In 2002 myself and two others decided to ski to the Magnetic North Pole. It was a three week journey and ski back to our staging base in Resolute Bay

1. Mike’s 2002
North Pole
Expedition

2. Inspired by Tim Jellard, I joined
the “Alpine Club of Canada”.
In addition to many fun
adventures I saw an ad in a
2001 news letter looking for
explorers willing to join a 3
man arctic expedition to the
North Pole.
Well, who can say no to that!?

3. This expedition was not a paidfor “adventure tour” with a
guide. It was just us three guys
planning the route and
logistics – all from different
cities in Canada.
Our 2001 plans fell through but
our 2nd try in 2002 proceeded.

4. But which “north pole”? There
are 2 to chose from.
We sought the magnetic north
pole (the one a compass
points to).

5. Magnetic
North Pole
Geographic
North Pole

6. Did you know ?
The MNP is a moving target,
randomly drifting as much as
100 km in a year!

7. MNP drift over past 400 years
1600
2000
1700
1800
1900

8. MNP drift over past 105 years

9. I was training for this expedition
at +40°C while I was working in
the middle east in 2001(for
BAPCO) and then at +35°C
while I was in South America in
2002 (for Sonacol).
Not exactly simulating arctic
conditions!

10. The Plan:
3 guys skiing
8 dogs pulling supply sled
Begin at “Resolute Bay"
ski 700 km to MNP
3 week food budget
= 37 km per day
radio in for return flight

11. MNP
Resolute Bay

12. Did it the plan work?
Did we make it?
Well first, how about some pics

13. Packing up the gear

14. Summer in downtown Resolute Bay

15. Komatik (supply sled)

16. Typical landscape – or should I
say “icescape”

17. On a sunny day

19. Home sweet home…

21. Satellite phone (for pizza delivery)

22. Our gun that couldn’t fire

23. Every day would we spent
4 hours to break camp in
the morning, ski for 8 hours
and then spend 4 hours to
make camp in the evening.

24. Breaking camp

26. The dog food. Really!

27. Making water for cooking

28. For our athletic output and
fighting the constant cold
we needed to consume
more than10,000 calories
per day

29. Spent a rest day at a northern mine
Steak!

30. Snow blindness

31. Tough dogs

32. So how cold was it?
Temperature in a fridge:
+4
Temperature in a freezer:
-4
Temperature in a deep freeze: -18
Warmest temp we had:
-25
Coldest temp we had:
-45

33. So - did we make it?

34. Well, we had a few problems:
snow blindness
thin ice
stray dog
frozen gun
polar bears
group dynamics

35. But mostly due to uncommonly
rough ice our daily progress was
often less than 10 km, but we still
needed to eat > 10,000 calories
each day.

36. After coming some 400 km we
exceeded our food budget.
We had no choice and called in
for our plane and what took 21
days to accomplish was undone
in 2 hours.

37. Our ride home

38. 21 days out, 2 hours back

39. But at least we made it back alive:
The solo skier who went after us fell
through thin ice and died.
It’s a dangerous and wild place
out there. Proceed with caution!