Expeditions Reach The North Pole

ExplorersWeb is reporting that a few expeditions have reached their target destination of The North Pole today.  The expeditions were pushed to their human limts over the past three days, with many of the guys saying that they had very litle sleep over the 72 hour final push.

John Huston and Tyler Fish (USA) reached the North Pole unaided and unassisted on the 55th day of their expedition.  They reported having to cross some open water enroute to the Pole, but that it wasn’t unexpected.  Tyler and John have become the first Americans to ski unassisted to the North Pole. John Huston has previously reached The South Pole in Jan. 2008.  Congrats guys!

Lonnie Dupre (USA), Max Chaya (Lebanon), and Stuart Smith (USA) reached the Pole on April 25th at 9:22 AM central time.  Chaya and Stuart Smith have now each reached all three Poles:  North, South, and the highest, Mt. Everest.   Max Chaya also became the first Lebanese to ski to the North Pole.

Congrats goes out to everyone for reaching their destination all in one piece.  There are still a few people out there striving for the North Pole in the coming days.  I will bring you that news when I get it.

Lewis Gordon Pugh: Adventurer Plans To Kayak To North Pole

Lewis Gordon Pugh is planning on kayaking to the North Pole beginning in August.  If his name doesn’t sound familiar, it should to some of my loyal readers.  Pugh made some headlines last year when he became the first person to swim at the North Pole.  His efforts to bring attention to global warming by swimming at the North Pole soon erupted into a bit of controversy, as first reported by ExplorersWeb.

Lewis Gordon Pugh’s latest expedition will be based on the same theory.  If Global Warming doesn’t exist, he shouldn’t be able to kayak straight to the pole.  His hope is that he can’t get there.  If he does, it just proves that the arctic ice is melting at a faster pace.  That is his thoughts.

Lewis Gordon Pugh will be taking off on this adventure on August 29th.  He will begin his kayak adventure from the Norwegian Island of Spitsbergen, then hopefully arrive at the Pole three weeks later.  He will cover a distance of 745 miles.  If he reaches his goal’s destination, Pugh could become the first person to ever kayak to the North Pole.

Pugh is known as “the human polar bear” around the adventure circles.  He has gained that nickname after embarking on quite a few swimming adventures in sub-freezing temperatures.  His swim last year, in the freezing waters at the North Pole, lasted 18 minutes.

Once Pugh reaches his destination by kayak, he will proceed to establish 192 flags, one representing each country of the world (even though I am pretty sure there are over 300 countries now in existence).

Lewis Gordon Pugh has been training with Robert Hedegus, a seven-time world kayaking champion, in Hungary.  Hedegus will be pacing Mr. Pugh’s kayaking adventure.  Sir Richard Branson’s son, Sam Branson, will also be taking part in this expedition and recording it, along with his observations, on his own blog documenting the expedition.

You can follow along with Lewis Gordon Pugh’s arctic kayaking trip by logging on to his personal website.

You can also read a nice interview by Mr. Pugh that he recently conducted with Wales Online.

North Pole Attempt Aborted

David Vale and his North Pole Expedition partner, Graham Walters, have aborted their bids at making it to the North Pole.

The two started out on April 21st with hopes of achieving the magnetic North Pole. The two of them were participating in the North Pole Challenge. a race to the North Pole.

Vale and Walters, pulling 110 lb sledges often faced temperatures on -31 degrees in their attempt. After pulling the sledges over a span of 110 miles and hindered by broken equipment and frostbite, the team decided to give it up.

Daivid Vale is 65 years old. Him and his partner’s team were called the “Silver Foxes’ attributing a bit to their age. The duo did cross over 1/3 of the total distance to the North Pole before calling it quits.

Indian Navy Conquers North Pole–Finishes the Three-Pole Challenge

The Indian Navy, led by Commander Satyabrata Dam, has conquered the final leg of it’s Three Pole Challenge by making a successful expedition to the North Pole. The team arrived at the North Pole at 8:16 pm on Wednesday Night.

Till now, only 23 people had ever conquered all three Poles–The North Pole, The South Pole, and the world’s highest Pole–Mount Everest. Three members of the Indian North Pole Expedition can now claim success at this feat as well: Commander Dam, Vikas Kumar, and Rakesh Kumar now stand in elite company as they bring the total of successful Three-Pole expeditioners to 26.

