North Pole 2010—Day 05—Set to Jet

We are locked and loaded for our flight to the beginning of our ski expedition in the morning. The last day was spent preparing ourselves and our gear for the trip. The weather here in Norway has been spectacular until this afternoon, when some clouds rolled in and the wind picked up to about 15 mph. Our flight is at 9 a.m.  and I anticipate the weather to be fine. We will be traveling by chartered Russian jet to the Barneo ice base operated by Russians during the month of April. The base is a collection of tents and an ice runway plowed on the Arctic Ocean and currently floating around 89º 29' N and 88º 47' W. It has not been drifting much, so it will be near there tomorrow. Our team will fly in an Antonov 74 jet. This is a cargo jet that is specifically modified for extremely cold operation and excels at short takeoff and landing. We will spend an hour or so at the base organizing our fuel and then fly to 89º N by MI-8 helicopter where we will start skiing to the Pole. We will be audio blogging by satellite phone for the duration of the trip at http://polarexplorers.com/blogs/#tyl where our trip is called "2010 NP - Test Your Limits Ski Expedition" Upon returning, I'll get some images up on this blog of our time on the ice. See you soon, and wish us luck.

North Pole 2010—Day 03—Svalbard, Norway

Svalbard Peak

We're in Longyearbyen, Norway now, at 78 degrees north of the Equator. The sun today was shining brightly at -13 Celsius and life is good. Longyearbyen is a town of 2000 on the rocky archipelago of Svalbard, far north of the Norwegian mainland. The landscape here is mountainous tundra full of glaciers and crenellated with hundreds of fjords. Longyearbyen exists as a town due to the rich deposits of coal found in the region. An American mine speculator named John Longyear first established a mine here, the town taking his name. Now the mining is mostly done by Norwegians and Russians. The islands mineral rights are controlled by international treaty, but the region is governed by Norway. 

Adventfjord, right in front of Longyearbyen, Norway

Svalbard is home to one of the most dense populations of polar bears in the world. They survive on the abundant seals in the surrounding waters. Interestingly, the bears appear to have been taking reindeer lately, which is not their normal prey and could indicate problems with the local food chain. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the Arctic is in a delicate equilibrium. 

Longyearbyen is a well appointed European town for being so far away from pretty much everything. There are a few luxury hotels, a few hostels, some good restaurants, stores, a library, a university, a supermarket and several bars. Dogsledding, snowmobiling and skiing common ways to get out of town here, but there are a few kilometers of road as well. When leaving the town area, people are required to carry bear protection (a.k.a. a gun) and it is not unusual to see people walking around with a rifle. Encounters with bears near town are unusual but not unheard of. 

Some of our North Pole gear

More of our pile o' gear

Our pulk (sled) full of our expedition's food

The reason I am in this great little town is that it is where we keep our expedition gear and stage trips to the North Pole by ski and dogsled. On Sunday, I will be leaving here to ski the last degree of latitude to the pole with co-leader Keith Heger and three folks from Canada. We spent the day today organizing our gear and are getting amped up for Sunday.