North Pole expedition

Aussie women inspire

2011-06-25T00:58:00.000-07:00

Janine Strachan is at 15,000 ft on Mt Denali. Catch her dispatch on www.Mountaintripdenali2011.wordpress.com/2011/06/24audio-post-91/

Allie Pepper made it to the top of Everest earlier this year. Read about her summit day on www.alliepepper.blogspot.com

Sent from my iPhone

2010-08-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

There are many steps to the start of a journey. By choosing this photo in Resolute I have skipped unceremoniously past the months of training before we left Australia, the years or organising, researching and planning, the month of preparing equipment and food and doing reccy trips in Iqaluit and even the flight from Iqaluit to Resolute. Sarah, rob and I are here with a number of others - all expeditioners waiting for our lift north. Our flight has been booked for the morning after we arrive - so late in the evening we are loading our sleds onto the plane so we can leave promptly when the pilot calls us in the morning. The twin otter is in a huge hangar. The space is freezing - seems colder than the outside temperature which is well below zero. There is a canopy that hangs over the plane - maybe to keep some heat in though none is being generated.

Our sleds are on board, there are tubs of food waiting back at the main airport terminal for our resupplies. We have our expedition gear on and we have one last night in a bed, and one last shower to look forward to before heading off on our adventure.

A snippet of the story of North Pole Expedition (March & April, 2010)

2010-08-21T00:11:00.000-07:00

Frosty Faces

Our arrival at the pole followed a super huge effort to cover miles so that we could reach that magical spot on the earth's surface before running out of time for the helicopter pick up. The huge effort meant that in the final four days of our trip we had only 5 hours sleep. I have never in my life had to be so focused on achieving a goal and pushing for days, weeks really, to achieve it. That push to the end dominated our experience of the second half of the journey when it became apparent that we needed to step up the pace or risk not getting there. We still managed to appreciate how the icescape was changing as we travelled further and further away from the coast. The ice pans were larger, there were more low or old ridges that were easier to cross and more leads that needed to be swum or rafted or took time for us to walk along till we came to a point where we could cross.

The sun had been below the horizon at the start of our journey, coming up as a glowing yellow ball for 20 minutes on day 3 and increasing height and time till it was in the sky for the full 24 hours, after a month had passed. The sun reduced the amount of frost in the tent, made us warmer, made it easier to see and kept us more cheerful.

There’s lots we could say but the following snippets are some things we find people usually want to know about:

• The trip took 56 days, starting on the 28th Feb and finishing on the 26th of April. As the crow flies it was 780 kms.

• As the ice drifted in front of wind or ocean currents our position moved. We mostly drifted east and south. Depressing!

• We didn't see Polar Bears but we did see seals. Just one at a time, poking their heads up through a lead and looking at us to find out what we were up to. They quickly bobbed down into the water again and disappeared.

• It was -38C when we started, we averaged about -30C and the warmest we had was about -17C. We had to worry about getting too hot when it got to -20C as we didn't want to get sweaty (sweat freezes in the clothing - not nice)

• The sleds weighed about 80 kgs. We had two resupplies of food and fuel which were parachuted in. Each of those were about 100kgs.

• It’s not hard to sleep in sunlit nights - we were so tired we could have slept through a rock concert.

• The ocean can be silent but sometimes you can hear the ice moving. It chugs, sounding a bit like a steam engine. Sometimes scraping ice makes a high pitched screeching noise too. Our travel was accompanied by The sounds of our skis and sleds moving over the snow and ice which could be quite noisy.

• We phoned Matty McNair (Sarah’s polar guide mum) daily to provide a position update and to organise the resupplies. We phoned the Australian Base Communication team daily also with an update for our website.

• We didn't suffer from frostbite or any other 'Arctic' conditions apart from a small amount of cold injury Linda had on her fingers. No digits missing or scarred noses. We lost about 10kgs weight each, even though the food was good.

• We are still talking to each other and we’re still friends with Sarah—we had a great experience of working together well as a team.