From KeralaNext.com:

“Speaking to media from North Pole, Commander Dam said: “We have reached
here after a physically demanding and painstaking journey. Now it seems
like we are on some different planet where the sun remains with us all
the time and the temperature hovers around minus 40 degree Celsius.”

The Indian Navy began the Three-Pole quest back on May 19th of 2004, when the team made a successful summit bid on Mt. Everest. The team followed up the success on Everest with a ski traverse to the Geographic South Pole on December 28, 2006.

Congratulations go out to the team and crew of the Indian Navy, led by Commander Satyabrata Dam, who was in charge–and the oldest member of the team (43), who led the group to all three poles. Well Done!

Indian Navy Trying to Achieve a First–All Three Poles

The Indian Navy, ran under the command of Commander Satyabrata Dam, is trying to become the first organization to conquer all three poles:  The North and South Poles, and the world’s highest, Mt. Everest.  They have already conquered two of the three, and will be setting their sihts on the third come the second week of April.

“Till now, only 23 persons have achieved the rare
feat of visiting all three poles, and only 64 people in the world have
visited one of the poles and Mt. Everest. Therefore, any organisation
or nation in the world cannot rival the feat.”

This quote is coming from the Indian news organization New Kerala.com.

The Indian Navy has already conquered quite possibly the hardest two of the three–They topped out on Mt. Everest on May 19, 2004 then made a follow up trip two and a half years later to the South Pole.  The South Pole effort was achieved as a ski traverse on December 28, 2006.  Now on to the North Pole.

It is noted that the trip to the South Pole broke quite a few records of note.  They include:  First Indian Team to ski traverse to the South Pole, First Submariners in the world to the South Pole, and First Indian Everest summiters to reach the South Pole.

The team is scheduled to leave India on March 24 to begin their trek to the North Pole.  They will once again be under the command of Commander Dam.  The team, upon successful completion of this mission, plan to unfurl the flags of India and the Navy at their final destination.

“Surgeon Lt Ajay Sharma will become the only
doctor in the world to go to both poles. The oldest member of the team
is Commander Dam, who is 43, and the youngest member is Sonam Tamchos,
who is yet to celebrate his 21st birthday.”

The current plan for the team includes a 15 day itinerary where the Indian Navy will be walking 10-12 hours a day to reach the North Pole.

(Source: New Kerala.com )

ExplorersWeb on a Roll: Discredits ‘First Swim at North Pole’

Earlier this year Lewis Gordon Pugh made a pitch for global warming . He allegedly took the first swim at the Geographic North Pole citing that this endeavor could not have been done 10 years ago, but that the melting ice attributed to global warming had now made this feasable.

The Adventurist reported on this as well right after it happened.  ExplorersWeb reported on the swim–but then quickly retracted the story.  Nobody knew why until now.

It seems that ExplorersWeb has found information that this attempt may have actually not been the first actual swim at the North Pole.  Actually it looks as if this has actually taken place a number of seperate times with plenty of witnesses to boot.

For some reason ExplorersWeb has been on a role with some of these adventure “Firsts” and making sure credit is being given when due.  They cite that Lewis Gordon Pugh’s website claims that he was indeed the first to swim at the North Pole, yet they have many claims otherwise by different individuals–at least going back as far as 1996.

I encourage all of you to swing on over and read their account of this event and the sudden controversy surrounding it. 

Russians Claim North Pole

In a publicity stunt that has seemingly caught the attention of a few people, Russia planted a Russian Flag inside a Titanium holder designating the North Pole as their territory.  This flag meanwhile has been planted over 14,000 ft. deep, beneath the arctic ice.

This isn’t a tale of the 1800’s and the mad dash to Pole supremacy, but rather a pretty sophisticated look at how the world is inevitably getting nervous about the world’s supplies of natural resources–mainly oil.

Russian Scientists claim that a land shelf–a mountain range under the ocean–extends from the Russian mainland to the North Pole.  Their theory stands that since this is an extension of their rightfully governed land, then this part of the arctic becomes…well, Russian.

The United Nations, who seemingly split the arctic up in the first place between 8 different countries, is in fact the ruling party on this issue.  Any new claims to Arctic ownership must first go through a lengthy process of entitlement..at which time these claims will be researched and substantiated or not.

