Les Expéditions polaires Arctiques / Saison Printemps 2006 

 

Mission 1 : Top of the World  (David de Rothschild et son team)

 

Arktichewski - pôle Nord   |   pôle Nord - Ward Hunt

Extraits de leur site web :

April 27, 2006 / On Top of The World! (literally)
GPS-pos: N 89.5959 | E 131.3941 | Distance travelled: 10.7 nautical miles
Hi this is David phoning for Adventure Ecology on the Top of the World expedition - on top of the world!
We've finally made it to the North Pole. Its been 57 days of pushing and we made it this afternoon, 4.30 our time which was around 11.30 am your time Thursday the 27th. Its been a trip that has gone up and down emotionally and physically. Its been exciting and to be here now is a real milestone in this expedition. It makes me think how far we've come but also makes me realise how far we've still got to go! Its roughly around 800km left to reach Canada. We've already started moving towards Canada with the drift which is nice on our side. The weather was beautiful today as we arrived at the pole but its now closed in to give us our usual white-out conditions which should make for interesting travel tomorrow.

I just want to thank everyone who has over the last few months visited the website and supported us. Special thanks to Katie and Caroline in my office who have been keeping the ship sailing and keeping the expedition on the road. It really is a special moment for the Top of the World expedition to actually be on top of the world! Looking forward now to reaching Ellesmere Island in the next month to complete the first expedition for Adventure Ecology.
Keep tuning in for more updates and we'll let you know how we're doing. Thanks, this is David for Adventure Ecology, 90 degrees north on top of the world. Thank you, bye bye.  

April 26, 2006 / Almost on top of the world!
GPS-pos: N 89.4835 | E 141.4203 | Distance travelled: 16 nautical miles
Hello this is Martin calling from Mission 1 on Top of The World for Adventure Ecology. Its been a long day today;the 26 April. We've done 16 miles and I think there's another 11 and a half to go until we reach the Pole. I've been here for a few weeks now and every day is the same - the landscape doesn't change its just the detail and that changes every few hundred yards. Most of the time we've been walking in poor visibility or mist. Its like living inside a glass of milk and walking on polystyrene tiles all the time.

Its still incredibly beautiful and the water when the ice breaks open is inky black and sometimes you see what look like beautiful pure white feathers. They are pure salt crystals and they taste disgusting - absolutely pure salt. Every so often we come across a lead that's opening up or sliding across another and it makes noises - whistles and bangs. Sometimes it sounds like a train going past a few hundred yards from us - just incredible.

Its impossible to believe that you're walking on the surface of the frozen ocean. When its bad weather it feels like you're walking down a wide valley with mountains on either side because there's dark sky on the left and sometimes the dark sky on the right. Its impossible for me to imagine that I'm actually almost on top of the world. The only way I can do that is by putting a picture of the planet in my head and thinking of the top bit of the planet and that's really the only way I can grasp the concept of being on top of the world. Its an amazing place and it will be such a shame if it all melts.
Well then, I'm off to bed - its midnight!  

April 20, 2006 / Martin's first dispatch
GPS-pos: N 88.5900 | E 124.3740 | Distance travelled: 10.5 nautical miles
Hi this is Martin calling in from almost the Top of the World on the mission 1 of Adventure Ecology, I flew in about 8 days ago to meet the team on a re-supply, the weather has been everything from beautiful crystal clear sunshine to visibility dropping down to about 30 metres. The landscape is absolutely pristine - huge great blocks of ice everywhere, weaving in between them and across leads sometimes the ice is very thin and bends like rubber when you cross it and sometimes it's just water and so we have to find our way across these rivers within the ice. It's a maze of beautiful white and blue snow crystals and formations, every day is the same, the routine's the same, but the complications of navigation and getting from A to B are always different. It's a beautiful place, we're about 71 miles from the geographic north pole, so quite a way off in terms of days of travel, the dogs are looking fit and healthy, the team are looking a bit shabby, but that's to be expected and I'm looking forward to the rest of the expedition with them. I hope you're doing well back home and checking the website every day, I'll be back in touch soon, thanks a lot for listening, bye for now.

