Heart of Cold

Time Out Chicago / Issue 170 : May 29 - Jun 4, 2008

Local expeditioner John Huston prepares for a record trek to the North Pole.

By Tricia Parker

He moves as fast as a wounded turtle, but when John Huston hits the beach, he's like Britney on a rampage: impossible to ignore.

I'm a magnet, says the 31-year-old, who works on a contract basis, guiding expeditions and giving outdoor survival lectures. People gawk at me, and sometimes they even shake their heads. Traffic will slow down.

We'd stare, too, if we saw him coming. Three days a week, the Glen Ellyn native straps on a harness and lugs two 50-pound tires down North Avenue Beach. The reason? The tires mimic the drag of a 200-pound sled, which Huston hopes to pull unassisted to the North Pole next spring.

I want to do the trip as self-sufficiently as possible, says Huston, a Northwestern graduate. The harder it is, the more driven I am to do a good job.

In March, Huston and his expedition partner, Tyler Fish, will kiss their cars goodbye and fly to the northernmost tip of Canada's Ellesmere Island, where they'll begin their eight-week, 500-mile journey. Their goal is to reach the North Pole by April, without any sled dogs, helicopters or supply drops something no American has accomplished. "It's the hardest trek on the planet," Huston says. "Only 22 people have made it. In my [opinion], people didn't prepare humbly enough."

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