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THE POLES WEARABLES EXPEDITION 2001/2002
See also our comparative map of the Arctic expeditions of spring 2002.
From their website : T&T left the ice on Thursday May 30, 10.00 PM. May 30. The end and new beginnings We headed out in an area of leads, 20 biggies in 2 hours. We rushed as the First Air pilots were on standby with us through the night. We called Mike each 3d hour giving weather reports. But the weather deteriorated and soon we faced a hard northerly wind, fog and snowfall again. We paddled our last lead; face down on top of wobbly sleds getting caught in the wind and the current. We had raced 34 hours out of the past 50 and were blurry eyed, heads spinning from exhaustion. 20km, 15, 10... Then a monstrous ridge; towering 7m/21ft high, blue ice packed in a perfect wall guarding the pole itself. But we had learned our lessons now, and tricked our way navigating through any tinniest passage we could find. The sun broke through for 10 seconds just as we had climbed one top to find a route. It was is if God himself wanted our success. The ridge took only 40 minutes. We arrived with one last bottle of fuel, two dinners, two porridges and 5 servings of chocolate pudding. Only now did we let ourselves realize how skinny we are. The sat phone went hot. Media, First Air guys, the ExWeb team positioned in Stockholm, Eureka and NY organizing pickups and phone appointments. We slept for 17 hours, waking every 3 hours to call Mike with weather updates. A possible weather window could have us out tonight. We`ll pack up shortly and go to find a landing strip to camp on. Out of the NP expeditions this year, we were the only first timers here. It has been great to take you along as such, you being newbies like us. The awes and the terrors aren`t the same to a veteran. 131 days in 6 months on ice and skis. The falling leaves, the Christmas, the bursting spring, the beginning summer - through all that we have skied. Every single day, with 8 rest days. And now the last step, the end of our Polar years. We did it without aid but not without help. Ericsson believed in us when nobody else did. They gave us the funds. Polar veterans have provided skill and experience, they in turn aquired from polar explorers before them. You gave us strength and encouragement in our dark hours. And so this success, like all victories belongs to all of us. The human race in a relay, continouing to strive, to seek and never yield! The impossible proved possible once again. We can do ANYTHING, guys. So let`s do it. Lets` go to Space! May 29. Latitude 90 00 degrees North, The North Pole May 29, 13.10 EST
Figures that can be seen changing on the screen of the GPS, which shows how strong the drift is, snow covering small obstacles in the way, the wind, ridges reaching over 5 metres in height, which are impossible to cross or nearly so, the wafer thin ice-floe in certain places, which makes moving ahead terribly dangerous, the hummocked ice that melts and breaks, around twenty lead of open water to cross in a single hour: Despite a considerable number of setbacks in the last few days, the Swedish couple are continuing, and have no plans to abandon their quest to reach both poles. What trials and tribulations have they endured since our last dispatch? To cut a long story short: on 7 May, they found themselves marooned on a 5-metre square sheet of ice with the Arctic Ocean all around them; two days later, on 9 May, the drift was taken them backwards at a rate of 10 metres per minute, and in a single night, they lost a whole degree of longitude; on 15 Tom suffered a heavy fall, which left him unconscious for a number of minutes on the ice, while Tina, who immediately put him inside a sleeping bag, fell into a hole in the ice as she went to pick up her husband's equipment; not having had time to put on her "Ousland" waterproof suit, her clothes took two days to dry out; paradoxically, the couple have been beating records by covering 22 then 25 km on 18 May. Then, they fell in the water more than once, had to swim across leads, sometimes taking an hour to cover 100 metres. And all the time, they were having to ration their food supplies and fuel. In other words, Tom and Tina are pulling out all the stops to cover the kilometres as fast as possible. Most recent position (24 May): 88° 54' N / 70° 42' W. They are still 122 km from the North Pole. They will probably arrive around the end of May. The Tom and Tina Sjogren couple are progressing "on a razor's edge", as they say in their daily reports on their website. On April 28, they met by chance the team of the three British women who, like them, are attempting the Pole, but with assistance. A few minutes to exchange impressions with each other and then the two teams continued on their separate ways. In 43 days (data as at May 3), they had covered 307.2km, that is to say an average of 7.1km per day, whereas Khoo Swee Chiow from Singapore, - certainly lighter because of being resupplied twice but on the same course nevertheless - has made up to now an average of 32km per day! Barely believable… Yesterday, 10 April, Tom and Tina Sjogren (fully fit and in high spirits) were in their 20th expedition day. They have covered a total distance of 72.2 km, or an average of 3.61 km per day (compared with 2.8 days for the three British women). See also our comparative map of the Total distance covered on 31 March: 27.8 km in 10 days. Distance to the North Pole: 740 km. Tom and Tina finally left Ward Hunt on 22 March. On Day 9, which was 30 March, they had travelled 24.3 km, or an average of 2.7 km per day, slightly faster than the three British women (2 km per day). The North Pole was still 743.4 km away. They have experienced identical conditions to the other expeditions that chose the same itinerary. Two anecdotes last week: firstly, Tina's synthetic underwear caught fire when the food heater was lit, which happened on 24 March (without serious consequences). Secondly, the couple had problems with their rifle, which jammed twice in six attempts. As usual (we wrote before that even in this kind of extreme situation, the couple still keep their sense of humour), they did not regard the incident as a tragedy: "There is a rumour circulating among the polar bears that the gun on one of the expeditions on this side of the ice floe goes 'Click' instead of 'Bang'. Well, that gun is ours". So they are having to test the weapon when they get up each morning. They often find tracks from another expedition that left at the same time as them. Singapore's Khoo Swee Chiow (aged 37) who is attempting, in the company of Canadian professional guide Paul Landry, the Ward Hunt -> North Pole journey for the second consecutive year (see account of his previous attempt here): last year, he failed after 85 km of trek, as a result of severely frostbitten fingers.
We followed the couple Tom and Tina Sjogren during their second and successful attempt to reach the South Pole between November 2001 and January 2002 (see our account). They arrived at the South Pole on 31 January, and then announced that this time, they would be attempting the goal pursued by the original project launched in 2000; the TWO IN ONE. Or if you prefer: reaching the North Pole after an attempt to reach the South Pole. At the time, they still didn't know if they would leave from Canada or Siberia. Today, after having reached the South Pole successfully (Hercules Inlet -> South Pole under their own steam) they are about to set off from Resolute Bay. So the couple are going to attempt the Ward Hunt -> North Pole route once again under their own steam. However, their last report dates from 17 March. They announced their immediate departure for Ward Hunt - in fact the next day. A chance, but telling remark from Aziz, who is handling their logistics, and incidentally is the new Mayor-elect of Resolute: "I shouldn't be telling you this, but it is particularly warm this year, and there is a lot of open water around here, which will make your attempt rather difficult…".
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Thursday 30 May