April 18, 2006 / Moving on up
GPS-pos: N 88.3931 | E 117.0440 | Distance travelled: 9.5 nautical miles
Hi, this is David phoning from Mission 1 Top of the World Expedition for Adventure Ecology. It's Tuesday night, 18th April, Happy Easter to everybody who's checking in. I'm sure you all ate lots of chocolate, we eat chocolate every single day so no excuses for us. It would be nice to have an Easter Egg, no Easter Bunnies up here. Travel has been incredibly slow over the last five days, we've been battling lots of bad visibility and southerly drift, which has caused our progress to be very slow. The snow was very heavy and it causes the dogs to get tired rather quickly. The full moon was on the 13th and that also caused some problems because of the tidal currents underneath the ice pushing it up, creating massive areas of broken ice and leads. Coupled with the warmer temperatures coming from the south, this means that the leads which would normally be frozen aren't, causing us to slow up when we get to the leads in order to try and cross them. We've had a few running East-West which is the worst type of lead because it goes straight across our path and stops us going North. It's very frustrating to do three or four hours along the side of a lead in order to cross, but we're managing to make it further North. We're currently coming up to 8841, I believe, if you check on the website and look at the funky little map. Everyone seems to be keeping a smile on their face, although a little behind schedule. I hope that you guys keep on checking in and we will give you some more updates as we move forward. About to go to bed and get into my vapour-barrier liner and my warm sleeping bag and hopefully get a good six or seven hours sleep before we start again in the morning. Dog of the day today was Martin, he's got two legs instead of four, he's doing some very good swimming techniques or balancing techniques, he managed to balance himself very well today on a piece of ice and not get himself wet, I think he's been copying the dogs so I've made him my dog of the day, not sure if you're allowed to do that with humans. Anyway, all is good, this is David phoning for the Top of the World Expedition, speak to you soon, bye-bye. 

April 5, 2006 : Dumb dog of the day!
GPS-pos: N 86.4416 | E 93.5759 | Distance travelled: 9.5 nautical miles
Hi this is David phoning from the Top of The World Expedition. Good evening, or good morning wherever you may be checking in from. We had a mixed day, interesting day of travel, we did 9,5 Nautical Miles which is a little below our average- I think Paul was skiing a bit slow - I don't know what happened. no I'm joking. he's nodding his head. The conditions: we have a southerly coming in at the moment, which causes a contrast, a drop in visibility which has been pretty poor, its very hard to recognize where the bumps and lumps are. We've got a northerly, a north east drift as well, pushing us forward which is kind of nice but also causing a few problems a few cracks in the ice. We came across a lead today which was very interesting. We scouted along the lead for about 45 minutes and then Paul came across an ice chunk in a narrower part of the lead which we all looked at and jumped up and down on a few times, realized it was possible to move it, so we stuck an ice screw in, we used our poles and our skis, we started pushing, jumping, pulling, doing all those sorts of things and it dislodged itself from the side of the lead and we managed to get across to the other side so we then decided to use that block as a ferry system, pulling two teams across one at a time. All was good we managed to get everyone across safely and in the process there was a some inspiration by one of our dogs Tamarack, who decided to do a full swan dive directly into the middle of the lead while he was sitting on the block of ice so from now on we are also going to have an award, instead of 'dog of the day ' its going to be 'dumb dog' and so he's holding the 'dumb dog' award at the moment and taking it away from another dog called Bartlet who is very sweet but often ties his back legs together! Anyway all is good we're just off to bed, we've had out short bread, we've had all our food and hopefully we will start moving forward to our next re-supply back up to 15 Nautical Miles or around that hopefully tomorrow. Sarah is going to be guiding, leading the way with the ski-ing, scouting the route, its her turn tomorrow and me and Paul will spend all day talking to each other, hopefully and making some progress. All's good take care, thank you, bye! 

April 4, 2006 : Qimmik - dog of the day!
GPS-pos: N 86.3451 | E 92.3339 | Distance travelled: 14 nautical milesGood evening this is Paul calling for the update for Monday April 3rd. We did 15 Nautical Miles today, 15 big ones, excellent travel day. Sarah was leading and navigating on skis ahead, I was driving the front team and David was driving the second team, both of us on skis as well, holding onto the handle bars at the back and skiing along. It?s quite nice and relaxing on the flat and a lot of hard work when we are going through pressure ridges and jumping onto leads and so forth, with skis on but it?s a day?s travel. Dog of the day for me today: Qimmik. Qimmik is the Inuit word for ?dog?. He is a big friendly white dog, he runs on the second team, sometimes he runs at lead, at the moment he is running on a blue line which means kind of three dogs back. He pulls really hard, most of the time and the special thing about Qimmik is that he was born on Sarah?s birthday quite a few years ago so he?s basically her dog, her favourite dog, she likes him a lot. So dog?s are doing well, they?ve recovered from the hard day we had travelling on the lead and pulling steady so that?s it, that?s all, we?re going to bed and thanks a lot for tuning in folks its great to know that so many of you are listening to our updates from the Arctic Ocean, goodnight. 

