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You can also click here to visit the Ottawa Citizen, where reporter and Polar Trek member Alison Korn files her dispatches on the team's progress.

POLAR TREK DAILY UPDATES FROM RUSSIA

Click here for updates from the final days of the Trek
Click here for updates from Days I through VI of the Trek

04-15-01 - Last night at Ice Station Borneo (Easter Sunday) - With the Polar Trek team 12 hours ahead, by the time the rest of us are watching the latest episode of "The Sopranos," the 12 members will be boarding their helicopter for the 1-1/2-hour flight to the dropoff point. The Russian support crew treated the team to a bon voyage dinner, with Anatoli, a Dolgan from Siberia, as chef. Guests for dinner also included three members of the Russian Parliament.

Easter Sunday dinner consisted of Russian Easter eggs, a chilled borscht, tomato and cucumber salad and a frozen Atlantic salmon eaten by shaving off small portions and seasoning them with salt and pepper and eating them raw (the Russian version of sushi). The Russians, of course, also have their vodka. Because the flight crew routinely makes trips back and forth to Khatanga for pickups and dropoffs, they often arrive bearing fresh veggies and other treats.

Weather during the day ranged from full sun to hazy. Sue explained that even though there is no sunset, the sun makes an ellipse overhead, from an angle of 45 degrees to 10 degrees.

Once they land at the dropoff point, the team will immediately unpack and ski for 7 to 8 hours. Their schedule requires at least six "marches" a day to make their target of True North by Tuesday, April 24. As Alison Korn detailed in her latest dispatch, the initial plan to trek 150 kilometers has been scaled back to 84 kilometers. The discussions took longer to work through the issues because the three newcombers, who are also among the strongest skiers, had not had the chance to benefit from talks about expectations held at previous training sessions. Especially during the session in Marquette, Mich., in Michigan's Upper Peninsula during January, the trekkers on board by then had a chance to work through the nature of their relationships. They determined the trek would be done as a team, with the pace therefore set by the slowest, not as a situation where the organizers served as guides hired to fulfill individual clients' aspirations.

"Our spirits are high today," said Sue. "I was pleased that our Russian pilots expressed their confidence that we will make it as a team."

04-14-01 - Ice Station Borneo - Final calculations have determined that the team will leave tomorrow (Easter Sunday, April 14) from Ice Station Borneo by helicopter to a dropoff point at 89 degrees, 10 seconds North latitude and 110 degrees, 00 seconds longitude. Because of the westerly drift of the ice (at approximately 5 kilometers a day), the dropoff point will be significantly east of Ice Station Borneo so that their ski path north will allow them to reach True North by their target date of Tuesday, April 24. To maintain pace toward that goal, the team will do six "marches" a day, with each march a bit more than a mile, so that they can average nine miles a day.

NASA/NOAA satellite images (see below) show that their course will keep them far away from the dangerous open water that the fractures in the ice signify. "The images show a huge fracture from what NASA tells me, so I am glad that we will be nowhere near there," said Sue.

The team spent the day finding ways to pare down their supplies to reduce weight. With 35-pound backpacks, hauling 45- to 50-pound sleds, the women are finding that any savings in weight makes the trek on skis that much easier. Vanity and hygiene were quickly sacrificed. "To keep the weight down, we are now all using the same hairbrush and we are taking only one tube of toothpaste per tent," said Sue. Phyllis Grummon has also brought along some jelly beans that they will eat on Easter as they depart - yet another item they will not have to carry. She also said that most of them had celebrated their upcoming departure by putting on the second of their two or three sets of clean underwear, since it will many days before they are back where luxuries such as hot showers are possible.

"Even those of us who might not like washing dishes back home are enjoying their turn in rotation on dish duty," said Sue, "because it is a chance to put your hands in hot water and enjoy the warmth and that great feeling of being clean."

In addition to coping with the neverending sunshine, the glare of the ice and the physical challenge of skiing weighed down by their supplies, the women have also found that each simple task requires step-by-step planning. With temperatures at -20 degrees Celsius, there is simply no margin for error. "When Alison (reporter Alison Korn of the Ottawa Citizen) was filing her report by satphone today, she talked about how you find yourself thinking through each step of things like brushing your teeth and which pocket do I put the toilet paper in, so that you do not have to expose your skin to the elements one second longer than necessary," said Sue.