At this time, all 8 countries that have been given a portion of the Arctic region, own approximately 200 miles of arctic coast.  If this claim by Russia, which they are planning to file for shortly, happens to pass, they will become the owners of more than 460,000 new arctic acres–which to the world scientist beliefs, could contain approximately 80 billion barrels of oil.  Now you can see why this is becoming an issue.

In order to get to the oil though, people have to invent new ways to get around the 14,000 feet of ocean depth required to obtain the new resource.  It is kind of a gamble, but at the same time, you will be guaranteed a hand in the global economy for a long time in the future.

To read more on this issue, as well as a few of the 8 countries involved in the arctic’s thoughts, click on over and read THIS very informative article.

Lewis Gordon Pugh SWIMS at North Pole

Lewis Gordon Pugh, 37, A british adventure swimmer, has become the first person to ever swim at the North Pole.  Doing the stunt to bring awareness to Global Warming in the Arctic, Pugh dove into the 29 degree water.

His swim lasted aproximately 18 minutes and 50 seconds and went for a distance of 0.6 miles.  The water, at 29 degrees, is the coldest known temperature that a human has ever been able to swim in.

I hope my swim will inspire world leaders to take climate change seriously. The decisions which they make over the next few years will determine the biodiversity of our world.

I want my children, and their children, to know that polar bears are still living in the Arctic. These creatures are on the front line up here.

I am obviously ecstatic to have succeeded, but this swim is a triumph and a tragedy: a triumph that I could swim in such ferocious conditions but a tragedy that it’s possible to swim at the North Pole.

Pugh’s swim was conducted in a free-flowing waterhole.  The hole was used to demonstrate the effects the climate has been having on the arctic.  He went on to explain that over the next years, waterholes like these will become more prevelent in the Arctic.

Lewis Gordon Pugh is best known for having swam on 5 of the seven known continents of the world, as well as being the first person to ever swim the Sognefjord, Norway’s longest fjord.

The Adventurist: A Call to All Outdoor Writers and Photographers!

I have just put the finishing touches on a new “Submit & Contact” Page here at The Adventurist.  I am hoping that this new feature will be accepted and used by all of my great readers.

This page goes into detail about a few things I am looking for here at The Adventurist–and ways you might be able to get involved.

Do you love Adventure Writing or perhaps Great Outdoors Photography?–Help me share your incredible talents with a much bigger audience!

Head on Over to the “Submit & Contact” Page, found on a tab right up above this article, and Share your Adventures with the World!

Also, if you are looking to put me to work, there is info there as well….

Cheers-

J. Alan Hendricks, Editor

Everest 2007 Update: North Side Still Acclimatizing, South Side Getting Ready…

I have been away for a couple of days due to a family emergency.  So as the process goes, I decided to head over to Alan Arnette’s great site to see what he has been reporting the past couple of days first.

It seems like everything has started to take a nice “normal” pace as teams are still trying to finalize their acclimatization processes–with the North side lagging unusually behind–except for David Tait, who is looking for a window to make his final bid for the summit.  So far, David hasn’t ran in to any problems at all, as far as his body is concerned.  It looks like he has definately come well-prepared for his Double-Traverse attempt and looks to be the strongest out of the Himex team members.

On the South Side, TA Loeffler has called off her bid to summit Everest for health reasons.  She had went up as high as Camp 2 at one point, but in the process had contracted a bad case of Giardia which sent her back to the bottom twice to gte better.  The second time was enough.

Dave Hahn, through his daily dispatches to GreatOutdoors.com, is still reporting a few isolated avalanches down the slopes, but nothing that has caused many any concern.  His team now sits at ABC, where they are resting, drinking plenty of fluids and preparing for the days ahead.

The SuperSherpas Team is currently heading to Camp 3 for a final night of Acclimatization, before heading back down to ABC and waiting for a weather window to open for a chance at the summit.

It actually seems like most teams have now made it all the way to camp 3, and are currently either at ABC or heading that way–for the final resting period before their summit pushes begin.

Right now, a lot of teams are discussing pushing for the summit in the next 4-5 days.  It has been suggested over at Alan Arnette’s that some high winds and possibly some bad weather may hamper the teams’ efforts in the next couple of days–but so far it seems all is well, and the foundation has definately been set on the South Side for a crowded push to the top.

Alex Abramov’s 7Summits team on the North is currently heading back to Everest Basecamp after a couple of days of rest away from Everest.  They will be looking for an open window to make a summit push as soon as they return to Basecamp.  They will be going up in two seperate teams that will be decided in the coming day.

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