Seasons Greetings from the Expedition Team!

Although we don't make our first steps toward the North Pole until the first few days of March, we are now making all the purchases necessary for the expedition. These purchases include:  chartering airplanes for the expedition drop off, buying custom expedition sleds and booking the Russian plane that will pick us up at the North Pole.  

Most of these purchases cost at least as much as a very nice new car and in some cases equal the cost of two new cars.  Such are the logistics costs when working in the one of the most remote and harshest environments on earth, the Arctic Ocean.  Considering that neither one of us has never purchased a new car, such purchases can be daunting.  Fortunately corporate fundraising has been going well.  Nevertheless, we are in need of a big boost from individual donors.  If you believe in our mission and values please consider supporting our expedition with a financial donation.  All gifts, great and small, are sincerely appreciated.

You can make a donation online by clicking here.  In exchange for your donation you are entitled to a variety of useful and unique gifts, including a Victorinox Swiss Army multi-tool, expedition style clothing by Bergans of Norway, a DeLorme GPS and personalized expedition memorabilia.  A full description of the fundraising program is below or you can view it by clicking here.

We expect the weeks separating us from our early February departure date for Baffin Island to fly by in a blur of family gatherings, holiday cheer, visits to schools and expedition preparations.  We are very excited to move on from the thinking and planning stages to the execution stage of the expedition.   However, at the same time we are beginning to feel the mental pinch of knowing that we will be leaving our family, loved ones, friends and normal lives behind very soon.

Happy holidays and good health to all,

John Huston and Tyler Fish

Victorinox North Pole '09 Expedition Team

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This expedition is truly a team effort. Knowing that this project was made possible by the generosity and support from people like you gives us a significant mental boost while we are on the ice.

DeLorme is our official GPS sponsor. DeLorme has been directly responsible for many of the major technological advances made in the mapping industry over the past 30 years.  Recently DeLorme introduced the Earthmate PN-40.  It features rock-solid design for unbeatable reliability. The PN-40 brings blazing-fast speed, a high-sensitivity 32-channel Cartesio chipset, three-axis electronic compass, and a barometric altimeter.  The PN-40 has been called the fasted and most flexible hand-held GPS on the market.

Bergans of Norway 100 years ago, Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton used Bergans backpacks.  Today Bergans manufactures backpacks and outdoor equipment of the highest performance and quality.  Our official high performance outerwear sponsor, Bergans clothing is at home in polar environments and on area ski slopes.  Performance, tradition, quality and Norwegian standards of engineering make Bergans stand out in the market and stand the test of time after years of hard use.

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• Who work for companies who may identify with our mission and values, or make products that could be used on the expedition?  If you can connect them to us, these folks may link to potential expedition sponsors.

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