Explorers needed

Want to make the pole?

Arctic explorer and environmentalist Jim McNeill is recruiting 28 polar novices to become the first people to stand on the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility.

One of four North Poles which include the Magnetic North, Geomagnetic North, and Geographic North, the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility marks the centre of the Arctic Ocean and has never been reached by mankind.

Starting in January 2010, four teams, each of seven people, will undertake a leg of the gruelling 750-mile journey. The first participants to sign up come from a wide variety of backgrounds and include corporate lawyer Ali Kershaw, Chief Fire Officer for Devon & Somerset Fire Service, Lee Howell and new mum Louise Cameron.

However, the primary focus of McNeill’s Ice Warrior Arctic Pole Expedition is to gather data for the NASA funded National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) that will measure the effects of climate change on the polar ice cap.

“We don’t know enough about the Polar Regions that are accepted by scientists as the barometer for climate change,” says McNeill. “If we’re not there measuring, how do we know that anything we’re doing to mitigate climate change is making any difference?”

The perilous disintegration of the ice cap is something that McNeill has witnessed first hand. His 2006 expedition to the Pole of Inaccessibility was aborted after the explorers failed to find a way across the vast swathes of water that have appeared as the ancient ice breaks apart.

This time around, however, McNeill has devised a specially designed pulk that functions as a boat as well as a sled. The state of the art vessel is even big enough to sleep in and, he hopes, could be key to unlocking the last unseen corner of the earth.

If you’re interested in joining the 2010 Ice Warrior Arctic Pole Expedition go to www.ice-warrior.com