her home team reports that a big meeting took place in Moscow Saturday, regarding assistance for Dom's search. The Finnish Ambassador, Russian officials and Bernard Buigues from Cerpolex discussed the situation.
"Russian officials have promised to offer their assistance. Yet we haven't heard, what kind of assistance is to be expected," writes Dom's team.
The search for Dominick is scheduled for Wednesday as determined earlier. The heli's will carry a thermal camera, very kindly sponsored from the Netherlands. The flights will carry spare Iridium phones, Argos beacon and batteries for Dom, and also carry out a resupply for Bettina and Jean Gabriel.
Five expeditions have set out for a North Pole expedition this year, all from the Russian side. Wave Vidmar to be the first American to ski solo and unsupported to the North Pole. Frédéric Chamard-Boudet to do the same for France. British Ben Saunders attempts a first solo, unsupported crossing. Danish/French duo Bettina Aller and Jean Gabriel Leynaud ski to the pole with support and French/Finnish woman Dominick Arduin attempts the first solo, female North Pole trek with support.
The global warming of the recent years have posed increasingly harsher conditions for North Pole expeditions. The skiers have faced more and more water, even taking to swim the Arctic ocean to reach their goal. Some have brought canoes to paddle, especially when going from the Russian side.
Last Friday, a big open water lead just off the starting point posed the first immediate problem for this years expeditions. Two solo skiers, French/Finnish woman Dominick and Frenchman Frederic decided to ski/paddle across the huge, 55 km semi open water area, in an attempt for a clean North Pole expedition (which must start from land).
Dominick estimated that her crossing to solid ice would take at least 2 days. An avid canoeist living in Arctic Finland, she is used to cold and water. She brought 10 kg of snow with her for fresh water, a canoe and a dry suit.
Several North Pole teams reported issues with their ARGOS positioning beacon. Dominick's beacon transmitted only faint signals.
Monday night a storm hit the area. The temperature was -30C/F, with strong winds. Expeditions reported a drift of 1km/hour (15 miles/day) NorthWest, with a visibility of around 40 ft. There are large patches of thin ice creating dangerous ice walls like the one that consumed the Russian Research station. In addition a full moon Saturday caused tidal changes weakening the ice.
Frederic Chamard-Boudet, fell in the water and was rescued. He is treated for severe frostbite.
Dominick is missing since 10 days.
Image of Dominick taken the day before she set off, courtesy and full copyright Martin Hartley.
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