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.

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?

Extreme Cold Weather Expedition Photography

The challenges of photography in the high Arctic during winter can be daunting. If you are on an expedition in the high Arctic, those challenges can increase tenfold. I guide ski expeditions to the geographic North Pole and I have been shooting photographs in polar conditions for the last five years. The topic of cold weather shooting is well covered, but the information is usually geared towards going out for the day and then going indoors to warm up, download images and recharge batteries. This post is focused on spending multiple days outside in sub-zero temperatures.

The main challenge shooting in polar conditions is indeed the temperature. At 20—30 below zero Fahrenheit, batteries will go flat very quickly without taking precautions. Turn off your automatic image review and only turn on the camera's LCD when necessary. When possible, use a pro-level camera that allows the adjustment of settings with external switches and dials rather than relying on the LCD menus. If you need to use the LCD for settings, find out how to set up custom presets and use them. The bottom line is conserve your batteries.

I use two ways to get more life from my batteries. The first way is to remove the battery from the camera and keep it somewhere inside my clothing, close to my skin. I did this over the last three days in northern Minnesota when the temperature stayed between 25 below zero to zero — mostly around 10 below. I was able to fire off 600 shots on a Nikon D700 with one battery. I kept my camera in a sling pack on my back and kept the battery in the palm of my fleece glove. When I wanted to take a shot, I would pull out the camera and the battery and put them together. Then I would separate them and put the battery back in my glove. That worked pretty well, and I was happy with the number of shots I got, but I did miss a few shots trying to assemble the parts. Also, I probably hesitated and missed a photo a few times because I didn't think I could put it together in time. Putting the battery inside the palm of my glove worked, but it got in the way when loading a dogsled, pitching a tent, or anything that required good hand dexterity, though I didn't seem to have any trouble cross-country skiing with this setup. If this method appeals to you, a different location for the battery might be good to consider. You can sew a small pocket into your long underwear shirt with a velcro closure or an elastic edge. Place the pocket close to the opening of your jacket so that you don't have to dig too deep to get the battery and be careful that it won't interfere with pack straps or harnesses.

My second method of gaining battery life is to use chemical warmers. I don't use hand warmers, but instead use body warmers. You can find them here. They have an adhesive backing and are much larger than a hand warmer. I wrap the warmer around the hand grip of the camera, just below the control wheel. This surrounds most of the part of the camera that holds the battery. I keep my camera in a bag that is padded with closed cell foam (like most camera bags) and closes with a zipper. The body warmer keeps the battery warm (and, I'm sure the camera to some extent) nestled in the bag. When I pull the camera out to take a shot, the battery is in and ready to go. An added bonus is that the warmer packet keeps your fingers warm while you shoot. I am sometimes shooting with a lighter glove on my hand, and the extra warmth will extend the amount of time I can keep my hand exposed. At the North Pole, in -25 degree temperatures, I expect to get a full day of travel and shooting out of one warmer. On a ten-day expedition, I plan on a battery for every two days. I usually get three days. Much of my time is spent with guiding duties, so I am not shooting continuously. If your sole purpose for the expedition is photography, you may need to up the battery count to one per day or more, but with the warmers, you are sure to get more life from the ones you have.

Spare batteries can be kept cold with no problems. I keep my batteries cold until I need them. As my current battery gets close to depletion, I will grab one of my spares and put it against my skin to pre-warm it. The battery life will be much longer if you don't use them cold. In fact, you can often squeeze out a few more frames from an apparently dead battery that has gotten too cold by warming it up in your glove or against your skin and then replacing it in the camera. I will put a piece of tape on my fully charged batteries and remove it as I put it in the camera so I can keep track of which batteries I have used.

There are a lot of proponents of carrying the entire camera inside one's clothing to keep it warm. I sometimes keep a small point-and-shoot camera just inside my jacket. Most of the people traveling to the North Pole are using this method with success. I personally find this to be too bulky with an SLR. I am far too active during the day to make this practical. My camera would have been demolished long ago negotiating a field of ice rubble or wrestling with a dogsled.