April 2, 2006 : 86 parallel
GPS-pos: N 86.0542 | E 90.1323 | Distance travelled: 9 nautical miles
Hi this is David checking in for the Mission 1, Top of the World Expedition for Adventure Ecology. It?s the 2nd of April all is good. March has gone, it was an interesting month! We just want to thank everybody for all their support and for visiting the website. We had over 270,000 hits from you coming and looking and checking in on us, which was phenomenal for our first month, very exciting, I hope you have all been finding it interesting. Tomorrow will be one month since we?ve been on the ice. April is a big month for us, a very busy time for us, kind of a make or break month I think for the expedition, from our point of view. We?ve got the North Pole coming up sometime toward the end of April, Hopefully around 21st, 22nd of April. And then we start heading off into Canadian waters, or heading towards Canadian waters, so it will be a big month, hopefully we will make up some good progress between 88 on the Russian side and 88 on the Canadian side. But all is good here. Today we passed the 86 parallel which was great. We managed to eat some beef jerky as a celebration and fry up some more salami. It was a nice travel day, we managed 9 nautical miles. We gave the dogs half a day today so we did only 3 and a half hours instead of our usual 6 or 7 and a half hours of travelling. We felt they were looking a tiny bit tired, maybe a tiny bit dehydrated from the lack of water. One of the interesting things out here is obviously everyone must think: how do the dogs drink ? well they actually just eat the snow and re-hydrate themselves. We also melt the snow for water. We have to look for snow which is slightly deeper, anything too close to the ice is salty and tastes funny ? makes the harvest food works taste worse than it is! But all is good the mission is moving forwards. I hope you guys get a chance to go and check out ?Mission Control Room? I hear they are about to launch checkpoint ?L? so very exciting over there. 

March 31, 2006 / Bert and Ernie
N 85.4348 | E 89.5656 | Distance travelled: 15.5 nautical miles
Hi, it's Paul calling from Top of the World Expedition on March 31st. We had an awesome day today, we reached the halfway point between land in northern Russia and the North Pole and we celebrated with a small bowl of M&Ms. We also came onto a massive massive lead but luckily for us it was frozen enough for us to travel on it and heading in a northern direction so by the end of the day we had gained 15 and a half nautical miles, so were quite happy. Dog of the day for me today is Ernie, another polar veteran. He came to the North Pole with me in 2000 and also went last year with Barclays Capital so this is his third visit on the Arctic Ocean. Ernie has a brother on the other team called Bert, Ernie and Bert, and what characteristics Ernie has is he has tremendous drive. He runs on the second team and if the sled gets caught on a steep pressure ridge, you just have to call his name "Come on Ernie, come on!" and you see him dig in the snow and just pull that sled up and over pretty much by himself. That is a great great asset to have but every once in a while when you want to stop the sled and Ernie feels like he wants to keep going forward, well he doesnt stop and he keeps going...but anyway thats Ernie, a great dog and he is sleeping with us here just beside the tent. That's it for today, good night and good luck, and we hope that you will keep us in mind and pray for good ice for us for the next few days. Bye bye. 

March 25, 2006 / Dog of the Day
Hi its Paul calling from the Top of The World Expedition. A good Saturday today. We managed to get across this big big big big lead that was the good news, the bad news is we only managed to do 5.5 Nautical Miles. But at least we?re across and it seems like we?re on good terrain. A few words about our furry friends that are travelling with us. We?ve got 16 Canadian Inuit Dogs pulling two sleds, so two teams of eight, and they are doing well. We are pulling 18 days worth of food which is quite a heavy sled but they put in a good 7 to 8 hours of pulling each day. And dog of the day today for me is Bartlet- this chocolate coloured dog that is a bit goofy but quite a happy dog and keeps us amused with his kind of prancing around and his looks and so forth. He?d be a nice dog to cuddle up to ... Anyway, things are well and the dogs are doing great, I?m very impressed with them and that?s it. So good night and we are all wishing for good ice. Bye bye. 

