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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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Life on the Ice


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Half Way Birthday

Jun 01, 2006
rainy, overcast, 27 F, 10 nautical miles
Day 32. Raindrops keep falling on our heads. Raindrops keep falling on our heads and coating our glasses as well as the entire right side of our bodies with ice.

Despite the inclement weather we made great northerly and westerly progress. The ice has once again shown us a new side and we are starting to encounter more large cracks with less brash ice in them. In fact, we had to catamaran the boats five times today.

Paddling across one of the larger leads seemed a lot like being on a lake canoeing back home in Minnesota - except for all the snow and ice, of course.

Part of our research for NSIDC is to measure the freeboard (height above waterline) of the ice at a lead during the day. The process is easy - we just use a ski pole that has a thin meter tape stuck to it. Hopefully, this information can be used to better determine how much the Arctic sea ice is thinning.

As of Day 31, we are 244.2 statute (normal miles) or 212 nautical miles from Cape Discovery (our starting point), and we are 235.8 statute/204.6 nautical miles from the Pole. Pretty exciting if you ask us.

News of the weird: Lonnie's boots have picked up the distinct odor of sour milk. We've done the smell comparison and only Lonnie's boots seem to produce this olfactory mystery.

News of the aging: Eric celebrated his 35th birthday today. There are a few gray hairs (2-5 ONLY) now. No big celebration except for the notable exception of an extra, you guessed it, Clif bar.

Word of the day: redolent - Lon's boots the reminiscence of good milk gone bad.

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