Getting organised to tell the story

2010-08-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

Rob and I have been back from the North Pole expedition now for several months. I went back to work straight away and found myself busy with voluntary commitments without a pause - though I had hoped to be able to take some reflection time before the feelings and impressions of the expedition were replaced by the humdrum of a busy urban Australian life.

We have done some talks to groups and there have been interviews on the radio, newspapers and magazines but really we are only starting to get ready now to documenting the story so we can share what it was like - in more than 30 second grabs and quick responses about polar bears and freezing conditions.

As an effort to provide some information I have written up a 'snippet' which will satisfy a small amount of curiosity. I hope to write more in coming weeks.

A North Pole map

2010-01-16T17:22:00.001-08:00

Seems even Google Earth doesn't go as far north as the north pole. You just have to imagine the flag at 90North. Shown on the map is:
Iqaluit - where we go first for training, acclimitisation and final preparations
Resolute - where we wait for the final flight
Eureka - where we put down on route if the flight can't get all the way through
Ward Hunt Island - where we are dropped off by the charter plane to start the expedition. We may be off to the left a wee way if conditions look better there.
Magnetic North Pole - not where we are going (but where the Top Gear cars went). We are going a lot further north than that. Our compasses will point towards magnetic north while we try to head true north.

View North Pole expedition in a larger map

My letter to Sam

2009-10-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

10/10/2018

Dear Sam,

My dear great, grand child, have the birds been singing today in your garden? Did you go with your mum down to the park to play?

In 2010 I had the chance to join a trip to the North Pole. I felt scared because I knew it would be so cold and very hard work. I nearly didn't do it because it was really hard work to organise the trip - but I knew the ice was melting and I thought that if I went maybe people would be interested in the trip, and maybe they would realise more about the melting ice. Maybe they would understand more about how real climate change is and how we have change how we live in order to stop things from being worse. Is there any ice left in the arctic now?

Some people did take notice. I think that over the two months it took me and the team to haul our sleds over the cold, rough ice that people who didn't already know much about what was happening took some notice because they looked at the website and they became more curious and found some information they hadn't seen before. Children in some of the schools followed the trip on the internet - and they talked to their parents about the melting ice and why it was happening. Even though the arctic is a long way from Bendigo it gave people motivation to change - little changes and big changes that in the end made a difference.

You have not met me but you might have seen some of my pictures and diaries. I hope that your Bendigo is as beautiful as mine - I have birds in my garden and parks with trees to walk through.

Linda

Dear Sam............... fundraising event

2009-10-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

When: 3rd December, 2009
Where: South Bendigo Bowling Club, Palmerston St, Bendigo
How much: $30 (entry per person in 'Scratchie Christmas Tree' draw for bookings of 5 or more)
Bookings: contact Linda on 0409 940 184

Sam is an imaginary 6 year old child living in 2040. Sam is living in the world that has been highly influenced by the way we lead our lives in 2009. This event will prompt awareness of our legacy and through the example of Linda Beilharz’s next trek - to the North Pole - encourage us to take steps to commit to change. The event raises funds for the North Pole trip and engages the public in imagining Sam's world and increasing our investment in a safe future.

You will be contributing to National history - the first Australian woman to undertake such an arduous journey to the North Pole. (and first to South and North Poles - a super feat for Bendigo)

You will also be helping Bendigo get mobilised in moving to a Beyond Carbon future. Visioning is one of the first steps alongside auditing, development of new economies and altering our lifestyles in positive ways. These steps need people to be connected to the reason for change and ideas about what changes can happen. This event will help to changes hearts as well as minds.

Decision made - the north pole expedition is on!

2009-10-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a few years in the making but Linda Beilharz has finally taken the big step of committing to a north pole expedition. Linda said " The expedition has been put off a couple of times so it's a great feeling to be able to focus on getting fully expedition fit and getting the gear sorted for what will be the hardest and most dangerous icecap expedition of all."

