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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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One Degree to Go!

Jun 23, 2006
overcast, whiteout, 34 F, 6 nautical miles
Day 54. For those of you who don't know us, there is supposedly only seven degrees of separation between you and someone who does. However, right now, there is only one degree of latitude separating us and the North Pole. We can't even begin to express how that makes us feel.

OK, maybe we can a little bit. Yippee, yahoo, awesome! We are so excited, elated, relieved, happy, overjoyed and glad to be here. Helping us celebrate was a seal - that's right, a seal in a lead only a hundred yards from our camp. We can't believe that we are seeing seals this far north.

Our transition to days is now complete. The result of this process: two tired explorers traveling in the same whiteout conditions. Oh well, we have better hopes for tomorrow or the next day or the next.

We spent much of the day in our usual mode. Pull the sled-canoes then paddle the sled-canoes. In fact, today we paddled across some gigantic pieces of water. It seems the closer we get to the pole the more water there is. This fact is disconcerting to us.

The snow is melting fast, too. Days of southerly winds have really changed the conditions. Today, any drifted area was as soft as it's ever been and swallowed skis and legs on several occasions. Snow covered cracks in the ice are also now a danger as we sink deeply in.

The day had a weird 'other-worldly' feel to it. Some of the small flat areas surrounded by older pressure looked like the moon. We whiled away the hours trying to imagine near weightless skiing. We are so far removed from other human life that this journey might as well be on the moon. 'Huston this is Hilleberg One. Do you copy?'

There is not a lot of drama to report, so you'll have to tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode of 'As the Explorers Ski'. Will Lonnie cook noodles for dinner? Will Eric wash the dishes with snow or leftover water from the morning's oatmeal? Only time will tell.

Just a reminder that we'll be speaking at Pacuare Lodge in Costa Rica this December. To learn more, please visit www.oneworldexpedition.com or http://www.costaricanatureadventures.com/worldexpedition/ Today's picture: the explorers getting ready for nighty-night.

Word of the day: commodious - a perfect description of the Hilleberg Hotel.

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