Click here to visit the Ottawa Citizen, where reporter and Polar Trek member Alison Korn files her dispatches on the team's progress.
NASA WEB SITE - Click here to visit the special NASA "Coolspace" website on the North Pole and click here for a full roster of current NASA Webcasts
POLAR TREK DAILY UPDATES
Saturday, April 28 (posted Sunday 1:40 p.m. EDT) - Voicemail finally generated a message from Sue Carter sent yesterday from Moscow. The team of 12 Polar Trek women were picked up at Ice Station Borneo on Friday with little advance notice and they had only a four-hour turnaround time after reaching Khatanga becore their flight to Moscow - enough time to shower and eat. Sue said she was standing across from the Russian White House, where Boris Yeltsin famously held off a coup. Some of the trekkers were slated to leave on Sunday, April 29, but most leave Monday, April 39. Because of the eight-hour time difference, Monday's departure is 4 p.m. Moscow time, which brings Sue Carter, Phyllis Grummon, Lynn Bartley and Frida Waara to Detroit Metropolitan Airport Monday night at 9:15 p.m.. "We are all in good shape," said Sue. "We send our best to our family and friends and look forward to seeing them soon."
Friday, April 27 - 3:30 EDT - "I love the Arctic, but I am really ready to be off the ice," said Sue Carter. If all goes well, the Aeroflot plane will arrive within two hours and whisk them to Khatanga. "The storm is lifting and all we need now is for the winds to subside a bit," she said.
Keep in mind that Ice Station Borneo is due to be dismantled by May 1. "There are still some people out there trying to get to the Pole, and they will have to be picked up short of their goal," said Sue.
WEATHER FORECAST
Prepared 1200 UTC, 27 April 2001
At 27/1200 UTC, High pressure NE Siberia and Bering Straits stretches westward into Russian Arctic basin around 82N 90E. This high pressure is slowly strengthening.
Complex low pressure Canadian Arctic to Greenland in combination with high pressure already noted, is producing moderately strong wind gradient across Pole. As high pressure strengthens and rebuilds towards Pole, this should ease winds by late in this 24-hour forecast period. Winds 10 to occasional 20 knots decreasing to 10 knots or less after 28/0600 UTC.
Mostly cloudy sky conditions. Periods of light snow and/or blowing and drifting snow. Conditions improving with decreasing winds noted above. Low clouds and/or fog near open leads. Daily temperature range -15 to -25C, maximum to minimum. Next forecast at 1600 UTC, 28 April.
Wayne
Winston
NOAA/NESDIS
This forecast
provided as a courtesy of the author and is not an official issuance or
forecast of NOAA.
Thursday, April 26 - 3:00 EDT - STILL AT ICE STATION BORNEO - The Polar Trek team is anxious to be on its way home, but Aeroflot and the weather are not cooperating. The airplane was delayed for repairs and now the wind and snow are picking up, said team leader Sue Carter. "Our departure is now scheduled for 12 hours from now, but that depends on the weather."
In the meanwhile, the team will enjoy yet another dinner prepared by the Russian helicopter pilots. The pilots also allowed the women to use their private banya (phonetic spelling at best) - a private tent with a powerful stove that not only heats the tent but that allows them to melt snow in a big pot. "There is a system with two shower pans that allowed us our first opportunity in two weeks to wash our bodies and our hair - we feel great."
WEATHER FORECAST
Prepared 1200 UTC, 26 April 2001
At 26/1200 UTC, High pressure center located in Alaskan Arctic coast, slowly building northward towards Pole. Low pressure near 75N 120W moving northwestward towards Russian Arctic coast. Strong low pressure moving northward through Davis Strait/west coast Greenland with falling pressures northern Greenland and Ellesmere Island. This latter change could increase winds over Pole later in this forecast period.
Light winds to 5-10 knots, becoming 10+ knots after 27/0600 UTC. Partly cloudy to occasionally mostly cloudy sky conditions. Chance of few brief periods of light snow. Low clouds and/or fog near open leads. Daily temperature range -15 to -25C, maximum to minimum. Next forecast at 1600 UTC, 27 April.
Wayne
Winston
NOAA/NESDIS
This forecast provided as a courtesy of the author and is not an official issuance or forecast of NOAA.
What the Webcast looked like - click on the image to watch it again!
You will need Windows Media Player. To download and install a free copy, click on the icon below.
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| This is the "pizza pan" satellite dish that NASA used to make the historic live Webcast from the North Pole happen |
Congratulations to NASA Webgod David Beverly and Miracle-Maker 'NASA Mike' Comberiate for making the live Webcast happen. Thanks to Dr. Kathryn Clark of NASA who did an excellent job of helping us understand what Polar Trek 2001 is all about. Thanks also to Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow for connecting WomenQuest to NASA and to the Navy. And thanks most of all to the wonderful women of Polar Trek 2001 who have inspired us all - ordinary women doing extraordinary things.
