Slashdot Mirror
3-Man Team Begins Ice-Survey Trek To the North Pole
Hugh Pickens writes "Satellites have shown how the Arctic sea-ice has been shrinking in recent years, but a three-man scientific team making an expedition to the North Pole should give scientists a better idea of how thin the ice is becoming. 'We're making the surface journey because that's the only way we have of gathering these direct observations of how thick the snow and the ice is,' said team leader Pen Hadow, who in 2003 became the first person to trek solo and without support from Canada to the North Pole. 'That's what the scientists really need to know.' There is more at stake for the British team than achieving some invented personal goal: 'The journey's going to be about 700 miles in distance, taking about three months,' said Hadow. 'In the earlier phases, the temperatures are about minus 50 degrees ... And we're towing sledges with our camping equipment and our survey equipment — almost twice our body weights — for most of the distance.'"
"Arctic ice modeler Wieslaw Maslowski, a science adviser to the survey, hopes the data gathered during the journey will enable him to refine his forecast of when the first ice-free summer might arrive. 'According to our studies, it's very likely that if this current trend of ice decline based on the last decade or so continues, or accelerates, the ice might be almost gone in summer sometime between 2010 and 2016.'"
yea lemme know when NY gets it's first winter with no snow at all, then i might move back.
When you can drive? If this is urgent information, shouldn't they use the appropriate means to gather it in about three days instead of three months?
...we know the ice is too thin.
Santa Claus was unavailable for comment.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Top Gear has shown it's possible. If the goal is science, not "because we can", not taking three months would be a bonus.
I thought sattelite data showed the area covered by ice had remained quite steady over the last few years? Can someone link to the previous case?
Also, how will a three man team on the ground gain sensible data on whether the ice is 1 or 2 km thick?
Why don't they fly out there, measure the ice, fly back? Surely there are long range choppers that can fly more than 700 miles? Oh wait, they are British, that wouldn't be manly enough for them...
They could always try a ballon voyage. Might move them a little faster.
When you can sail?
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
According to the NSIDC, Arctic ice extent is almost back to the 1979-2000 mean (within 1 standard deviation), so I'm not too sure what all the fuss is about. Exclusive: "Scientists go on long walk".
Polar Ice Trends
I'm on my way to the North Pole on a similar expedition, which is starting today. We're taking a twin otter to Eureka, refueling, and then flying out to Ward Hunt Island. We should be on the Ice tonight. The trek (on skis) is about 60 days, the first 10-20 of which are in relative darkness 24/7. We will be towing 160KG sleds that house all our equipment and food for 30 days. The sleds float as the ice oftentimes cracks, and we have to swim across open leads. Last year, I did the same with the South Pole, starting at Hercules Inlet and skiing all the way up to the South Pole. I blogged live from there, and am blogging live on this journey. This will be the last of my 3 poles challenge (Everest, South, North), and is by far the most difficult and dangerous. If we don't contact anyone in 72 hours, planes are sent out to find us - if ever. Check it out at: www.TheThreePoles.com --Maxime Chaya-- Lebanese Seven Summiteer
Are these guys pain junkies! Why not get choppered there and get dropped of with all your equipment and get picked up when they are done? Dude this is the 21st century! People fly to the Pole for lunch there days.
The crew from Top Gear made it in a Truck, The Toyota Hilex a few years ago... Well, i should say that Clarkson and May made it in the truck... Hammond made it via DogSled.
Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
As far as I know, the Arctic is a pretty deep ocean, why not survey the ice from the bottom?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Unlike a car, you don't have to worry about fuel, and you can still cover 50 miles per day. Plus, snowkites have the ability to jump over crevices motorized vehicles can't cross.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
That's 9-13 hrs/day. With the rest spent trying not to die.
Realistically, I would expect them to travel as far as they can in a given day. If they manage 20 miles in a single day, great, they just got a little bit ahead so when bad things happen on those days they barely make 1 mile, they'll still be okay.
Of course, I could read the article and find out if they address this, but (this being slashdot) I won't.
I didn't realize Ann Daniels was a man. Shouldn't the title be "3-person team"?
...whether they find any ice, but whether they find any gin.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
We didn't listen!
Eric Philips is a pioneer of using Quadrifoils in icecap crossings. In 2002, with fellow explorer Jon Muir, he walked/kited from Russian territory to the North Pole.
you had me at #!
Good luck and better skill on your expedition, I'll be following your blog!
Iridium Satellite Phone
HP iPaq PDA
Ricoh Digital Camera
Canon G10 Digital Camera
Solar Power Packs (useless for the first 4 weeks (no sun))
Lithium Batteries
12V battery pack
most of the above must be kept next to my body for wamth as none of it is rated at -60 C
--Maxime Chaya--
takes 10 minutes to send a 50-100KB image file :)
According to the Global Warming scientits, all of the ice at the north pole melted last year! This was proof that global warming exists, and is caused by man. Unless it didn't melt, which then proves that Global Warming is a major threat, which is caused by man.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
some photos of what we ate during the South Pole expedition
30 days food is not enough for a 60 day trek.
Your blog says you leave tomorrow, hopefully it isn't too late.
3/4 way through the expedition, i had lost most of my body fat. i was eating through my own muscle tissue, and became severely ill and weak. i had to increase my calorie intake to 10000 calories in order to start moving again, which was a risk i had to take (increase intake and risk finishing all the food before making it to our destination).
one thing i hadn't done for the south pole expedition was to gain weight. you're supposed to go up to 25% fat in body mass. i was down at around 10%. that extra 15% would have given me the extra energy reserves that i needed.
this time around i managed to get myself up to 15% but i got too nauseous to take on more...
this is what i looked like before i became ill
you could always use one of these. The NS Arktika has visited the North Pole before. Should it encounter ice too thick to break through, they could just crank up the engines and push the ice shelf out of the way...
You can see it from space, and I don't mean the space between Algore's ears!
This is just a publicity stunt. If you sent a nuclear submarine with a top mounted sonar, you could put together a very detailed picture of the underside of the ice and fairly quickly. In fact, given the tendency of major powers to hide their ballistic submarines under the ice, I'd be shocked if those maps didn't exist already.
This is my sig.
Some guys want to hike to north pole, use Ice Survey as excuse for funding.
Why don't they use an amphibious vehicle, powered by a diesel engine?
Geezzzussss, some people just have to be 'right' no matter what.
You called the article BS and implied the OP was gullible. You were then corrected by an informative post from someone who has actually done something similar. Continuing to defend your position with all sorts of irrelevant arguments is just plain arrogance.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
They're intending to prove the ice is thin. Is that how science is supposed to be done? Hire people to go do the job and don't tell them what you are testing. Tell them you're testing the survival suits and drills.
Parent AC is a climate troll, possibly George Will from the WSJ, but who knows.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
The Top Gear team was able to make it to the north pole in a large Jeep. And they needed way less than 3 months. They had one guy with a dog sled, and two with the Jeep. The dog sled had obviously huge deficits.
And hell, take a big tank of fuel with you, and use a helicopter. Or something else that can land vertically.
Some people just make it harder to themselves than they have to.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
So we'll know if the ice is too thin by whether or not they return? ;)
J