If Tyler Fish and John Huston are worried about what's ahead, you'd never know it. The two friends are about as cool as the place they're headed: the North Pole. Fish and Huston are taking on what one polar veteran called "the hardest trek in the world."
They'll ski and swim, unsupported, from Ellesmere Island, Canada, to the North Pole. The trip is 475 miles and, they hope, 55 days long. If they complete it, Fish and Huston be the first Americans to do so.
"We're doing it because we really challenging ourselves," said Fish, an Ely native. "When you challenge yourself, you are aware of more and you are living life to the fullest."
They'll start the trip at the end of March, when temperatures up north can reach 60 below zero. By the end of the trip, they'll see close to 24 hours of sunlight and temperatures closer to 10 degrees above zero.
The two will pull 500 pounds of gear on sleds. On ice, they'll cross-country ski. On open water, they'll put on dry suits to swim. One of the biggest challenges of the Arctic Ocean is that the ice constantly moves and open water seeps through.
This blog represents the first example of what our typical expedition blog will look like.
Most blog entries will include a short text journal, an audio dispatch, a photo and daily stats (temperature, location, distance traveled, distance to the pole etc). Some entries will only include our location or our location and an audio dispatch.
Location: Outside of Ely, Minnesota Temperature at dusk: -20°F Distance Traveled: 2 miles Hours traveled: 3 hours
Photo Caption: Fish of the night.
Listen to the audio dispatch: Tyler Fish
Tyler and I are together in Ely, Minnesota for a week of expedition training and testing. Today we spent a few hours going through our equipment, making a list of the few odds and ends that we still need to procure and continued to try to put on pounds (Tyler is leading that contest, although John has made a recent push toward 190).
We capped off the day with an arduous 3 hour sled pull on snowshoes in the dark. We pulled 300 pounds each through the deep snows of the National Forest surrounding the Outward Bound base where Tyler works. We navigated a continuous obstacle course of thin ice, shelf ice (ice without water underneath, this type of ice is very weak), 3 to 4 feet drifts, slush (a sticky combination of snow and water, that is formed when water seeps through the ice and mixes with the lower layers of snow) and rocks.
The evening was crisp and cold, with very little wind. The work left us quite sweaty, despite the cold air. With little wind, -30°F and -40°F can be quite comfortable if one is working hard and generating a lot of body heat. However, the snow at these low temperatures can be very corse and make it feel like one is pulling a sled across sand.
It feels fantastic to be away back in Ely, where I lived from 2000 until 2007. Part of me really misses the cold, cozy little town. You've got to love a town where the people truly embrace all seasons. Last night was -33°F, Tyler and I slept outside and tested our new Bergans of Norway sleeping bags. Yesterday, Babbit, MN, 20 miles south of Ely, recorded a low of -54°F! We were hoping for cold temperatures for training and testing and we got lucky.
Tomorrow, we will continue to go through our equipment, hopefully go for a quick outdoor swim in our dry suits and sleep under the stars again.
From this point forward updates will be coming more frequently. We leave the country for the Arctic in 26 days. We hope to start the expedition during the first few days of March.
I have been a wilderness professional for over 15 years now, and I can tell you that camp counselors, guides, instructors and technical experts alike spend time contemplating something called “systems.”
When it comes to an expedition, these “systems” become very important--food and gear packing systems, sleeping systems, hauling systems, rescue systems, cooking systems, cleanup systems, travel systems. What is a system?
According to the dictionary a system is a: set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole. A bunch of related ideas are a system. Examples include a cookie recipe, or a public transportation network. Both of these have a number of independent elements that together form a system. A good system, like a good team, is greater than the sum of the parts.
Winter camping systems can be complex and simple, but almost all winter camping systems aim to do the following: - Keep something warm - Keep something dry - Make something easier to use in the cold - Increase efficiency
John and I enjoy the challenge of being resourceful and making adaptations to our systems and equipment during the expedition. However, carefully planning and testing our systems before hitting the ice can save us a lot of time and make us more comfortable. In many ways planning is the expedition.
One of our most important systems is our sleeping system. It consists of two sleeping bags, two sleeping pads and a vapor liner. Here is how it fits together from the outside to the inside: - Bergans of Norway Sleeping Mat Extreme, 1.4 cm thick - Bergans of Norway big custom synthetic sleeping bag (rated to -20°F) - Bergans of Norway Senja Ice Down sleeping bag (rated to -10°F) - Bergans of Norway Sleeping Mat Extreme, 1.4 cm thick - Custom made vapor liner bag from Sjur Mødre of Norway, this uninsulated water proof nylon sleeping bag liner prevents moisture from accumulating and freezing in the sleeping bag insulation fibers - Person dressed in long underwear and fleece
In preparing for this endeavor, John and I have spent a lot of time discussing systems with some of the most successful and experienced polar explorers in the world. We consider these discussions an invaluable portion of our training. Each of these wonderful people has had their systems for everything. Some were the same as others, some similar, and some were wildly different. During next week's training expedition we will be testing a few different systems.
