Day 43: The team has passed the point where the Sverdrup expedition of 1899 had to turn around due to food shortage. Since then, only Macmillan and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) have traveled the northern coast of Axel Heiberg.
5/12/2008 :: Right now, Polar explorer and environmentalist Will Steger and a team of six 22-28-year-old explorers, including two Norwegians, are on a 1,400-mile dogsled expedition across Ellesmere Island in Canada. They will document the impact of climate change in the Canadian Arctic, an area on the frontline of attacks of global warming. For more background, click here
Read the blog below from the bottom up.
©2008 Will Steger Foundation, Ben Horton
Latest update:
Day: 43
Distance Travelled: 0 km rest day
Position: N 81° 01' W 095° 03'
The team spent the morning resting and doing all of our personal things. Writing in diaries, reading, bathing and sleeping. For the past few days they have been searching for the carin made by the Sverdrup expedition 110 years ago. (See the entry for day 40 for more info about cairns.) They found two cairns, but it is uncertain if both were made by the suveyors in the late 70's or early 80's.
Toby is feeling quite ill, and had to spend the whole day resting in his tent while the others went out to build thier own cairns.
Ben, the 24 years old photograper, has now flown in and joined the team.
Day 40: In search of the cairn
Position: N 80° 54' W 095° 24'
Distance traveled: 27.2 km / 16.9 mi
Sarah writes:
"Exactly 110 years and 3 days ago on May 5th, part of Otto Sverdrup's team traveled up this coast mapping and surveilling. They reached the location were we are now camped, where they were forced to turn around because they ran out of food. However before they turned around they built a cairn. Since then only, Macmillan and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) have traveled the northern coast of Axel Heiberg. Because of sovereignty reasons, the RCMP may have destroyed the cairn, but there is also a chance it is still here. After a great day of travel, we are just eating dinner, and will head out on ski's to scan the area in search for the cairn. The only clue we have is a passage written in Sverdrup's book."
A cairn is a mound of rough stones built as a memorial or landmark. Below is a photo of the cairn made by the Sverdrup expedition in 1899.
Day 39: "Make a difference"
Distance travelled: 40 km / 25 mi
Position: N 80° 42' W 096° 01'
Sam writes:
"What an absolutely incredible day. Waking up this morning the sun was shining bright with not a breath of wind in the air. The huge mountains beside us stood in full glory as they basked in the suns heat. It was a smooth day and traveling was so enjoyable. A welcomed break to the days past. In a way it felt as though it was our reward for working so hard the last forty days to get us to where we are now. Just off the coast of Axel Heiberg camped by an island called Bjornason.
Traveling in conditions like this gives you a real chance to take in your surroundings and appreciate where you are. It's amazing the perspective it gives you. Not only being in such an inspiring place, but being so detached from the outside world that you can look objectively on it. How people get so fixated on little things and actually miss the bigger picture. As big and powerful as this world seems it is really a fragile place. We are having an affect on the balance of this planet and could tip the scales. If people do not become more aware of their surroundings there could be big consequences. It would be a real shame to win the hearts and minds of people only to realize it is too late to make a difference. There are much larger things at stake, but on their own preserving the world's beautiful and fragile ecosystems should be enough to to something towards the cause. Places just like the Arctic in all its magnificence.
I had this thought while I was traveling from Clyde River to Igloolik last year and it may help to sum up what I mean. I like to think of the Arctic as a giant snowflake, amazing in its structure and magnificent in its beauty, but just like a snowflake when it lands on your hand, with that slight change in temperature, it will melt and be lost forever. If we all do our own small part and act like the forks that keep the snowflake intact, it will not melt and disappear, nor will other fragile ecosystems just like it.
Be a fork and do your own small part to keep this fragile place intact. Together we can make a difference."
Day 36
Position N 79° 58' W 096° 32'
Distance 25 km /15.5.mi
Sigrid writes:
"The sleds are under a lot of pressure. When we are fully loaded they weight around 750 to 800lb. We are running with sleds that are made for rough ice and heavy loads. They basically look like traditional Inuit sleds, about 4,5 meters long made out of wood. Every loose part is lashed to the sled with rope. We now and then have to tighten the ropes on the bed of the sled and the handlebars. The ropes make the sled somewhat flexible and they move nicely over the rough ice. We do flip over sometimes and we have managed to brake the handlebars on all three sleds. We patch them up with pieces off wood and rope."