The team is trying to move back to a 24-hour clock from the 30-hour-day schedule that they fell into without the visual cues of night and day to tell them when to sleep. They called just before noon on Saturday, April 14, which is almost midnight their time, right after finishing dinner of pasta, borscht and a compote of dried fruit in warm water, just before bedding down in their tents.

They will share their helicopter tomorrow with another team guided by Canadian Arctic Adventures, though each team will have a separate dropoff point. The Russian support teams at Ice Station Borneo maintain two helicopters and one old, large Aeroflot bi-plane with skis that seats 10 to 12 passengers. "I've never seen a bi-plane that large," said Sue, who recently completed initial pilot training herself.

Ice Station Borneo is a cosmopolitan outpost at the end of the world, where teams from the United States, Canada, England, Norway, Italy and France have recently passed through on their way to the Pole. The Parisian team, in their fashionable white and blue Russian-made tent, recently returned from what Sue called their "champagne flight" to the Pole. "We have everything from dilettantes to serious Arctic adventurers here," said Sue, whose team comes much closer to the latter than the former.

One major change is that the team will do its live Webcast from Ice Station Borneo. "For the NASA team to land at the North Pole to meet us, we would have had to try to pack down the snow so that their twin-engine Otter could land," said Sue. "We were concerned that we might not be able to provide them the landing strip they need, so they plan to arrive at Ice Station Borneo where they will await our return by helicopter after we reach True North."

The team wants to send their love to family and friends and best wishes to all who celebrate Easter and the end of Passover. They will try to send an update tomorrow, but travel may complicate that plan. We will archive this section and make it accessible at the bottom of this page when we start our daily updates anew with the first entry from Polar Trek 2001, the team's official assault on the North Pole.

04-13-01 - Ice Station Borneo - Visions of the 12 members of the Polar Trek team as isolated and alone on the desolate ice require major revision. While the team will be on its own once they launch their assault on the North Pole, the gathering at Ice Station Borneo currently includes approximately 30 Arctic adventurers, including the Italian team that plans a quick trip to the Pole by helicopter this weekend. The Italians include El Duco D'Abruzzi whose great-grandfather attempted to reach the North Pole 100 years ago. The team also includes a documentary filmmaker who captured the women of Polar Trek on tape for the Italian version of Wheel of Fortune that will air in Italy Monday night. The team will also be featured in the June issue of Italian magazine No Limits available online at http://www.nolimits.it. One of the Italians brought a seven-iron and Alison Korn took a few shots. The team was unanimous in suggesting that Alison stick to rowing.

The team admitted being bushed last night after their 12-hour ski. The continuous sunlight means that they do not get visual cues of light and dark to trigger sleep, so they have gravitated to 30-hour days. The good news is that such marathon sessions should be not necessary. But the even better news is that, if such endurance days are required, the team is ready.

Sue Carter reports that some team members have a slight case of frostbite in their fingers, with some blistering. But their tents are so warm that Frida had stripped down to her sports bra while they were giving their report via satphone. Susan Martin and Kerri Finlayson cconducted the first two conference calls to schools and also called a radio station back in Michigan today using the remarkable phones that allow such constant communication (thanks again to the U.S. Navy).

Sue said that they cannot say enough about the kindness of their Russian hosts. The Russian support team that resides at Ice Station Borneo invited the team for dinner last night in their toasty tent (it's -20 degrees Celsius outside). Among their hosts were Viktor Baransky and Wil Steiger who made an Anarctic crossing in the early 1990s. Dinner consisted of sausages with real ketchup, pears, chocolate and much-appreciated coffee. Breakfast this morning back in their own camp was oatmeal porridge, bread with cheese or butter and tea.

The team has yet to make final calculations for launch. What they will do is figure out the appropriate dropoff point to begin their ski based on how much distance they can cover in time to make their April 24 arrival target at True North. More tomorrow . . .

