However, the whims of the weather out on the Arctic Ocean had other ideas - for this year at least. Extremely low temperatures averaging minus 40°C (instead of the usual minus 30°C), sinking as low as minus 48°C, made the expedition especially exhausting, but still within Dominick's capabilities. But speaking by satellite link on Monday 17th March, Dominick Arduin told expedition headquarters in Khatanga (northern Siberia) that a slab of new ice had given way as she was crossing it and she had fallen totally into the water. She said that she was having a great deal of trouble getting dry and was afraid that her feet were beginning to freeze.
On Tuesday 18th March, a telephone consultation with the centre specialising in frostbite at Chamonix left Dominick Arduin with a dreadful decision to make: either continue with the expedition and lose her feet, or give up her attempt for this year and cut her losses. At the end of the day, she had to give in to the inevitable and requested emergency evacuation.
On Wednesday 19th March, 2 MI-8 helicopters left Khatanga and after a flight lasting 11 hours, the emergency medical team managed to locate Dominick and airlift her to Sredny island, where an An 12 aircraft was waiting to pick her up and take her back to Norilsk. By the morning of Thursday 20th March, she was in Moscow, from where she was transferred to Geneva and then on to hospital in Chamonix.
On Thursday evening, the doctors in Chamonix confirmed Dominick's good overall state of health, but diagnosed serious frostbite to both feet. The medical team will make an overall assessment of the extent of the frostbite on Monday 24th March and a release will be issued subsequently.
Release dated 10th, 11th & 12th March 2003
problems with the beacon…
Summary of the day:
As we said yesterday, the Argos beacon is not operating and it is impossible at the moment to know when she will be able to send a new signal. Dominick is well, but we do not know her position at the moment, nor how far she has covered today. Dominick on a conveyor belt… /
Summary of the past 3 days:
News from the pack-ice… If there has been no news for the past 3 days, it is because not everything has gone as Dominick would have liked. In fact, there has been this problem with the Argos beacon which was fixed by the CLS engineers on Tuesday 11th March. Unfortunately, when the beacon sent its next signal, the position given was something of a surprise because it indicated 81°31' North. Knowing that Dominick was at 81°40' North on Sunday, the only possible explanation was that there had been significant drift of the pack-ice to the South. Communication by phone has been very difficult since the beginning of the expedition. This has led to a total lack of information for 3 days. Fortunately, news of Dominick arrived via our Finnish friends. Unfortunately, the news was not all good…
The past 3 days have been extremely tough for Dominick. It all began on the night of Sunday 9th to Monday 11th March. The wind strengthened and began battering Dominick's little tent. Fortunately, there was no damage to her equipment… On Monday 10th March, the wind was still very strong, creating some large cracks in the pack-ice. In a matter of hours, Dominick found herself on a small islet of ice 2 kilometres across… she was a prisoner in a pitiless world…
Stretches of sea several kilometres across had formed. Dominick's sledge is designed to act as a boat for crossing small stretches of sea, but what Dominick had to contend with here could not be crossed…Dominick has scheduled two re-supply drops during her expedition. The only solution for getting away from her ice island was to take advantage of the first re-supply exercise to get across this expanse of water by helicopter. The decision was taken on Monday: a helicopter would come to make the first drop the next day, Tuesday 11th March. There was only one thing for Dominick to do… wait in her tent at -35°C…When you stay without moving on the pack-ice, you are at the mercy of the polar drift. Which was the case for Dominick, and in the space of a day, the strong winds and swirling ocean currents had taken her drifting 20 km to the SOUTH.
The helicopter was due to come on the Tuesday, but unfortunately it was unable to collect Dominick because the wind was too strong. So Dominick waited… and waited… and was unable to do anything about the southerly drift. So she spent another night on her island and hoped that the chopper could come back the next day - but the situation was the same as the previous day: too much wind. While she was waiting, Dominick continued to drift backwards, losing a few more kilometres…These three days were devastating and the pack-ice broke up over an area 100 kilometres across. Not possible to make progress in the usual way, so there was only one solution: to jump over these 100 kilometres of shredding pack-ice… let's hope that Dominick can set out again tomorrow…
Release dated 8th & 9th March 2003
Technical problem…The Argos beacon has been refusing to transmit Dominick's position since Saturday 8th March at 00.00 hours. So it has been impossible for us to know where she has been for over 36 hours. It appears that there has been a technical problem with the beacon, but unfortunately it is impossible to know any more than that for the time being. The CLS engineers are trying to resolve the problem. If the beacon is no longer able to work, it would be possible to send Dominick a new beacon as part of the first re-supply drop scheduled between 15th and 18th March. So we may be without a signal for a week… To be continued…Dominick's giant step forwardNo Argos beacon does not mean we have no contact with Dominick. Fortunately, she has been able to give us some news thanks to her Iridium satellite phone. This enabled her to give us a summary of the past two days:
Telephone message: 09/03/03 13.00 hrs French time / 18.30 hrs North Pole
"Good evening everyone, I have just finished pitching my tent and can at last give you my news. The sun set two hours ago, but its presence remains visible just below the horizon. The sky is magnificent, with sensational colours. It is currently -41°C outside and not much more than that inside the tent. Everything is fine and I am fighting fit. I am beginning to get used to the cold, which enables me to sleep well. Last night I was able to sleep for 7 hours… which is just what I needed to set me up for another day.