The expedition will start in the last week in February, 2010 after the team of three have done several weeks training together in northern Canada. We will be flown to the Northern tip of Canada as soon as the arctic winter lifts enough for a plane to land. Temperatures are expected to be between -30 and -50 degrees. We will then haul sleds for 60 days over about 800 kms of sea ice. Days will lengthen and temperatures will rise slowly but we need to get to the North Pole before the ice thins too much. It will be a race against time as we negotiate ice ridges, leads of water and challenging weather and snow conditions to reach the North Pole while helicopters can still land on the ice.

If successful Linda will become the first Australian woman to have skied from the edge of the land to the North Pole, and the first to have done the same trip to the north and south poles.

Before the trip gets started the biggest challenge is always financial - and in a time of financial downturn there is less available to fund trips like this. Because she is so passionate about going Linda is taking the step of raising the money herself. "It means I'll have to keep working till I'm 80 to pay off the loan - but it will be worth it" Linda said. "I will be inviting the Bendigo community to support my efforts, by holding a fundraising event in early December to take a bit of the pressure off."

The expedition will raise awareness of environmental issues and will encourage people to learn about climate change, resilience and team work. These themes have formed the basis of what Linda talks about in schools in relation to previous expeditions across the Antarctic, Greenland and Patagonia.

for further information: http://www.antonyjinman.com/news/the-science-behind-antony-s-north-pole-2010-expedition

How dangerous is it?

2009-10-22T03:54:00.001-07:00

Is it more dangerous to spend time on an expedition in a wild, remote and hostile place? Is it more likely that injury, illness, misfortune or death will occur? It probably is more dangerous. There are hazards like crevasses and avalanches, rocky, loose scree slopes, a slip on an icy slope, possible loss of gear from sleds if they tipover, the problem of clothing being wet and frozen, possible hypothermia and frostbite and the inevitable delays as clothing is dried. There are other hazards like falling and spraining a knee or bruising an elbow or breaking a ski. It is likely that some less serious injuries or breakages will occur. We may not find our route easily as we ascend the Jorge Montt glacier and we may have to deal with finding our way in white out conditions at times when the ground is not predictably safe. The consequence of a small accident is much greater than it would be at home because help is less readily available and it’s harder to get comfortable in order to wait for healing or repairs to occur. I don’t think however that it is more likely that we will suffer any misfortune. Each time I’ve been away on long expeditions I’ve come home to find out that there have been incidents at home while we’ve been away – a friend who broke ribs falling off a ladder, another friend had a car accident. Every month there is news about another person in the local community who is diagnosed with an illness or experiences some other difficulty in their lives. It seems that no matter where you are or how safely you try to live your life that illness and accidents happen or that relationships change or go through tough times. Going on an expedition doesn’t seem to make it more likely that something will happen. In fact the expedition has such a strong focus on thinking about the risks and making plans about what to do if something happens that it could possibly be safer.

A journey always begins with a first step

2009-03-22T23:21:00.000-07:00

About 4 years ago I set myself a goal - to do a significant journey to each of the world's four icecaps. I had given myself a taster of doing one - a 56 day journey to the South Pole. It was a huge journey and a wonderful one.

Many people think that doing a self contained, non motorised ski trip in the Antarctic would change me. I didn't feel then that it had, though it had certainly added a new script to my life - First Australian Woman...., Icy pole Lady....., that mad woman who........ (Those are just a few of the many thoughts others have about me or the trip.)

What has changed me more is the journey to complete the goal that was subsequently set - to do three more amazing trips. This journey is hard - to organise these trips takes years, to raise enough money seems impossible. The process impacts on relationships with friends, partner, family. It requires creating and maintaining a public profile. It leaves no space for other goals. This journey has me questioning 'why?' - though I know that when I get back out on the ice again I'll know why.

I feel a long way off achieving the goal - but hope that with determination I will get there. I need help - from people who can do bits of the organising better than I can, from people who know how to raise funds. More than anything else I need to show that I believe it can be done - because without that conviction it won't happen. There are many steps to take but with this blog I am one more step along the way.