My approach to cold-weather photography is to keep the batteries warm and the camera cold. Once I begin an expedition, my SLR lives outside in its camera bag. I don't bring it into the tent at night or warm it by the stove. I try to keep the temperature of the camera fairly steady. Certainly, this is an issue when going inside a warm building or a heated base camp tent. If you expose your camera to warm temperatures after it has cooled to outside air temperatures, the camera, sensor, lens and everything else will be coated with condensation. If kept in the warm temperatures, the condensation will dissipate as the camera warms to room temperature. The droplets that formed on your sensor may leave marks that will require cleaning. The worst thing you could do once the camera has condensation on it is to go back into the cold before it dissipates. The sensitive electronics could be permanently damaged, and the entire camera will need a complete thawing before using it again. All of the condensation will have turned to ice. If you need to be able to shoot fairly quickly upon going into warmer temperatures, the point-and-shoot camera kept near the body should do the job. When I do finally go inside at the end of an expedition, I will leave my camera gear in its bag, zipped closed as long as possible before opening it. After about an hour, I will crack the zipper open a little and let it sit for another half-hour to an hour. The amount of time needed to bring your gear safely up to temperature will depend on the difference in temperature between the outdoor cold and room temperature. In my case, the two and one-half hour flight from Barneo ice base camp to Spitsbergen, Norway is plenty of time. Usually, I am able to start reviewing my images on the flight.

I usually keep all of my images on their memory cards until I reach civilization. Battery power is too precious to be used for moving images around. If you are shooting for pay and the loss of images is equal to the loss of a job, I would consider a portable digital media storage device. These are basically battery powered hard drives with card reader slots built in. You can get these with or without screens to review your images in the field. Epson makes a range of these devices with beautiful screens. They are very expensive and a bit large, but still smaller than a laptop and you can still review your images. A smaller and less expensive version is made by Digital Foci. It doesn't have a screen to see your shots, but it costs a fraction of the Epson's price. Either of these devices or other similar ones will keep your images backed up until you can get to your main computer. If you can, I would recommend still keeping the images on the memory cards as well for redundancy. If you run out of memory cards, at least this gives you the option to keep shooting. Memory cards have become relatively inexpensive and take up very little space, so I would buy as many as you can afford to take with you and a good case for them. Pelican makes a waterproof/resistant super tough case and I also like the cases made by Lowepro.

It is very important to be as comfortable as possible when shooting in the extreme cold. Dress appropriately for the conditions, stay well hydrated and fed. On my hands, I wear a light windproof glove if I am on cross-country skis or snowshoes with an oversized overmit that I can wear over the top during periods of inactivity. In temperatures down to about 10 below zero, I sometimes wear mittens that have built in fingerless gloves. Any colder, and I do everything possible to keep my fingers covered. Try to get used to working your camera controls while wearing gloves. I find that there are very few things I need bare fingers for.

Just a few last thoughts for the extreme cold. When changing lenses, turn your back to the wind and hold the camera in close to your body to keep driven snow out of your camera body. During heavy snowfall, you might need to hold the camera and lenses inside your open coat to make the switch. Another note on lenses–don't ever blow on your lenses to remove dust or snowflakes. You will just frost up your lens and will have to carry it inside your coat until you can thaw it. Use a dedicated blower with a rubber bulb. Test your blower for cold squeezeability by putting it in the freezer for a few hours and then trying it. Keep a microfiber cloth handy to remove frost from your camera viewing screen caused by your breath. Try to use a camera bag that you can work out of while you wear it, like a waist pack or a sling-type pack in stead of a backpack. It is important to make accessing your camera as easy as possible, or you will find yourself passing by shots.

Extreme cold is psychologically and physically challenging, but the rewards are images that are unique. Few people go into the environment that is the home of the Polar Bear, Ringed Seal and Penguin, and fewer still are doing serious photography there. Just keep your batteries happy and yourself comfortable and you can focus on being creative .

If you are interested in traveling somewhere cold with me, contact PolarExplorers. We can go to the North Pole, South Pole or Greenland. I also like to go places that are warm with the Northwest Passage

Do You Have a Camera on You Right Now?

You should really check out Case Jarvis' site, thebestcamera.com./ and see the images being produced using the iPhone app by the same name. The lo-fi photo revolution is here and the world is shooting with a vengance. Cellphone cameras are really the Holgas of the age, though don't write off the real Holga either as a viable medium. The masses are standing up and taking a picure!

The Best Photos

Late Afternoon Bean with Seagull

Late Afternoon Bean with Seagull, originally uploaded by Flotsammy.

Since the Bean was installed in Chicago's Millennium Park, it has probably become one of Chicago's most photographed artworks. The visual impact of this sculpture is difficult to verbalize, but upon seeing it is remarkable. Moving around it, the mind is instantly shocked into a childlike state and the imagination takes over. DEFINITELY visit the park if you are in Chicago.