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Polar Explorers Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen send daily dispatches during their unprecedented four-month journey to the North Pole and back. The expedition team will pull and paddle specially modified canoes across nearly 1,000 miles of shifting sea ice and open ocean. Their objective is to complete the first ever summer expedition to the North Pole and to highlight the growing issues surrounding global warming.
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Moving Forward

May 07, 2006
sunny, 5 F
Today started out hard, got worse, made a nice comeback, then ended OK. You would think, after preparing, planning and training for almost four years for the first summer expedition to the North Pole, that nothing out here would faze us. Well, we wish we could say that were true.

The morning started with some treacherous skiing across some fairly large cracks. Looking three feet down at a watery lead is nerve-wracking on a good day. Trying to cross the yawning gap with skis slipping on ice chunks and a canoe-sled pulling us back or running us over requires a resolve that stems from one simple truth: the only way out of here is to keep moving forward.

Or a bit east or west depending on where the flattest ice lay.

We followed the good side (somewhat flat) of a long pressure ridge and lead to the north east for some of the day. It eventually brought us into an area of fractured slabs. A few were pushing into each other as well. They looked like icy puzzle pieces. After scouting some alternative routes we finally decided to catamaran the boats to cross a small lead.

By last year's standards it was an easy crossing, yet we were both noticeably nervous. Why, we had done this exact procedure a hundred times.

We are still settling into this place. It is so vast and so huge that our small expedition seems so insignificant. We could easily die in several different ways each day. But we know this as well, so we ski and snowshoe carefully. We scout leads, discuss options and listen always, to our nerves.

We had a great travel day, covering 5.20 nautical miles.

Word of the day: castaway - we are far away from all our friends and family, we have to improvise to fix broken gear and use our resources carefully (we only have so many Clif bars). But as you may have already noted, we have not exactly ended up on a tropical island.

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