04-12-01 - Ice Station Borneo (latitude: 88 degrees, 22 minutes North; longitude: 88 degrees, 03 minutes East) - Today's update by satphone from Phyllis Grummon reminds us of the multiple challenges that the team faces. The continuous daylight plays havoc with normal sleep cycles, as evidenced by the fact that the women did not go to sleep the previous night until about 3 a.m., arising about noon. The challenge for the day was to do their longest ski - 12 hours to cover between 9 and 10 miles. The day started off with two "marches" north of camp, followed by six marches back to Ice Station Borneo. (Dinner was pasta twist ties with fresh veggies as well as some of that famous smoked bacon. Click here to read trekker Alison Korn's article in the Ottawa Citizen about nourishing and "moisturizing" treat.)

Challenging as well is dealing with the reality that you are on a mass of shifting ice with no underlying land mass for stability. Charting progress means relying on GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) to calculate where you are and where you want to go.

The plan now is for the team to launch their trek to the North Pole from the dropoff point on April 14 their time, April 13 ours. (To read all of trekker Alison Korn's updates from the ice, you can follow the links included in our curriculum for middle school students by clicking here.)

NASA IMAGES (posted 04-12-01) - NASA has provided stunning images of the Arctic area where the Polar Trekkers are headed. We have rendered in both large and small versions, where feasible. (The large images require a longer download and scrolling both horizontally and vertically.)

The infrared photo requires a special MrSID plug-in, available for free from LizardTech. To download and install the plug-in, click on the icon below.

Please use your Back/Return button at the top of your browser to return to this page:

04-11-01 - Ice Station Borneo - One of the Polar Trek team's highlights today was seeing a "sun dog" - a phenomenon where the sun appears to be twin suns surrounded by a circular rainbow. The team called with their update just before bedding down for the second night of their two-day excursion north of Ice Station Borneo, their last training opportunity before the official start of the trek to the North Pole on Friday.

At -28 degrees Celsius, the team is quick to confirm that it is indeed cold - some were quick to chime in "very cold." In fact, though the tents are great protection, most of the trekkers cannot sleep much beyond two hours or so before the cold rouses them from their slumber. Then they must move around a bit to warm up before they can drop off to sleep again.

The team skiied for six hours during the day before dining on chicken stew and a "marvelous" smoked Arctic fish. Diana Ciserella wanted everyone back here to know that the pressure ridges they encounter are not only magnificent but daunting. Sue Carter compared them to the huge piles of snow that you see stacked up at the edges of huge parking lots, like those snow mountains that recently melted at Meijer's Thrify Acres. The daunting part refers to the fact that each team member must traverse the pressure ridges in their path while carrying a 25- to 30-pound backpack and hauling a 45- to 50-pound sled.

Kerri Finlayson wants to assure teachers back in Michigan that the team will start making scheduled telephone calls to classrooms beginning Friday. At phone rates of $5 a minute, the team should rack up quite a bill calling all of the classrooms and TV and radio stations awaiting their personal updates.

04-10-01 - Ice Station Borneo (latitude: 88 degrees, 23 minutes, 9 seconds North, longitude: 91 degrees, 37 minutes, 19 seconds East; temperature: -30 degrees Celsius, -20 degrees Fahrenheit) - The team has indeed arrived in the land of the Midnight sun! When Sue Carter called at 11:30 p.m. their time, after the team had put in a two-hour ski, the sun was still shining. Their four-hour flight from Khatanga was the first of the season. Flying into Ice Station Borneo means landing on an ice runway that will disappear within a month (remember that there is no land underneath the Arctic polar region). In fact, a crew was repairing a huge crack in the ice landing strip while the Polar Trek team was en route to the airfield. "Absolutely stunning" is how Sue Carter describes the extreme terrain - "the ice is a mass of blues and whites, under a pristine sky." The team will camp overnight and spend the next two days training before heading to the dropoff point for the beginning of the North Pole trek on Thursday or Friday.

NEWSFLASH - ABC-News Science Editor Dr. Michael Guillen will join NASA's Dr. Kathryn Clark in greeting the team when they arrive at the North Pole. Dr. Guillen will serve as host for the Webcast. Remember to check back often for updates on the date and time, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, April 24.