"After about 10 days of running, pushing and dragging the sleds over rough ice, today we were finally able to put our skis back on. We are now camped on a flat area very close to Axel Heiberg. I am hoping to see some muskox while we are close to land, but I believe they are more in the valleys where there is more food for them to eat. The mountains that are surrounding us right now are basically covered with rocks, not much vegetation."
Day 32
Position: N 79° 14' W 096° 08
Distance Travelled: 25km / 15mi
Estimated Temperature: -18° C / -1° F
Toby writes:
"This is day 8 without skis and we are continually on these long pans of old sea ice. It is hard work as we are either running or pushing our sleds. After 9 hours of hard work and 25 km of distance we are all pretty tired. It would be great if we got a long day on skis on somewhat flat ice in the next couple of days. The coast of Axel Heiberg looks beautiful and in a couple of days we are hoping to possibly make landfall. The west coast of Axel Heiberg is known for its bad ice conditions and difficult travel. It was first travelled by the Sverdrup Expedition in 1899 who on May 5th of that year reached as far north as 80.55 degrees. As they travelled north with their dogteams they named many of the fiords and other natural features on their way."
Dogsledding - Global Warming 101 Expedition 2008
Dogsledding - Otto Sverdrup Expedition circa 1897 (New Land)
Day 30:
Position: N 78° 50' W 096° 03'
Sarah writes:
"A day away from the half way point. We took a rest day today as we thought the dogs needed a rest. We've been battling our way through this rough ice for weeks now and it takes it out of all of us. Rest days are great for catching up on personal things like writing in your diary or reading. It is also a great opportunity to clean yourself. This consists of taking a sponge and wiping your body down. It gives you a chance to check for cuts which may get infected and keep track of where your body is at, health-wise."
Day 27: The Expedition Has Reached the Remains of the Ayles Iceshelf.
Position: N 78° 38' W 095° 44
Estimated Temperature: -27°C / -16°F
Distance Travelled: 10km / 6.2 mi
Toby Thorleifsson writes:
"After 27 hard days through mostly rough ice conditions we finally made it to the remains of the Ayles Iceshelf. This of course is one of the main goals of our expedition. It was a dramatic moment when we saw the 8 meter tall ice wall of the Ayles on the horizon. We camped this evening below the edge of the iceshelf resting both the dogs and ourselves after four pretty brutal days in the roughest ice we have experienced on the trip so far. It has seemed to get more difficult everyday over the last few days. We really worked hard to get to the Ayles and we are content to witness and document this smoking gun of global warming. From the chaotic world of the rough sea ice, the world below changes drastically when you climb the 8 meters up on the iceshelf. Up there it is flat as far as the eye can see. To the northwest all we can see is iceshelf and tomorrow we will try to climb the iceshelf and cross it with our dogteams. The dogs are probably going to be as happy as we are with a days travel on flat surface. As much as it was great to get to Ayles it is also sad to witness this great iceshelf floating around in the sea destined to disintegrate. We are seeing a changing Arctic and this might only be the beginning. This experience has made a serious impact on me as a person and it has made me forever more determined to work for the preservation of this great and sublime wilderness. All good here in the High Arctic.
Only three years ago Ellesmere's coastline included a much larger Ayles Ice Shelf. However, in a matter of minutes much of this ice shelf broke off and became a floating ice island. An ice island is a large piece of floating ice, which has broken away from an Arctic ice shelf. An ice shelf is a floating ice sheet of considerable thickness showing 2 meters or more above sea level, attached to the coast. This island has now floated down to the eastern coast of Amund Ringnes island, which is where we have stopped to observe it.
This break off happened on August 13, 2005. The ice island is approximately 66 square kilometers in size, larger than Prince Rupert and British Columbia. It measures 15 km long by 5 km wide and is over 40 meters thick. The Ayles Ice Island represents the largest break-up of an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic in 30 years. It had been in place for at least 4500 years before it broke away.
