Eric and Lonnie set course to change the world.
Update June 3:
Harrowing conditions cut short first summer crossing of Arctic Ocean
Early in the morning of May 10, Eric Larsen and Lonnie Dupre
took onelast look behind them, and set off slowly to the north,
toward theNorth Pole and beyond, across the treacherous Arctic
Ocean. They leftthe Arctic coast of Russia, and resigned themselves
to the fact thatthey will not see land again for at least three
months.
Ahead of them lie more than 1,200 miles of unsupported travel,
in whichthey will paddle, ski, gaff hook, man haul and slog their
way acrossone of the most inhospitable environments on Earth. If
they succeed,they will be the first people ever to complete a
summer crossing of theArctic Ocean, but their expedition means more
to them than doingsomething that nobody has ever achieved
before.
Lonnie and Eric chose to partner with Greenpeace for this trek,
withthe hope of bringing attention to the changes the Arctic region
isundergoing as a result of global warming. We leapt at the chance
toteam up with these two extraordinary men, and Project Thin Ice 2005 wasborn.
Two and a half years of planning had led to this point,
culminating ina challenging final few days of travel from Moscow to
their departurepoint at Cape Arctichesky on the Siberian coast.
Finally, afteremotional phone calls back to their loved ones in the
US, Eric andLonnie loaded up their gear and set off into a
dangerous and uncertainsummer.
Meet Lonnie and Eric
Neither Lonnie, 44, nor Eric 33, is any stranger to risky
expeditions.A dog musher, whitewater canoe guide, back country
ranger, competitivecyclist and educator, Eric has adventured
throughout the American West,Alaska and the Canadian Arctic, and in
2002 he completed a 700-mile dogsled expedition in the Canadian
subarctic. Lonnie has traversed morethan 13,500 miles throughout
the high Arctic regions of northeasternRussia, Lapland, Alaska,
Canada and Greenland. He has led five majorArctic expeditions and
participated in six.
In 1992, Lonnie led a 3,059-mile, 185-day trek across the
CanadianArctic, the first west-to-east crossing of the Northwest
Passage viadog sled and ski. In 2001, Lonnie and Australian
teammate, JohnHoelscher, completed the first circumnavigation of
Greenland using dogsleds in winter and kayaks in summer. It was
during this expeditionthat Lonnie got the idea for the One World
Expedition, a journeythrough the Arctic to expose the impacts of
global warming.
"We came to a place where the map (dated 1982) showed that two
glaciersshould be jutting out a mile to sea," says Lonnie. "Not
only were theglaciers no longer there, they had receded about a
mile inland."
The team has taken with them all of their food and gear - 325
poundsworth each - for the entire expedition. Each man will consume
6,000calories per day, so rations have been carefully planned and
calculatedfor weight, calorie content and volume. And even 6,000
calories per daywon't meet their energy needs: each man expects to
lose 20 pounds ormore on the expedition.
Arctic Hardships
There's a good reason why no one has attempted a summer crossing
of theArctic Ocean without outside support before. The polar ice
cap will bemelting, rendering the ice unstable, dangerous and
riddled with largeexpanses of frigid open water. Areas of solid ice
could be covered witha thigh-deep layer of slush, and areas of open
water could be litteredwith huge blocks of ice that hinder passage.
The Arctic is blanketed bythick fog for much of the time in summer,
limiting sight to as littleas 100 yards, making travel and
navigation difficult. Temperatures of10 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit
combined with high humidity and dampconditions lend themselves to
hypothermia, a debilitating andpotentially deadly condition.
Much of Lonnie and Eric's time has been spent pioneering
newtechnologies and techniques for handling such perilous
conditions. Theyhave modified whitewater canoes so that the canoes
can be towed onsolid ice or paddled through open water. When faced
with a mix of openwater and broken ice, they will use a technique
Lonnie pioneered inGreenland that involves a gaff hook and brute
strength to haulthemselves and their canoes through the open water
from ice floe to icefloe.
It is a perilous undertaking, to be sure, but the importance of
themessage has inspired Eric and Lonnie throughout their
preparations, andwill be motivating them in the long weeks and
months ahead.
Stand by for updates from the ice from these Arctic explorers! Find out more at the Thin Ice website.
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