The Odd Couple Lonnie and Eric have known each other for years and have been on numerous expeditions together. They're great friends, which is always helpful when sharing a tent with another person for three straight months in the middle of the Arctic... Contact the Explorers! They'd love to hear from you.

A Heavy Load : Lonnie and Eric are each pulling 85 pounds of equipment and provisions over 9 miles every day.

Eric Larsen

Eric Larsen has spent his entire life in pursuit of wilderness. A dog musher, whitewater canoe guide, back country ranger, competitive cyclist and educator, he has adventured throughout northern Minnesota, the American West, Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. With training as both an educator and biologist, Eric brings a unique blend of experience to the upcoming One World Expedition. As curriculum and science coordinator for Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center, Larsen helped develop more than 60 new educational programs.

In 2002, Eric completed a 700-mile dog sled expedition in the Canadian subarctic that focused on the culture and land of the Oji-Cree people of northern Ontario. While working as education director for NOMADS Adventure and Education, he helped develop a comprehensive web site and integrated K-12 curriculum to support the expedition. Larsen also participated in a 23-day bicycle crossing of the United States. He currently holds medical training as a wilderness first responder.

Eric lives in Grand Marais, Minnesota, where he trains and races sled dogs. In March 2004, Eric placed 12th in the 400-mile John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, one of the most grueling races in North America. In his spare time, he enjoys camping, bicycling, reading and creative writing.

Lonnie Dupre

Like most polar explorers who dare to brave the unforgiving Arctic conditions for a chance to make history, Lonnie Dupre has nerves of steel. But with those nerves of steel also comes a social conscience that wants to make change in the world as much as he wants to make it into the record books.

Dupre is no stranger to polar exploration. During an Arctic career spanning 17 years, Lonnie Dupre has traveled over 13,500 miles throughout the high Arctic regions of northeastern Russia, Lapland, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. He has led five major Arctic expeditions and participated in six.

In 1992, Dupre led a 3,059-mile, 185-day trek across the Canadian Arctic, the first west-to-east crossing of the Northwest Passage via dog sled and ski. In 2001, Dupre and Australian teammate John Hoelscher completed the first circumnavigation of Greenland using dog sleds in winter and kayaks in summer. It was during this expedition that Lonnie first the idea for an expedition to expose the impacts of global warming.

“The idea for this expedition came when I was circumnavigating Greenland between 1997 and 2001 with another explorer, John Hoelscher. We came to a place where the map (dated 1982) showed that two glaciers should be jutting out a mile to sea,” said Dupre. “Not only were the glaciers no longer there, they had receded about a mile inland.”

Dupre contacted Greenpeace to become the environmental partner for what was planned to be the first summer crossing of the Arctic Ocean in 2005. A series of unexpected obstacles forced Dupre and partner Eric Larsen to abandon that attempt partway through. But the two men, and Greenpeace, are back, this time attempting the first summer expedition to the North Pole, and this time using their presence on the ice to highlight the threat that global warming poses to the Arctic’s iconic species, the polar bear.

Dupre’s spirit of adventure and innovation has been honored on many occasions. Dupre was awarded the Soviet Sportsman Medal for Arctic exploration in 1989, was elected Fellow National of the Explorers Club in 1996 and was keynote lecturer to the Fellows of the Royal Geographic Society in London upon completion of the Greenland Expedition. Most recently, he was named one of five 2004 Rolex laureates in a ceremony in Paris. The Rolex Awards for Enterprise are given every two years to provide visionary men and women worldwide with financial support and recognition to carry out innovative projects that expand human knowledge. More than 1,700 people from 117 countries applied.

He is the author of "Greenland Expedition-Where Ice is Born," which details the first 3,000 miles of the 6,500-mile circumnavigation of Greenland through journal entries and breathtaking photos. Dupre’s expeditions have been featured in Reader's Digest, Sports Illustrated, Outside and National Geographic Online.