Heartfelt thanks also to FirstAir's Mike Kristjanson and Ice Station Borneo's Anatoly and Igor for getting the women and NASA together for this amazing event during the narrow time window.
NOTE: Once the Webcast has been permanently archived on the NASA site, we will change the banner below and provide a direct link so that you can replay this historic event.
Click on the banner above to view the Webcast on the NASA site. Visit beforehand to take the quick test that ensures your computer can display the presentation. You will need Windows Media Player. To download and install a free copy, click on the icon below.
11 AM EDT - TUESDAY, APRIL 24 - IT'S A GO! - A cellphone-to-cellphone connection has bridged the communication gap to the Russian helicopter pilots and they will pick up the women at 1945 Zulu. Best bet is that the Webcast will go live at somewhere around 5 p.m. EDT.
With that logistical hurdle straddled, Sue talked about what it was like during the final push. The aforementioned sheik from Dubai was headed to the North Pole on a champagne flight, and the women could see the Russian helicopter in the distance like a beacon. "It was our Star of Bethlehem, leading us to the Holy Grail of the North Pole," she said. But the flatness of the Arctic distorts distance. Like a mirage in the desert, the women pushed themselves toward that image only to find it was much farther away than it looked.
"It provided us the inspiration we needed," said Sue. "At that point, I was so tired. There is a physical component, of course, but it is truly a mental game." She said that the team's ability to pull together to do 48-hour push was the reason for their success.
It was hard not to give in to the seduction of self-doubt. "That morning I called you (Sunday 9 a.m. EDT), I was at my limit. I started questioning, 'Why am I doing this? I am 50 years old. Why am I out here?'' But she and the other team members were able to put aside those questions to stay focused on the goal.
Mike Kristjanson of FirstAir, who has extensive Arctic experience, said on Sunday, "I know how teams get when their focus narrows. Everything else goes away." The downside of such a narrow focus, of course, is that you risk missing warning signals or make mistakes, so dangerous in such an unforgiving environment.
"It is so extraordinary for a team this size to make it," she said. A Norweigian team of three out at the same time was forced to give up. While there is no disgrace in failing to make the Pole, there is elation in succeeding.
The hard part now is accepting that they will soon go their own ways after sharing so much together. "We spent some time de-briefing and hugging and crying," said Sue. "We will soon leave here and resume our public lives, knowing that we may never come together as a group again."
Sue also recognizes that the team was shouldering an additional burden - the weight of carrying the banner for all women. The team had been the butt of jokes at Ice Station Borneo about how they were doomed to fail because they are female. When I did an update on Michigan Talk Radio last week, a comedian impersonating Governor Jesse Ventura hammered the theme that the "broads" would never make it. After all, they had gone miles in the wrong direction on their first day.
Watching the TV movie "When Billie Beat Bobby," about the so-called battle of the sexes when Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in tennis reminds that those tensions still persist. "I knew we weren't doing this just for ourselves," said Sue. "When I think about a young girl struggling in Detroit, or a youngster in Sacramento wondering if they can do wondrous things in life, I hope they think about how we made it against the odds."
PERSONAL ASIDE: I have a personal message for Michigan Talk Radio's 'Gov. Ventura' - Stuff a frozen sock in it.
7:30 AM EDT - TUESDAY, APRIL 24 - In roughly two hours, the women of Polar Trek 2001 will ski to True North, the final leg of their long quest for the Pole. Current coordinates are: latitude 89 degrees, 58 minutes North; 25 degrees 22 minutes East.
Big issues now are getting word to Ice Station Borneo about the 1930 Zulu pickup time and coordinating with 'NASA Mike' Comberiate and the pilots of FirstAir to make the Webcast happen.
Christian in Khatanga was notified on Sunday to set up a 1930 pickup with the Russian helicopter pilots at Ice Station Borneo. But, as of yesterday afternoon, he had not reached them. Sunspots have virtually shut down their high-frequency radio communication, and Iridium phone contact has been spotty.
Richard Weber of Canadian Arctic Holidays saw the Russian helicopter pilots Anatoly and Igor yesterday at the Pole while they were on a resupply run (apparently a sultan - the sultan? - from Dubai is one of the North Pole visitors). But the trip occurred prior to the team's arrival, so Weber could not set up a pickup time. "We finally heard radio traffic last night, but there was so much for them to transmit that they put us on standby," he said. "We never did get through before we had to give up and went to bed."
