RACING SOLO TO THE MAGNETIC NORTH POLE
The Polar Challenge is an annual 370 mile ski race from Resolute Bay in northern Canada to the magnetic North Pole. Competitors ski across frozen sea ice and drag all kit and equipment in a pulk (sledge). Every team has to pass through two checkpoints where they receive a compulsory medical inspection and are able to resupply their food and fuel.
Initially the plan was to enter this race as part of a team representing the Parachute Regiment; aiming not only to win the race but raise as much money as possible for Help for Heroes and the Afghanistan Trust charities. The credit crunch unfortunately prevented this from becoming a reality. With only four months to go before the race started I had only managed to secure sponsorship from Schroders to enter as a solo competitor. Entering the race as a soloist had never been done before so I would be the first person to race to the magnetic North Pole alone. Fortunately after a few meetings with the race organisers they agreed to let me attempt the race solo.
When I arrived in Resolute Bay I met a team of twelve who had failed their mission to reach the magnetic North Pole. After covering only 65 miles they had to give up on their expedition. Due to poor ice conditions and weather, four of the team had suffered from frostbite and one from hypothermia. Immediately I was concerned! This year the ice was particularly bad, the pressure built up from sea currents and strong winds had forced the ice to crack and rise forming huge pressure ridges the size of houses and condensed boulder fields of ice.
After a week of testing equipment and acclimatising to the conditions, the 8 teams entered in the race, embarked on the 60 mile walk to the start line, by this point we were all very keen to start the race as soon as possible. As everyone sprinted away from the start line I was amazed by the speed of some of the faster teams. As a soloist I had to carry all the group kit which would normally be split within the team. This included: the shotgun, tent, stoves, shovel, GPS, emergency beacon, and satellite phone. I was dragging approximately a third more weight compared to the other competitors. The race organisers had warned me not to get too involved in the race, because I was the first ever soloist all they wanted me to do was finish. However, regimental pride would not accept last place. I knew I couldn’t ski faster than a lot of the teams due to the extra weight I was dragging so my only option was to ski for longer.
Initially I aimed to ski for 16 hours and stop for only 8 in one day. The amount of sleep I got during my 8 hour rest period would be far less than the other teams. A team can have one person cooking whilst the other team members sleep or reinforce the tent. A soloist has to do everything on his own with limited concurrency; this reduced my sleep down to just 4 hours a night.
After the first day I didn’t see another team skiing until I reached the first checkpoint. All I could see around me was the most spectacular scenery. Rather than feeling lonely and isolated I felt exhilarated by the idea of being a tiny object in this expanse wilderness. After 120 miles I finally reached the first checkpoint which consisted of a tent with a doctor sat inside. After 6 hours sleep and a resupply of food I began making my way to checkpoint 2, which was located 110 miles away. The ice and weather conditions were as close to perfect as they could be. I decided that this would be the best time to really push myself and catch some of the teams in front of me. Race rules stipulated that you were not allowed any outside assistance so you never knew your position in the race. I began to increase the length of time I was skiing from 16 hours up to 24 hours without stopping. Despite pushing hard I was still unable to see any teams on the horizon. My frustration quickly turned to surprise when I came across what appeared to be a shoot off, between one of the teams and two Polar Bears. The ground was littered with used cartridges as well as two different sets of Polar Bear footprints. I had seen numerous bear footprints but nothing as recent as these. After a quick Satellite call to the organisers they warned me that there were two angry bears in the area. The team who had been shooting had fortunately had a narrow escape, one of the team happened to turn around to see a bear charging at them. They quickly got the shotgun and managed to scare the bear away, which got as close as 5 metres. Unfortunately the bear returned with its friend and began following them. After yet more shooting the bears finally went away. I reached checkpoint 2 in just 3 days and could now see two teams at the checkpoint.
As I arrived both teams were getting ready to leave. I could therefore workout that they were roughly 10 hours ahead of me. I decided that the only way to catch up and get round the two teams was to do two 24 hour days back to back with only 8 hours rest in between. Once in front I would have to hold on until the finish line. This plan however was dependent upon continued good weather.
When I skied away from checkpoint 2 I could see the weather was beginning to turn. Within an hour visibility was down to 5 metres and the wind had picked up to 30 mph. The wind in the arctic rarely changes direction and blows from north to south. Since I was heading north the whole time I had to endure the full force of the arctic weather head on. In these conditions I couldn’t ski longer than 16 hours a day. My focus shifted from travelling as fast as I could to just being able to travel without getting hypothermia or frostbite. For 3 days I skied with my head down in horrendous weather. Since I couldn’t pick any reference points due to the lack of visibility I had to rely on the direction of the wind to navigate. Just as long as I kept the wind blowing directly in to my face I was heading north.
The poor weather also played havoc with my 8 hours of rest. Not only did it take longer to put up and take down the tent due the risk of it blowing away, but every few hours I had get out of the tent and dig it out because of the snow building up around it. The sound and power of the wind was incredible. Unzipping the tent and looking out in to an abyss of white each morning with the sound of the wind flapping on the side of the tent made getting out of the tent a daunting prospect. What I hadn’t realised was that some of the other teams had decided to sit in their tents and wait for the weather to improve. Even though I couldn’t ski as hard and as long as I wanted the fact that I was even skiing was an achievement.