March 24, 2006 / Bear flare goes blind...
GPS-pos: N 84.0950 | E 91.2133| Distance travelled: N/A
I was just writing in my journal and had to make a note!! No more cold places for a while! I now have a special kind of connection and more importantly a special kind of sympathy for frozen food!! I just worked out that over the last 14 months I would of spent close to 7 months in very cold places (Antarctica, Greenland, Arctic) and in side a very small tent!! Especially as I am 6"4 it seems smaller and smaller... So I guess you could say I also have a connection with tinned food!! However all this said, you would be right in saying, it's your own fault, no one forced you!! All too true. I am still going through the old grey cells to find the ones that keep saying freeze yourself its not that bad! Saying that, in respect of the temperature, yes it is cold, but it's also very manageable! I guess it could be due to a combination of things, firstly the great folks over at Patagonia whose clothes I can not recommended highly enough, just don't keep burning them like I do or not only do you feel stupid but sad!! Secondly it could be the fact that I am still not fully defrosted from my previous 2 trips to colder climes or it could be the temperature over the last month has not dropped below -30c... Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out something is not quite right!! Maybe a rocket scientist might know the answer? I was aware we would have to face open water but never to the extent that we have faced. Mid February and I have seen more water than the shamu probably sees in a year! Now not only does this make travel very slow, frustrating, stressful, and sometimes wet but also the phrase "The bigger the lead the bigger the bear" although it might sound funny is usually true. It's often the first question people ask after: 'how do you go to the loo' (Quickly!!) "Did you see a polar bear?" Now they might look sweet and cuddly when you watch them on the television from the comfort of you're armchair, but believe me they are not that sweet 5 metres away from the end of your tent!! So let me paint the picture: You have just finished a long day of pushing, pulling, lifting and generally pushing every muscle fibre to the limit, you've had your two hot drinks, a warm meal is sitting in your belly and the eyelids are as heavy as the storey high blocks of ice you have been fighting through all day long. You have just gone through the pain of getting into your sleeping bag, (one of the coldest times of the day! Not to mention the three layers of sleeping bags, multiple zips, Velcro and other bits you need to wriggle through to find a warm place to snuggle down) and the dogs start going crazy, for the first few nights this had become a regular routine so your ears prick up for about 30secs and then you drift off to sleep trying to find a rhythm between barks, grunts and squeaks. However this time they were going crazy like Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!! The heart starts beating, palms sweating and then ok how the hell do I get out of my sleeping bags, a wriggle and tear later I am now looking out my tent right at a massive bear who is sniffing my sled!! Rather the sled than me I am thinking!! Ok think fast, flashlight.... Where did I put my flashlight after 5 minutes of frantic looking it was still on my head... By this time the other team members were getting up and out of the tent. Next bear flare.... Then clothes, seems funny but with all the adrenaline pumping through you're veins the cold doesn't seem so cold... Believe me your fingers and toes quickly snap you out of that one in a hurry... So now outside with only a sled between me and the bear, there is a sudden realization ... I am meals on wheels! Steak on legs is far more exciting than canvas and wood! There was a second where I could actually see his brain click into gear, yum yum breakfast, lunch and ...!! But before he could say DINNER I had pulled my flare! Now word of advice- don't check to see if your hands are in the right place or you end up blinded!! So now I may have Boris the big Russian bear breathing down my neck but what do I care? All I can see are big red dots!! Luckily for me he wasn't a bull and when the red filter over my eyes subsided he had scarpered far enough back so we could collect our senses and get the gun ready to fire a few warning shots! A few big bangs later and I think Boris decided Seal was far easier!! So in one fell swoop any notion of a polar hero was replaced by polar clutz!! Keep tuning in for more action! This is David for Adventure Ecology!!

P.S The re supply came and went, in a flash! Basically a helicopter comes wafting down like an eagle swooping on its pray, 4 grumpy looking Russians look at you as if
A) Why am I here and B) More importantly what the hell are you doing here?
As this was not our charter just a passing drop as it is headed for the North Pole to set up a base (called Borneo a floating ice station around 88 degree's) they barely touch down before throwing out all your stuff and sadly disaster struck- our extra treat bag got missed and left on board so the grumpy Russians are now not so grumpy, however with all things bad there is always something good! We miscounted the food bags so we now have two extra days food, which means a healthy dose of Pierre Marcolini chocolate!! Heaven! 