The challenge is the tight window of time for the Webcast. The plan is for the helicopters to land at 1930 Zulu, load the women and all their gear and wait for the FirstAir flight from Eureka to fly overhead. That flight will be carrying NASA Mike Comberiate and all the webcast gear. It is scheduled to reach the Pole at 1200 Zulu, looking for a place to land. Once the Twin Otter plane is on the ground, NASA Mike will use his Iridium phone to call Sue Carter on her Iridium phone, to give the team the airplane's coordinates on the ground. Then the Polar Trek women on the Russian helicopter will be ferried to the site for the Webcast.
The main constraint is that the satellite that can broadcast the Webcast is only over the horizon for a few hours and the prime two-hour window requires split-minute if not split-second timing in coordinating the aerial dance of the helicopter and airplane. Here's hoping.
If you haven't done so already, please click here to read reporter Alison Korn's firsthand account.
U.S. ARRIVAL UPDATE: Sue Carter and other trekkers from Michigan are slated to arrive at Detroit Metropolitan airport the evening of April 30 (approximately 9 p.m.).
6:34 PM - EDT - MONDAY APRIL 23 - THEY'RE THERE! The 12 women of Polar Trek are now 1 kliometer from the Pole, enjoying a pasta dinner as the gift bottle of vodka from Anatoly and Igor chills down. They have set up their tent not far from Richard Weber and Misha Malakhov of Canadian Arctic Holidays (of which Josee Auclair is part) that is guiding another group. Depending on how much they drift after a good night's sleep, they will ski the required kilometer or so for the official photo signifying their success! I will keep writing what I know, but I am posting this now to let you know.
LAST CHANCE TO LEAVE A PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR THE TEAM BEFORE THEY GET TO THE POLE
COUNTDOWN: 1710 Zulu (1:10 EDT) - April 23 - It is good news that the high pressure appears to be weakening. According to 'NASA Mike' Comberiate, the high-pressure system that had hovered over the Pole the past few days contributed to the creation of new leads (those patches of open water).
WEATHER FORECAST
Prepared 1600 UTC, 23 April 2001
At 23/1200 UTC - Weak high-pressure centers located in NE Siberia, Canadian Arctic and northern Scandanavia. Pressure gradient appears to have weakened with decreasing winds. Low pressure has persisted in northern Russia near 78N 120E with trough of low pressure extending northward to near the Pole.
Moderate NE winds to 5-10 knots. Partly cloudy to occasionally mostly cloudy sky conditions. Few brief periods of light snow and/or drifting snow. Low clouds and fog near open leads. Daily temperature range -15 to -25C, maximum to minimum. Next forecast at 1600 UTC, 24 April.
Wayne
Winston
NOAA/NESDIS
This forecast provided as a courtesy of the author and is not an official
issuance or forecast of NOAA.
COUNTDOWN: 1530 Zulu (11:30 EDT) - April 23 - PERSONAL ASIDE: As those who have read Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff or John Krakauer's Into Thin Air will appreciate, people who push boundaries tend to fall into one of two (often warring) camps - the cowboys and the technocrats. Cowboys (and most certainly cowgirls) are those who ultimately rely on their own talents and guts to carry them through, while the technocrats embrace data analysis and methodical planning as holy writ in reducing if not eliminating risk.
Both knowingly court danger. But the cowboys view it as the reason for going, while the technocrats see it as an intellectual challenge to be overcome or at least a variable to be controlled. Head or heart, reason versus instinct and maybe serotonin as opposed to adrenalin.
In the beginning, I had clearly stereotyped the Russians as the cowboys and the NASA/U.S. aviation folks as the technocrats. But - just as it appears to be the case on the Polar Trek team - they have not always held true to form. (And you all know who you are.) What we see instead are cowboys and technocrats working together.
At least from what I perceive, thousands of miles away, tenuously connected by a thinnest thread of sound waves beamed at me, the Polar Trek team benefits from having both cowboys and technocrats on the team itself and on their side. It is heartening to see people from very different perspectives pulling together, putting aside personal competitiveness and ego to focus on the goal of helping the team achieve its goals as safely as possible in an inherently unsafe environment.
Careful planning can broaden the all-too-narrow margin of error in extreme conditions. Yet we know that you can never anticipate all the bends and twists in the road (or the ice), and the cowboys' ability to fly by the seat of their pants can help carry you through through sheer will. How much we all look forward to talking with the team soon, in a spot both warm and safe, to learn how it looked from their side.
COUNTDOWN: 1330 Zulu (9:30 EDT) - April 23 - With roughly 30 hours until scheduled pickup, the team availed itself of a brief opportunity for an update of their coordinates: 89 degrees, 55 minutes, 09 seconds North; 105 degrees, 00 minutes, 00 seconds East. If I had to characterize Sue's tone, it would be euphoric. "We expect to be at the Pole by noon tomorrow," she said. "Bonnie, you just can't imagine how amazing this is."
