Artic Expeditions
THE PLAN The plan is simple – fly to Resolute Bay in the high Canadian Arctic, walk to the 1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole and then fly back – the reality is very different.
Plans involving the Arctic take an amount of flexibility hard to comprehend in the UK so from the moment we arrive at Heathrow we must be prepared for anything!,
We spent three days in February packing everything for the expedition into 11 kit bags and 11 pulks (sledges) that each weighed the required 23kg – however we still needed an extra 9 bags at the maximum weight permissible – 32kg to pack everything a total of 794kg and that’s not including the two bags of skis. So getting everything checked in takes time and patience but the staff at Air Canada are fantastic and have arranged a special check in so things should go smoothly.
Things change when we reach Ottawa as our next carrier First Air allows only 2 bags at 32kg each so when we land we will re-pack the bags before putting them in storage overnight before heading off to the Lord Elgin Hotel for the night. Dinner and maybe a small beer (our last until we return to Ottawa) before turning in for our second day of travelling.
Our flight next morning takes us from Ottawa to Iqaluit the capital of Nunavut. Here the cold begins to bite and the weather has the potential to really alter our plans. This far north people come first and scheduled flights are often changed. Just because you have a ticket doesn’t guarantee that the plane will take off, that even if it does you will be on it and if it takes off and you’re on it your baggage may not! The weather dictates everything and if needs be you and/or your luggage can easily be bumped to the next flight. After a brief stopover another flight (fingers crossed) will take us and our kit up via Nanisivik to Resolute Bay our starting point.
The South Camp Inn will be our home for two days where we will repack for a third and final time, distributing everything from tents to fuel to food into our pulks. Everything we need for 32 days on the ice will be in the pulks when we leave Resolute – the expedition is unsupported so there’s no re-supply and each of us will pull the equivalent of a 15st man behind us.
We plan to start walking on 1st April (after noon to avoid April Fools!) and from then on at a steady pace with the weather with us to cover the 360 miles to the Magnetic North Pole.
So what happens when we reach the pole? We will be picked up by Twin Otter plane either from the Pole where we will have to build a runway or from Isachsen on Ellef Ringnes Island some 20 miles away where there’s a permanent airstrip – it’ll depend on the ice conditions. Due to weight restrictions on the plane it’ll take two trips to take us all out and there’s no guarantee that these will happen together – some of us may need to spend some more time on the ice.
The goal is to get south as soon as possible. Again the plan is to reach the South Camp Inn – shower – and then pack a vastly lighter expedition for transit back to the UK but there’s no guarantee. So if the weather and flights are with us we keep going – alright for us but it may mean that our first shower in delayed so our fellow passengers may wish they picked another day to travel – something to bear in mind if you’re in the vicinity!
So making the assumption that the plan is followed after a celebratory meal in Ottawa on 29th April and our first beer in almost a month before our return flight the next day back to the UK. We should land early on Saturday 1st May after spending the overnight flight wondering – what next?