I am happy to be here and for the time being I have got away from the compression ridges. The pack-ice has flattened out, which has enabled me to make progress for the past 2 days. Yesterday I covered 15 kilometres, with 20 kilometres today. I am approaching 82 degrees North, which is good for morale. I am also pleased because I am able to find my way using my GPS. I am not too far off course with the drift and am remaining on or around the same degree of longitude (96°E).
The weather is being kind to me, too. On the first few days the sky was grey, whereas today it has been a deep blue.
The only thing that's not much good is the food… it's really like being on a diet… I certainly won't have put on weight by the time I get there! I hope that the next re-supply drop will give me something to get my teeth into - like chocolate bars.
Two other expeditions also left from Cape Arktichevsky: a team made up of two Russian and another with 6 Koreans. Both of these teams are a long way behind me, which is also a good because it proves that I am making progress at a good rate. So everything is fine here. Goodnight."
Release dated 7th March 2003
Dominick got up at 6 o'clock in the morning and tried to make progress for 12 hours - all that effort for just 1.22 kilometres further North. In fact, Dominick got up early because yesterday evening she came up against a very large compression ridge and decided not to cross it yesterday. So this morning, she emptied her pulka (sledge) to the other side of the ridge, then crossed with her pulka, then reloaded again. Unfortunately, just after this immense 10-metre high ridge, there was another one waiting for her… Very little progress today and a falling daily average - that's what adventures to the Pole are all about. Unfortunately, during the night Dominick drifted approximately 500 metres to the South and so only advanced 1.22 km today.
Release dated 6th March 2003
Hard… harder… compression ridges… Dominick really is in the thick of things and has had to demonstrate her courage and willpower. She spent her day crossing these immense ice obstacles that are caused by two edges of pack-ice colliding. Dominick has a great deal of stamina and so prefers to spread her effort over a period of several hours, rather than to give her all in a matter of minutes. So when she has to cross a ridge some 10 metres in height, Dominick unloads everything from her sledge and goes back and forth several times to put her equipment on the other side of the ridge. Once her pulka (another name for her sledge) is light enough, she can then get past the obstacle…
So Dominick takes on ridge after ridge for over a 10-hour period. She might well take 1 or 2 hours to cover a hundred metres. Add the gentle cracking sound of the pack-ice to these obstacles as you walk and you can get a fair idea of what it is like out there in the polar world.
In any event, Dominick is very well, her morale and physical well-being are sky-high. She has at last managed to make a few phone calls, but these have been short because she has to share her talk-time with various correspondents in France and Finland.
Yesterday she progressed 900 metres and last night she lost 120 metres to the South while deviating 33" East (very little). As long as the drift remains this insignificant, Dominick can feel good because right now, she progressed 800 metres while she was sleeping... Dominick will feel this drifting motion most at night when she is not on the move over the ice. But the drift also has an effect during the day, too. Today for example, Dominick had the impression that she was still going North, whereas while she was walking, she went 4'33" off course to the West.
Still maintaining the same average, Dominick progressed 4.42 km to the North.Dominick is in peak condition. Not out of breath, no breathing problems, everything is fine. Her motto is: "May as well take your time while you still have plenty". She does not make any wasted effort and thinks carefully about everything she does.
As communication with Dominick is short and difficult, it is impossible to know what her breathing rate is at the moment, or her heart rate and body temperature. Conditions for communicating ought to improve in about two weeks.
Release dated 5th March 2003
Yep, the adventure is continuing all right, but unfortunately still no phone contact with Dominick today. We only have information from the Argos beacon and Dominick is making good progress because today she covered 5.17 km. This distance may appear small, but at the beginning of any expedition to the North Pole all adventurers experience the same phenomenon. For the time being, Dominick is out on the pack-ice, which presents many problems caused by the ocean currents. The pack-ice is on the move all the time; it breaks up and becomes compressed. So Dominick has to cope with compression ridges and open stretches of water all day long. All of which explains the short daily distances that she will be covering for the first few weeks.
Release dated 4th March 2003
Dominick finally set out today. She boarded the helicopter this morning for the departure point east of Cape Arktichevsky. Departure was at 07.30 TU or 08.30 French time or 14.00 hrs local time. Dominick will be pitting herself against 960 km of pack-ice for approximately 2 months.
Communication with Dominick will be difficult for the next few days. She will be sending us news by Iridium satellite phone. The battery for this phone has a solar panel. Unfortunately, as the sun is very low on the horizon all day long, the phone will not be able to recharge totally every day. As a result, Dominick will not be able to make daily calls.
So Dominick is finally out on the pack-ice and covered a distance of around 5.5 km to the North today.
Dominick covered 5.5 km northwards today at an average speed of 1.05 km/h. This average is about right for someone starting their journey. Dominick had to contend with her first compression ridges at the start and end of the day, but progressed without any problems during the afternoon, covering 4 kilometres in under 2 hours. We also noted that today Dominick walked slightly towards the West, deviating 7'11"W in 6 hours).According to the latest data sent by the Argos beacon at 19.30 TU or 01.00 local time, Dominick is now at 81°14'24"N and 96°04'19"E. This means that she lost 4" to the South in under 6 hours, or a little over 100 metres. We also noted a drift to the West, as she moved 41" westward. This drift will be confirmed by the data generated tomorrow.