04-09-01 - Khatanga - The team spent Monday skiing for 5 1/2 hours, still waiting for a break in the weather so that they fly to Ice Station Borneo, their final training and staging area. Best estimate is that they will be able to take off at 9 a.m. (Khatanga time Tuesday). Sue Carter said that the training was particularly beneficial in allowing them an opportunity to adjust their equipment, including both backpacks and sleds, as well as clothing. The evening before, a group of five local women hosted a reception for the team. Some of the local women are teachers who learned more about the online curriculum. The Polar Trekkers exchanged gifts, including some of the t-shirts they had made just before they left. Sue reports that all are in good spirits and good health, but eager to get going. The good news is that their schedule is flexible enough that they are still on target to reach the pole on Tuesday, April 24, but all are looking forward to reaching the ice station launch point.

04-08-01 - Khatanga - The plan was for the team to be in Ice Station Borneo by now, but weather at the landing site has put those plans on hold. The delay has allowed the team to taste local fare, including caribou and reindeer (no, they don't taste like chicken). They also visited the site of the uncovering of the famous Wooly Mammoth (click here for a Discovery Channel game kids can play).

On the plane to Khatanga, the team flew with scientist Bernard Buigues who unearthed the creature. The 10-foot-tall, 2-ton mammoth was buried less than five feet under the permafrost in Russia for more than 20,000 years. Apparently the upper parts of the animal had deteriorated, while the lower extremities remained frozen. The French scientist's stated goal is to use the animal's DNA to clone a mammoth today, by implanting the fertilized egg in an elephant. There are serious questions, however, whether there would be enough usable DNA for the task and there are obviously ethical concerns as well.

Also on the plane were other Arctic adventurers, including an Italian woman who has parachuted into the North Pole six times (she will be featured on an upcoming Discovery Channel special). Polar Trek participants are eager to be on their way and hope the weather at Ice Station Borneo improves soon, so that they depart. Their gear is already packed, so they are not able to start final training until they reach Ice Station Borneo. Team members wanted to make sure to send their love to their families.

04-07-01 - Khatanga - No update yesterday because the team was in transit to Khatanga, in Siberia, where the temperature was -35 degrees Celsius when they landed. Today's update is thanks to Anne-Marie Schneider, who handled messages because of a phone glitch on our end. (Thanks so much to Anne-Marie.) Khatanga serves as the staging point for the flight to Ice Station Borneo, where the team will do its final training before leaving on its x-c ski trek to the North Pole.

04-05-01- Ryazan - Sue Carter called today at 4 p.m. their time (8 a.m. EST), after the group had spent the day sightseeing in Vladimir, north of where they are staying in Ryazan. Their tour included visits to a number of churches, including the Cathedral of the Assumption. They also visited an outdoor museum at Suzdal. Sue said that the highlight of the day was talking with people, most of whom were fascinated at the idea of a dozen women cross-country skiing to the North Pole.

The day also included an equipment check, since they leave tomorrow for training in Siberia (where the time difference jumps to 12 hours). Before they depart on Friday night, the trekkers will visit a school in Ryazan where they will distribute gifts, including magazines, t-shirts and toys, provided by middle-school students in Flint, Michigan.

The women are currently using satellite telephones provided by Globalstar. Once they go out on the ice, they will use satphones provided by the U.S. Navy (Space and Warfare). Remember to check back often for updates on the live NASA Webcast from the North Pole, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, April 24. (See information below on downloading and installing the Windows Media Player software you will need to view the NASA Webast.) Also check back for updates on the group's call-in schedules for radio stations WJR and Michigan Talk Radio.

04-04-01 - Moscow - Sue Carter called today at 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time from Moscow on the satellite phone made available by Globalstar (thanks again). "It's amazing to stand here and realize that not that many years ago, our countries were threatening to blow each other up," said Sue, who was standing near a statue of Lenin outside their hotel. Everyone arrived safely in Moscow by Tuesday night and all are excited about the trek. The immediate challenge is to deal with any lingering efforts of jet lag and adjust their sleep schedule to the time change.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sue said the Polar Trekkers will leave for Ryazan, the oldest city in Russia, 200 kilometers south of Moscow, where they will spend several days. In Ryazan, they will check equipment and begin their planned training. On Friday, the group will visit a middle school, bringing gifts from American students. They leave for Khatanga Friday night and will spend three days there. Then it is off to Ice Station Borneo, the launch site for their trek to the North Pole, currently slated to begin April 12.

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.

NASA Webcast - April 24

To view the Webcast, you will need Windows Media Player on your computer - click on the icon below to download and install your free copy
Windows Media Player

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