Row to the Pole

Hotter summers mean you can now row all the way to the pole

Travelling in a seaplane in 2006, Jim McNeil could see the cracks in the ice below. But he decided to land, unwilling to abandon his attempt to become the first person to walk to all four North Poles. Just four days into his expedition, the ice beneath his feet gave way and he fell through into the Arctic ocean. After managing to drag himself back up, he had to survive two weeks in a tent before the wind died down long enough for his pilot to land. He stayed alive, but his record attempt was over.

McNeil is not the only recent adventurer to lose their battle against the unsettled sea ice. Just last month, Parker Liautard was forced to acknowledge defeat. Attempting to become the youngest person to ski to the North Pole, he had been prepared to swim small stretches, but twenty miles of open water proved too much. Eventually he made it to the Pole – but only by helicopter.

A warmer reception

As climate change makes the sea ice more and more unpredictable, expeditions rely increasingly on chance. Fifty years ago, open water at the geographic North Pole was unheard of. Yet in 2007, Lewis Gordon Pugh swam one kilometre there without a wetsuit.

So how can explorers and adventurers deal with such unreliable weather conditions? They turn to the “amphibious option”, according to Pen Hadow, the first man to trek unsupported to the North Pole. Faced with melting ice, explorers would once have had to wait for the water to refreeze, or have had to walk around it, something that took time and added distance to the journey. With the current amount of ice melt, however, this is no longer feasible. Instead, immersion suits have been developed so that adventurers and explorers can swim and smash through the ice until it becomes more solid.

“In 2003 I spent 850 hours trekking to the North Pole. 30 of them were spent swimming. The longest I had to swim was two kilometres,” Pen recollects. “It’s a very slow way of travelling, but it has some advantages. You can go straight north”.

Boat, sledge - or both?

Another adaptation for land expeditions is a floating sledge. Hadow was the first explorer to use a sledge with a flotation tube that can be pulled through the water. As with swimming, there are some benefits. “You can make crossings quickly. You can also lie on the sledge when fully loaded. Otherwise it would sit so low in the water you couldn’t do it.”

Although sledges themselves can be adapted to deal with water, dogs cannot drag a sledge through water. This means that 'land' expeditions are already far from the traditional image of a team of dogs pulling a sledge across the ice.

Yet even floating sledges may soon be ineffective. Hadow is now Expedition Director of the Catlin Arctic Survey, a project set up to gather data about the impact of climate change and ocean acidification. Having spent so long working in the region, Hadow recognises that “the Arctic Ocean is going through a major state change. The ice cap will cease to be a year-round surface feature of the planet as seen from space. It’s imperative that we understand the ecosystem dependent on sea ice. It’s all going to be over in 20-30 years – there will only be ice there for three quarters of the year.”

Faced with an increasingly iceless ocean, those who wish to visit the Arctic will need to embrace new equipment. “We’ve gone from the traditional dog sledge to sledges that float”, Hadow explains. “I think that what will happen is rather than go straight to boats, the next thing in years ahead will be the crossover from sledge-boat to boat-sledge. People will start using a kayak or canoe that also works as a sledge.”

The evolution of kayak technology

Kayaks have already been employed as sledges in some expeditions. Ben Galbraith and Eric Philip paddled down the east coast of Greenland in 1995, then dragged their kayaks 500km towards the west coast where the melting water from the ice cap turned to rapids and they could paddle to the sea. When the ground was flat, they strapped themselves to kites and skied over the ground with their kayaks behind.

Two resourceful Australians fashioned kayaks with wheels, which they dragged across Victoria Island in the Arctic in 2005. The wheels could be taken up when traversing smooth ice and snow, and taken back down when faced with rock and rough ground.

In an extreme illustration of the changing ocean, British adventurer Jock Wishart believes he will be able to row to the magnetic North Pole next summer. There is no guarantee that the passage to the Pole will remain open, however, so Wishart and his team will be taking a boat that has also been designed for use as a sledge. They hope to be able to row all the way to the Pole, but Wishart realises that they can’t rely on this, observing that “it would look very stupid to get there and have to turn back.”

"You need to be dirty about it"

Having trekked to the North Pole himself, he recognises that land exploration is “becoming harder and harder”. However, he believes that it will always be important. “You need water, air and land”, he says. “You need people to get down there and be dirty about it and feel the whole thing.”

Currently the geographic North Pole is accessible by water only if the boat taken is an ice breaker with serious weight behind it. However, Wishart imagines a time when “it may be possible to row there. The route to the Geographic will become open, especially during the summer months”.

He predicts that others will be inspired by his expedition and make similar attempts themselves, saying that “what we’re trying to do will open up a few minds”. He also points out that boats and ships have always been important to exploration. Nansen famously let The Fram be encased in ice to see if the floes would carry him all the way to the North Pole. The photographs of Scott’s ship the Terra Nova encased in pack ice have become iconic images of the polar extremes.

What is certain is that Arctic exploration is undergoing a sea change, one that will be more difficult to adapt to than by simply being taking a boat instead of skis. With open water comes more mist and fog, and lack of ice makes it difficult to land a supply plane. The Catlin Arctic Survey reported rain last week at 79 degrees North, in the Arctic Ocean. “There’s been no record of anything like that at that time of year, but it’s something we’re going to see increasingly,” Hadow says. “If it rains any further north, people on expeditions will need to change their clothing. Normally it’s not waterproof, just windproof and breathable. If it rains you’ll get sopping wet – then freeze solid.”

It’s unlikely that we will see expeditions based solely on water or on land in the coming years. To be successful, adventurers must now be prepared to swim, ski, fly, paddle, and drag themselves to the North Pole.

You can follow Jock Wishart’s attempt to row to the North Pole at www.rowtothepole.com