Ranulph Fiennes' EXEL North Pole - Part 2

Mac and Ran at Resolute

I had no option but to take two sledges, so my schedule took the extra mileage into account.

If I could travel north for 10 hours every day for 80 days, with no rest days for injuries, bad weather or watery obstacles, my best progress would be 500 yards a day for the first 3 days, 1.4 miles daily for the next 30 days, 4.5 miles daily until day 58 and then, with a single sledge only, 11 miles daily to the Pole.

Testing sledge buoyancy on the River Thames

Many unsupported treks to the Pole have been scuppered by stretches of open water blocking the way north without temperatures low enough to refreeze the sea water. The Arctic Ocean is never more than 75% solid ice, even in the depths of winter. Winds, tides and currents constantly break up the ice, producing huge zones of open water and pressure ridges up to 40' high.

To avoid such delays I had two buoyancy tubes, designed by Snowsled and Max Adventure, that fastened to either side of my bigger sledge making it buoyant even when fully laden and with me sitting atop its load wielding a paddle.

Near Resolute

At Resolute Bay I spent a week with Mac testing equipment and hauling the sledges over the ice blocks on the sea ice a mile from the self-catering Base Camp that we rented.

On 14th February we flew to the most northerly of Canada's meteorological stations, at Eureka, where musk oxen and wolves roam the hills around the airstrip.

After refuelling, Karl piloted the Twin Otter 300 miles further north to Ward Hunt Island at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, the starting point of most North Pole attempts. With lurching bumps, we were down.

Ran on the flight to Ward Hunt Island

As the door opened, we felt the bitter cold of 84° North in winter. The sun would not show its face there for three more weeks and then only for 30 minutes a day. Meanwhile, I would travel by moonlight and head torch.

I bid goodbye to Mac, Karl and the ITN film crew of Terry Lloyd and Rob Bowles. Once the ski-plane had gone, using my compass I took a bearing to geographical north. I could not use the North Star as a marker because it was almost directly overhead. Nor, pulling a sledge, could I use my GPS position-finder for direction.

The clothing I wore was based on non-stop movement and light, breathable clothes. Any halt could lead to hypothermia. Once warm I took off my duvet jacket, now wearing only a thin vest and longjohns under a jacket and trousers made of 100% Ventile cotton. Cotton is not windproof so body heat is not sealed in.

No modern clothing, such as Goretex, is completely breathable so, when pulling excessive loads over difficult terrain, the man-hauler perspires. The sweat turns to ice inside the clothing and can quickly lead to hypothermia and death.

My schedule allowed 2 days to descend the soft snow-fields of Ward Hunt Island's ice shelf to the edge of the sea. But I kept going without a rest and established both sledges at the coastline within 7 hours. This boded well, for the sledges were running easily despite their full loads, the low temperature and soft, deep snow.

After seven hours of hard man-hauling, I was cold and tired. I erected the tent in 6 minutes and started the cooker in 4. These two acts, which I had practised thousands of times, are the key to survival, and with two usable hands can be performed easily in extreme conditions. I got into my sleeping bag, drank some energy drink, ate chocolate and set my alarm watch for 3 hours. The weather was clear when I woke and the sea ice quiet to the north, a sign that the ice floes were not on the move.

The Moon had vanished behind the hills, meaning I would not be able to differentiate clearly between solid ice and thinly skinned zones. I re-stowed the sledges and decided to take the smaller one first. Its load was 210lb, a third less than the 8-foot sledge. The ice floes that are blown south against this northern coastline of Canada shatter against the ice shelf and blocks up to 40 feet high tumble over one another, often forming huge ramparts that run east-west for miles. Behind them a scene of utter chaos can meet the despairing man-hauler, slab upon slab of fractured ice block as far as the weary eye can see.

Related Images