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North Pole update: Search for Dominick delayed, some movement in position detected
09:46 a.m. EST Mar 10, 2004
Early this morning local time, Wave Vidmar reported continous high winds on the ice. Due to the weather the search for Dominick had to be aborted.
A spark of good news is however that Argos in France has done new calculations that showed some movement from Dominick on Saturday, according to Dominick's home team:
"The previous information we had was, that the Argos-positioning beacon had only sent a weak signal, that was impossible to locate. The beacon had only sent a short beep, which didn't include any coordinates. Now the specialists have succeeded in pointing out some movement sometime during saturday, reports YLE."
The question now is if the movement is caused by Dominick or by the ocean drift. The choppers will go out again tomorrow, hopefully in better conditions. Reports Wave in his latest dispatch:
"The storm has passed. I've spent the day sending emails and hoping to get some positive news about Dominique. Still no word from her. Hopefully she is safe and well, and just having ARGOS problems. Most of us are.
The ARGOS system is a satellite transmitter beacon we explorers carry with us. It gives our location, temperature, and sends out a pre-coded message to our basecamp managers. My ARGOS is giving two timestamps, which is wrong. Ben Saunders unit us showing him farther north than he really is.
It's my hope that Dominique is having ARGOS and Iridium phone trouble, and is safe on a solid piece of ice somewhere. I know they are out in helicopters searching for her.
Tomorrow I will get moving again. I drifted over ten miles towards the North Pole in the last day, but still have a long way to go..."
Read Wave's full story in the link.
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 -40C/F, with strong winds. for 24 hours. 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 and dangerous ice walls like the one that consumed the Russian Research station.
Frederic Chamard-Boudet, fell in the water and was rescued, but Dominick is missing since Friday.
Image of a North Pole skier and an Argos positioning unit, ExplorersWeb files.
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