After 3 days of hard skiing the magnetic North Pole was only 35 miles away. In the poor weather my speed had gone down to just 1 MPH. Much to my relief the weather gradually improved so I decided to capitalise on this and skied for 21 hours without rest in order to catch the other teams before the finish line. I completed the 370 miles in 13 days. Out of 8 teams I managed to beat 3 of them and was only a matter of hours behind the two teams ahead of me. It was only when I finished that I noticed the affects the race had had on me, during 13 days of racing I lost a stone and a half in weight. Overall taking part in the race was an unbelievable experience and I am extremely fortunate to have experienced the challenges and beauty the arctic hold. I am also very grateful for the continued support I have received in raising money for Help for Heroes and the Afghanistan Trust.
www.northpole-solo.co.uk
When I arrived in Resolute Bay I met a team of twelve who had failed their mission to reach the magnetic North Pole. After covering only 65 miles they had to give up on their expedition. Due to poor ice conditions and weather, four of the team had suffered from frostbite and one from hypothermia. Immediately I was concerned! This year the ice was particularly bad, the pressure built up from sea currents and strong winds had forced the ice to crack and rise forming huge pressure ridges the size of houses and condensed boulder fields of ice.
After a week of testing equipment and acclimatising to the conditions, the 8 teams entered in the race, embarked on the 60 mile walk to the start line, by this point we were all very keen to start the race as soon as possible. As everyone sprinted away from the start line I was amazed by the speed of some of the faster teams. As a soloist I had to carry all the group kit which would normally be split within the team. This included: the shotgun, tent, stoves, shovel, GPS, emergency beacon, and satellite phone. I was dragging approximately a third more weight compared to the other competitors. The race organisers had warned me not to get too involved in the race, because I was the first ever soloist all they wanted me to do was finish. However, regimental pride would not accept last place. I knew I couldn’t ski faster than a lot of the teams due to the extra weight I was dragging so my only option was to ski for longer.
Initially I aimed to ski for 16 hours and stop for only 8 in one day. The amount of sleep I got during my 8 hour rest period would be far less than the other teams. A team can have one person cooking whilst the other team members sleep or reinforce the tent. A soloist has to do everything on his own with limited concurrency; this reduced my sleep down to just 4 hours a night.
After the first day I didn’t see another team skiing until I reached the first checkpoint. All I could see around me was the most spectacular scenery. Rather than feeling lonely and isolated I felt exhilarated by the idea of being a tiny object in this expanse wilderness. After 120 miles I finally reached the first checkpoint which consisted of a tent with a doctor sat inside. After 6 hours sleep and a resupply of food I began making my way to checkpoint 2, which was located 110 miles away. The ice and weather conditions were as close to perfect as they could be. I decided that this would be the best time to really push myself and catch some of the teams in front of me. Race rules stipulated that you were not allowed any outside assistance so you never knew your position in the race. I began to increase the length of time I was skiing from 16 hours up to 24 hours without stopping. Despite pushing hard I was still unable to see any teams on the horizon. My frustration quickly turned to surprise when I came across what appeared to be a shoot off, between one of the teams and two Polar Bears. The ground was littered with used cartridges as well as two different sets of Polar Bear footprints. I had seen numerous bear footprints but nothing as recent as these. After a quick Satellite call to the organisers they warned me that there were two angry bears in the area. The team who had been shooting had fortunately had a narrow escape, one of the team happened to turn around to see a bear charging at them. They quickly got the shotgun and managed to scare the bear away, which got as close as 5 metres. Unfortunately the bear returned with its friend and began following them. After yet more shooting the bears finally went away. I reached checkpoint 2 in just 3 days and could now see two teams at the checkpoint.
As I arrived both teams were getting ready to leave. I could therefore workout that they were roughly 10 hours ahead of me. I decided that the only way to catch up and get round the two teams was to do two 24 hour days back to back with only 8 hours rest in between. Once in front I would have to hold on until the finish line. This plan however was dependent upon continued good weather.
When I skied away from checkpoint 2 I could see the weather was beginning to turn. Within an hour visibility was down to 5 metres and the wind had picked up to 30 mph. The wind in the arctic rarely changes direction and blows from north to south. Since I was heading north the whole time I had to endure the full force of the arctic weather head on. In these conditions I couldn’t ski longer than 16 hours a day. My focus shifted from travelling as fast as I could to just being able to travel without getting hypothermia or frostbite. For 3 days I skied with my head down in horrendous weather. Since I couldn’t pick any reference points due to the lack of visibility I had to rely on the direction of the wind to navigate. Just as long as I kept the wind blowing directly in to my face I was heading north.
The poor weather also played havoc with my 8 hours of rest. Not only did it take longer to put up and take down the tent due the risk of it blowing away, but every few hours I had get out of the tent and dig it out because of the snow building up around it. The sound and power of the wind was incredible. Unzipping the tent and looking out in to an abyss of white each morning with the sound of the wind flapping on the side of the tent made getting out of the tent a daunting prospect. What I hadn’t realised was that some of the other teams had decided to sit in their tents and wait for the weather to improve. Even though I couldn’t ski as hard and as long as I wanted the fact that I was even skiing was an achievement.
After 3 days of hard skiing the magnetic North Pole was only 35 miles away. In the poor weather my speed had gone down to just 1 MPH. Much to my relief the weather gradually improved so I decided to capitalise on this and skied for 21 hours without rest in order to catch the other teams before the finish line. I completed the 370 miles in 13 days. Out of 8 teams I managed to beat 3 of them and was only a matter of hours behind the two teams ahead of me. It was only when I finished that I noticed the affects the race had had on me, during 13 days of racing I lost a stone and a half in weight. Overall taking part in the race was an unbelievable experience and I am extremely fortunate to have experienced the challenges and beauty the arctic hold. I am also very grateful for the continued support I have received in raising money for Help for Heroes and the Afghanistan Trust.
www.northpole-solo.co.uk