March 23, 2006 / Time to breathe...
GPS-pos: N 84.0950 | E 91.2133| Distance travelled: N/A So I am sitting here waiting for our second re-supply. The MSR stove next to me is ticking along with a very hypnotic purr that seems to have worked it's charm on the other team members, as they are all snoring away. The only other sound is the occasional squeak and grunt from the dogs. Today for me is a chance to breathe for what feels like the first time in a month. It is a rest day but there is no guilt, or travel pressure attached, we can only sit and wait. For me time to breathe is also time to think and day dream, and its then I start to really absorb exactly where I am at and what I hope the effect this
trip will have, on not only the people who read or hear about it now, but the future generations who have to live in the world which we are moulding for them. I know I have said it before but the scale of the problems we will face as these huge expanses of ice and snow I travel on daily, begin to melt are almost not worth thinking about!! I think that one of the issues we really face, is how do we actually communicate and show these ecologically fragile environments for what they are and more importantly what they are struggling against. Even sitting in my tent separated by only a few millimetres of fabric makes this beautiful and extreme world seem a million miles away. So its no surprise that people living in large cities like London, Mumbai, Lagos, Lima should feel safe and oblivious to the impending threats that are on the move... I don't think I have the answer, I wish I did but I hope that in my small way I can help to at least communicate some of the beauty and magic around places like the Arctic ocean that needs to be saved if we are to continue with the quality of life we have become so accustomed to.

On a lighter note today is also a day to not only eat as much as possible but to prepare for some of the new snacks and treats we have coming in on the re supply. It never ceases to amaze me how the small things like some 'just add water' humous can get you so excited! Well it does... For me just the new smell is enough... It sounds odd but the subtle or sometimes not so subtle smells of everyday life that we take for granted are the small types of things the brain and nose really pick up on!
My happily purring stove has just seemed to have gone to sleep as well which means before long, I will know how a tub of Ben and Jerry's feels like... It also means sadly I can't read through this so I hope I make a snowball of sense! Thanks for all the support wherever you may be, hopefully for you somewhere slightly warmer!! All the best from the Arctic and the Adventure Ecology team.
David

March 22, 2006 / You Win Some You Lose Some.
Good evening it?s Paul calling from the Top of the World Expedition, on the Arctic Ocean, March 22nd. A beautiful day today, the sun was shining, there was not much wind and we took some video and some photos so that was very pleasant? but we encountered this massive lead, about an hour and a half into our travel day that kept pushing us to the east and we were determined to cross it so we kept looking for places to cross and were shut back pretty much all day. Finally around three o?clock, three thirty, Sarah found a narrow spot and we were able to get across and then had some decent sledding after that and we travelled until six o?clock. But we only made 9 nautical miles north, which is a little less than we usually do. So you win some and you lose some and that?s it for today we?ll talk again probably in three days when it?s my turn for an update. Goodnight and sleep well and thanks for tuning in, bye bye!

21 March, 06 / GPS-pos: N 84.0018 | E 91.3159 | Distance travelled: 13 nautical miles / We hit the 84 today
Hi this is David from the Top of the World, Mission 1, for Adventure Ecology. All is good, sitting here eating a bowl of stroganoff again, because Sarah dropped the bowl of beans using the Ogrippy grips¹ for the bowl. Which means we get stroganoff two nights in a row which is a pleasure because its one of my favourite Harvest Food Works. All is good with us, we hit the 84 today which is kind of exciting, we didn¹t think we were going to because we had a very slow start getting through lots of deep snow and thick blocks of ice but we managed to weave our way through, find ourselves on a few more pans and luck was on our side with a lot of the leads which we went over, they were frozen solid which was nice rather than them being open water which we are used to. So we managed to move through that. We did 13 nautical miles. The dogs seem to be settling into their routine, they still seem to get excited whenever they get near water, so do I, so I can¹t blame them, maybe it¹s just a lack of wanting to get wet. But all is good, we¹re starting to settle into the routine as usual, eating my food, trying to put on as much weight as possible which we all seem to be doing very easily for some reason. We¹re just keeping our heads down and heading north. So this is David phoning, Paul and Sarah say hello, all the dogs say a big howl and we look forward to speaking to you soon. Thank you to everyone back at home who¹s helping us with everything, especially to Johnny and Andy at R & K who are helping us out, to sort out some stuff in Longyearbyen and get all our stuff together. So thank you to everyone who¹s been helping us on our expedition. We look forward to giving you an update tomorrow. Keep tuning in, thanks!