Good news as well is that I was able to transmit those coordinates and firm up the pickup time with Christian (at least I think his name is Christian) in Khatanga. Olga Kritskaya was also able to talk with the Russians at that Khatanga base a few minutes earlier. Olga and I are now confident that our newly created communication channel is working as it should. We will work out details for tomorrow morning's final updates before pickup - we may be having an early 5 a.m. breakfast at my house.
I
was also able to talk with Mike Kristjanson of FirstAir in Resolute Bay,
so that he knows their current position. He confirmed that NASA Mike had
taken off and was then 5-1/2 hours from Eureka (and thanks to Lynn Bartley's
always supportive husband Tom and Christa Ramonat of
Canadian Arctic Holidays for educating me on its location). Kristjanson
will call back as soon as he gets an updated weather forecast for tomorrow.
He explained that forecasting depends on the satellite photos and there
are certain times of the day when the newest images are available. "It
is cloudy now but OK to go," he said.
Kristjanson concurs that the operative plan is now to view the webcast as an added plus, if it can occur on schedule safely. "I would not recommend delaying just to do the webcast," he said. "It is more important to get the women helicoptered out at their target time if the weather allows."
Two calls to schoolrooms today had to be cancelled because the priority is for the team to push on. Team members will undoubtedly find a way to make that up to the youngsters when they return.
4-22/23-01 - TREK DAYS VII & VIII - THE BIG PUSH - Two phone calls from the Polar Trek team, at 1:45 a.m. and again less than an hour later here on Monday in Michigan, confirm that they are only 8 miles from the North Pole! (All together now, let's say, "Yessssss!") Current coordinates are 89 degrees, 51 minutes, 88 seconds North; 93 degrees, 57 minutes, 00 seconds East. This was accomplished by a "48 Hour Push," where the team skied as hard as they could, to get as far as they could, getting by on as little sleep and as few stops as possible.
To make maximum progress, they also cut back on communication, routing everything through yours truly (Bonnie Bucqueroux, webmaster and how part-time communication coordinator). Calling NASA, calling the contact people for the Russian support team and calling schools was simply eating up too much time, especially as the drifting ice and numerous leads slowed their progress.
As it stands, the team will call here again within six to 12 hours, then a final call by 5 a.m. EDT on Tuesday to provide coordinates for their Russian helicopter pilots. They have good reason to expect to be at True North by their scheduled pickup time of 1930 Zulu. "If the webcast happens, that's icing on the cake," said Sue. The problem is that there is a narrow window when the satellite is above the horizon so that a webcast can be transmitted. If their pickup occurs and the team can rendezvous with the NASA crew on their FirstAir plane within that window, it will happen as scheduled. But the team does not want to have to hunker down on the ice an extra day to wait for another window if they miss the one on Tuesday.
We would also like to welcome Olga Kritskaya, a graduate student at Michigan State, to our informal local support team. Trekker Phyllis Grummon suggested her as someone who might be willing to help during their call back here to Michigan at 9 a.m. EDT on Sunday. Within an hour, Olga had agreed to come on board (proving again the miracle of modern communications).
Olga was able to call Khatanga in Siberia for us today, not only relaying current coordinates but also finding the name and number for an English-speaking man who will also relay messages to Ice Station Borneo. (When setting up times and places for pickup, we decided it is better to have the messages sent twice as a backup.) I just talked with our man in Khatanga an hour ago (this is being posted at 3:50 a.m. EDT) and he is sending the latest word to Borneo when their hour-long transmission window opens.
MSU J-School director Steve Lacy has loaned Olga his cellphone, just to make sure we can always reach her. Many thanks to Olga and to Steve, as well as to J-School professor Professor Lucinda Davenport - all have been on call all day to help figure out how to build this alternative communication channel reliably. The goal is to ensure that the support team at Khatanga in Siberia, the helicopter pilots at Ice Station Borneo and the NASA crew and their FirstAir pilots in Resolute Bay in Canada are all in the loop on messages from the team as quickly as possible after the team calls me.
So I don't know how you spent your Sunday, but I spent mine taking a crash course in:
If this sounds a little punchy, indulge me. It is off to bed on the couch
encircled with phones to catch some sleep before the NASA folks start calling
at 5:30 a.m.. And congratulations to the team for their magnificent effort.
It is always a good sign to hear the laughter in the background again when
Sue called. On to the Pole!
Click here for updates of Day I through Day VI of the Trek.
We have also archived the log of the days in Russia prior to the beginning of the trek. CLICK HERE FOR THOSE DAILY UPDATES.
To learn more about the trekkers and their experiences, click here for a list of links to reporter Alison Korn's first-person stories for the Ottawa Citizen.