North Pole

so, we had bright weather, greta visibility, and the ice conditions were about as perfect as we might have wished for, no unpassable leads, no open water, no impassable pressure ridges, all things we might reasonable have expected. we also had positive drift that is the ice and tide were pushing us towards the pole, during the night we might move up to three kms at best but at least it was a couple, this was an amazing bonus. I saw the coordinates of last years trips most moved sideways two groups made no headway in nine days in one instance they had 20 kms negative drift one night alone that would have meant had they covered 18 kms in a day like we did the following morning they would be 2 kms behind where they were the day before hideous, we were without doubt very lucky indeed the conditions were perfect.

we reached the north pole 90 degrees at about 530 pm 5 days after we left barneo, half the time we might reasonably have expected, it was an incredible moment the gps going crazy you could actually see the world spinning beneath us, quickly as well, an amazing un repeatable sight we did it! we did it !amazing and a huge huge relief and excitement.
we put up our tents and spen the night at the north pole or soon down the other side as the positive drift swept us down the opposite side f the globe 2 miles during the night. we were picked up by a huge russian helicopter at 1 pm the following day and after 30 minutes stnding up in tis heli made it back to barneo hugely happy and very very releived and thankfull we had had such an incredible journey.
photos: me at north pole (shameless advertising

the heli and the interior of it...

more to follow......

Part 5: routine

we woke at 730 am ice frozen onto the inside of our tents any movement created a minor snow storm in the tent. sleeping bag thickly covered with frost but totally water proof (well for first few days) I popped my head out of my bag.

it was freezing minus 25, try and get dressed in my ba
you have to take your outer layer of clothes of and sleep in thermals only to get the most out of the goose down bags designed for temperatures of minus 70. Alan our guide and my tent mate (Very lucky break that....) would crank up the stove and heat would make the ice melt on tent and clothes etc, so it became damp. we boiled snow and then added water to our dehydrated foods in the morning it was porridge, fill our thermos up with soup and hot chocolate this took about an hour and a half.

Then pack up the tent squeeze sleeping bags into dry bags (everything done i huge mitts) and any other items we had out for the night, i had about six dry bags, food, drinks, spare warm clothes, big down jacket , small down jacket and medical stuff. then out into the cold load sledge getting balance right otherwise they toppled over easily, make sure emergency clothes were at the front easily accesible in case of bad weather, take down tents , pack them on mine robs and alans sledges, (the others carried other communal stuff) then go to the loo i won't go into any detail except it was freezing and you had to be very quick......... you peed in the tent in a bottle stupid to go out in the cold. strap on sledge and off we went.

the terrain is very variable generally it was slightly rutted rarely smooth we would have long flatish bits then have to weave through rubble, that was hell, sledges got caught on obstacles always having to turn around and pull it by your arms, if the sledge in front toppled over you helped put it up right. we would come to pressure ridges huge piles of massive ice blocks which we had to get over or get around, alan was brilliant at this and generally found a tortuous route quite quickly through the twisted rubble, then we had leads, where the ice has split like a river and we had to find a safe way over it, again alan had a canny knack of finding a route, he really knew what ice was passable and what wasn't. We were incredibly lucky we didn't have any open water or huge leads at any time, we only had two occasions where the ice started breaking up and he noise and power was indescribable, once when we were crossing a lead, it started moving with a rush and roar as the arctic ocean fought the ice, that was amazing i have never seen people move so fast, and aga

in during a crossing where the ice started coming together groaning and crashing and roaring.

we stopped every hour for a drink and snack and relentlessly punched out the miles it wasn't at all monotonous but i can't tell you what i thought about but i was never bored.

we stopped about 7 pm unloaded tents put them up unpacked our sledges, this all took about an hour and a half in minus 25 we dug our tents in with snow and used our skis and poles as pegs then got into our tents boiled water got some heat on and added water to our dehydrated food anything from stew and spuds to pat thai or curry all tasted ok as we were hungary after our exertions then sleep at about 1030 in broad day light and the hours sped by until it was 7.30 am and the routine started again.

part 4 first camp.

as its permanent bright daylight we didn't stop until about 1 am and this was our first camp. the first impressions of the arctic are the vast vast wilderness of ice huge piles of ice rubble making weird shapes like sculptures, i spent a lot of our eight or nine hour pulls over the coming days imagining the ice rubble turning into anything from sculpture in the rodin museum to ludlow castle to forests or ghats by the ganges you name it pork pies mermaids huge breasts pyramids they were all there in this spectacular. scenery

my other abiding memory is of the noise the ice made as we headed over it, it squeaked squealed groaned and crackled all the time, sometimes it sounded like skating on a village pond other times no noise except the sliding skis friction against the snowy

ice and the low rumble of my sledge tripping along behind me....

part 3. barneo.

barneo is a small tented camp 1500 kms from terra firma in the middle of the frozen arctic ocean built by viccaar a private russian organsation run by a very charismatic guy called victor borovsky. the camp is a source of great national pride in russia goodness knows what else might go on there. they set it up at the end of march by dropping parachutists down who recce the best place to put the runway and the camp, then all the tents and and two bulldozers are dropped to make the runway. two huge helicopters then relay out to provide rescue and logistic services taking two days to get out there from murmansk picking up fuel in stashes on the way. a massive undertaking. there were big delays this year due to poor weather and this led to our delays. the camp was finished on april 4th. the camp is then dismantled on april 26th and the arctic ocean reclaims the ice. we unpacked our stuff from the back of the plane had a safety briefing and off we set at about 9 pm in bright sunlight.

Part 2 The flight

this is the plane a russian antonov, it has seats for 24 and the other passengers are behind the net lying on top of al of our sledges bags skis and supplies for barneo. you had a sense the plane was very very full and heavy. the flight takes about two and a half hours its 1500 kms. the plane takes off and lands on avery short runway and had seemingly about three pilots and three other crew, navigators. one of whom turned switches opposite where i was sitting from time to time. i later understood he was changing the radio frequencies. there is only one window in the plane i didn't want to look out....... if barneo had to close and longyearbarn closed due to weather we would have been diverted to a russian military base those are the only three options... the plane felt very solid but i was extremely happy to land on the ice runway and set foot on the arctic ocean at barneo and get a sense of the frozen wilderness which would possibly be home for up to 10 days.

A brief synopsis. part one: a little secret.

so i am at home writing this i can barely believe that i have actually skied to the north pole.

a little secret, i bottled it totally, when we got the second call to fly to barneo the group left for the airport without me, i could not face the fears that had built up in me during the weeks wait, the hideous stories i had heard about all manner of nasties waiting for me on the ice, culminating in our aborted flight to barneo where we were turned back just before landing as the arctic ocean runway had cracked.

I waved the group good bye and went to pack. but following two calls, the advice of Ed and two dear friends and a call from the team i pulled myself together and went to join them at the airport. i am not ashamed to say i was bricking it, but for the support of the team i would not have gone and would therefore have missed one of the most incredible times of my life. lesson one there is nothing to fear but fear itself........