North Pole 2010—Day 02—North to Longyearbyen

Rain in Oslo

Had a great night sleep in Oslo last night after a foray to a nearby town called Jessheim for dinner. We had burgers at a pub and watched the Man U game on TV. Woke up to sleety rain this morning, but our flight is on time. I love the Norwegian breakfast, although I am a true omnivore and will eat things that make many people cringe. The fare included:

• sardines in oil

• beets

• pickles

• fantastic, grainy bread

• Jarlsburg cheese

• yogurt with melons, granola and pumpkin seeds

• a pear

• apple pastry

• a hard boiled egg

• coffee.

It would only have been better with smoked mackerel. Maybe tomorrow. 

Norwegians all go skiing at Easter. Oslo Lufthavn (airport)

My co-leader, Keith Heger and I made our way to the airport where the population of Norway was beginning the Easter migration to outlying ski resorts. I am about six feet tall, and when traveling in Norway, I always feel short. It seems like these people start at about six foot four and go up from there. Those invading Vikings must have looked freaking HUGE to the five foot Brits back in the day.  We are on the flight to Longyearbyen now, via the Northern town of Tromsø, where Mack, my favorite Norwegian beer, is brewed. The Mack brewery is the world’s northernmost brewery (there is a microbrewery a little further north, but I don’t think it is commercial). The Norwegian word for beer is “øl.” Beauty in simplicity. 

Mountains just south of Tromsø, Norway

Tromsø, Norway

The northern coast of Norway (looking East)

So, why would anyone want to go to the North Pole anyway? Like most things, there are a variety of reasons. I went the first time because I love to travel and this was a unique opportunity  that I could not pass up. The idea of traveling in a landscape (seascape) of nothing but ice and snow seemed a bit daunting and questionable. I figured this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance though and I had to do it. As it  turned out, the polar ice cap is much more than a sheet of endless ice and I fell in love with its stark beauty. I have been extremely fortunate to return four more times and I’m on my way to a sixth. I will refer to the ice as a landscape, but as I noted above, it is a seascape. The North pole is in the Arctic Ocean, accessible by foot because it is mostly frozen. I fell in love with the dynamic character of the sea ice. It is adrift, and its movement can be dramatic. The ice may drift against your direction of travel fast enough that you don’t make any headway, or are even moving backwards. You might also be lucky enough to have the ice move the direction you are going and double your speed. The ice does not form a continuous sheet, but instead, is myriad pans of ice from a few square feet to miles in diameter. The pans move like tectonic plates, pulling apart and crashing together. They are constantly in motion. When they pull apart, they form leads. A lead is an area of open water.  Small leads can be stepped across and large leads sometimes resemble the Mississippi River. Where there are leads, there is the possibility of seeing an occasional seal.  Likewise, where there are seals, there is an increased chance of encountering polar bears. When the pans of ice crash together, they often form pressure ridges. Like miniature mountain ranges, they rise in heaps of ice rubble, sometimes many meters in height. In particularly active areas of ice movement are often rubble fields that must be negotiated. Continuous stretches of blocks of ice ranging from the size of a toaster to the size of a bus. These rubble fields are probably the most physically demanding aspect of polar travel. The ice also presents itself in a range of colors: white, black, aquamarine, cerulean blue, green or an infinite variety of subtle variations in between. Sometimes there is snow. Sometimes there is only ice. I love to travel in the constantly changing icescape. 

Another reason I love to travel to the North Pole is the light. We go during the month of April when the sun remains above the horizon twenty-four hours a day. We are skiing north and the sun circles us clockwise during the day about 20-odd degrees above the horizon. The light gently changes throughout the day, our shadows making us human sundials. When there is fog, the light is otherworldly, and vertigo becomes a problem. Keeping equilibrium is difficult and it is not uncommon to fall over.

A horizon like the one at the Pole can really only be found on the ocean or other enormous bodies of water. The vastness of it all can be overwhelming (insert your own existential rant about how small we are here). Since most of the planet’s oceans are not frozen, it is impossible to have the perspective of that horizon while on foot anywhere else (maybe Lake Baikal).

One of my favorite little head trips is to visualize myself as I ski across the sea ice, pulling back from the Earth in my mind and seeing what I am doing and where I am relative to the rest of planet and everything else that is happening at that very instant. People go about their lives while it seems almost like a secret that I am sliding quietly across a patch of ice at the top of the world.

Ice floes drifting south of
Svalbard, Norway from 30,000 ft.

The environment of the North Pole is beautiful and terrifying, subtle and explosive. Its delicacy is surprising, knowing that it could kill you without blinking. The existence of the polar region as an ice cap is very much an equilibrium. Seeing the dramatic changes that can take place on a micro level with a change in the weather, like the opening or freezing of leads or the creation of rubble fields is amazing. Macro changes that are affecting the polar sea ice as a result of changes in the planet’s air and sea temperatures and human pollution are much easier comprehend after spending time up close and personal with the ice in question.

Having spent a lot of nights living outside, the challenge of living in a polar environment is rewarding and unique. Staying warm can be difficult. Mostly the fingers and toes. But staying cool enough is more difficult. If you sweat in the bitter cold, your sweat freezes and you have to use your precious calories to thaw it out. The work load pulling a 70–100 pound sled through a rubble field is very high. Managing your clothing constantly  to keep cool enough to avoid sweating is an all day job. 

Finding a route through the leads and pressure ridges to maintain a net northerly direction is three-dimensional problem solving at its best. Keeping good spirits when the ice drifts back to your previous day’s starting point as you sleep is a psychological battle. 

All of these wonders, challenges and pleasures are the reason I love to ski and spend time on the polar ice. For others, it may be a need to do what few others do. Some go because they have gone everywhere else. Pure curiosity or a love of polar history fuel interest for many. Whatever the reason, there is truly no other place on Earth like the North Pole.

Tomorrow: Longyearbyen, Norway and the Svalbard Archipelago

North Pole 2010—Day 01—Oslo

The weather in Chicago is just getting nice. The cold snow and gray skies are giving way to irises pushing through the dirt and cardinals in the treetops. I banged out the taxes and filled my bag with my gear for one of the harshest environments on Earth—the North Pole. To be clear, I am referring to the geographical North Pole, as in the place where the wire comes out of the classroom globe and connects to the stand. This is sometimes confused with the magnetic north pole, that drifts around in the general vicinity of the farthest north reaches of Canada and to which your compass points. It is also not the town in Alaska that goes by the same name. The geographic North Pole is the very top of the Earth, where the lines of longitude converge and the rings of latitude shrink to an infintessimally small point at 90º North.

 To stand at the North Pole is akin to being a character in a high school geometry problem. The place literally exists as a point on the surface of a sphere (though the Earth only approximates a sphere). It has no real dimension and is distinct from the South Pole in that it is not even on land. To get to the North Pole, you must go to the exact center of the Arctic Circle, essentially right in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. The nearest land is some 500 miles away in Northern Siberia, Greenland or Canada. I am looking out the window of the airplane at southern Norway. There is still snow on the ground and ice on the lakes. It is a short hop from Copenhagen to Oslo, Norway, where I will begin the adventure. Tomorrow, I will fly to the icy island of Spitsbergen and put my winter clothing on for a few more weeks before returning to the warm Spring in Chicago. It’s hard to believe that a few hours ago, I was at home in Chicago and in a few days, I’ll be at the top of the planet. What would Peary have thought of it?

 Coming tomorrow: Why go?