The ice island calved off from the Ayles Ice Shelf because of unusually warmer temperatures and persistent offshore winds. The sea ice that normally presses along the north coast of Ellesmere Island, even in summer, was replaced by open water in the days leading up to August 13th 2005, which allowed the shelf to slip into the water and drift rapidly to the west.
The fracture of the Ayles Ice Shelf was first noticed by ice analyst Laurie Weir, of the Environment Canada's Canadian Ice Service (CIS), during routine monitoring of the eastern Arctic."
Day 26
Position N 78° 35' W 095° 24'
Distance 8 km / 4 mi
Sigrid writes:
"Another day in the fun, rough ice. We had one of our most difficult working days today, and made a very short distance. We push and drag the heavy sleds over big blocks of ice. Many beautiful ice sculptures to pass by.
It is late April, and Spring time is here in the arctic too. Nice and sunny with 24 hour light. But we cannot smell the green grass and trees, the only smell around is pretty much dog poo and bad smelling people."
Day 23 of expedition: electricity from the sun.
Distance traveled: 21.3 Km / 13.2 mi
Position. N 78° 20' W 094° 42'
Eric McNair Landry writes:
"Today was a short day but it would be difficult to 
convince my muscles of that. With fully loaded sleds it is difficult to make good distance and even more difficult to move the sleds when they get stuck on ice ridges. So far we have been lucky, we have not encountered rubble ice, for if we did at our current weight it could be crushing to the spirits of our dogs and our team members. Luckily for both we spent the last two days resting.
Another important aspect of taking a rest day is the ability to set up the our two Brunton solar panels in the more powerful noon sun light. Both panels under ideal conditions are capable of providing 104 watts of power, just enough power to run a large incandescent light bulb, or about enough power to run 6 compact florescent light bulbs. For us this power is stored in two battery packs so that we can use the energy to charge a variety of small electrical appliances when it suits our needs. Our list of electronics includes 2 iPaq PDA's , 4 iridium satellite phones, 2 video cameras, 3 photography cameras and 3 iPod shuffles. It's a lot to charge, but our system is well capable of handling the load.
Photo-voltaic cells have been in existence for a long time, although in their infancy they rarely left the laboratory as they were expensive to make and were inefficient compared to other sources of electricity. It was only later when NASA and other space programs were interested in long term power supplies that solar was taken seriously and developed into an expensive but useful technology. Later during the oil crisis in the 70s solar was again experimented with, yielding higher efficiency and lower cost of production. None the less, even today solar is one of the most expensive forms of renewable energies, and is generally only used in areas of isolation far from a grid or where maintenance cost would be high. Promising new technologies such as nano-tube tech, and more efficient production methods may make photo-voltaic electricity an important part of our future."
Sam writes:
"I just took a walk outside. What a beautiful place this is. Large boulders of frozen water surrounds us, huge mountains fill our horizon, the sun is coating everything in a beautiful tranquil color and lets not forget, we're sleeping on a frozen sea. This barren land is truly mesmerizing. I hope you can get a grasp of this place with what we share with you."
Day 22 of expedition: Adams Ayles.
Position. N 78° 10', W 094° 16'
Distance Travelled. 0km / 0 mi - Rest Day.
Toby Thorleifson says:
"Second rest day today and we are all busy doing
repairs and resting sore muscles. The dogs are being fed twice the amount they usually are and they are taking the opportunity to sleep as much as they can. Tomorrow we are heading north for the remains of the Ayles Ice shelf. The Ayles Iceshelf was named after the young Chief Petty Officer Adam Ayles who was a sled commander during the Nares expedition to northern Ellesmere in 1875 and 1876.
The Nares expedition did not use dogs but the sailors of the expedition dragged the sleds around the north coast of Ellesmere while their health slowly deteriorated due to scurvy. At 82°N 80°W, at the entrance of what was to be named the Ayles Fjord, Adam Ayles erected a cairn before the expedition had to turn back due to scurvy. In the Ayles Fjord there was an ice shelf that later was named Ayles as well. It is the remains of this ice shelf that we now have our course set towards.
After the Ayles broke loose in August 2005, a piece the size of Manhattan drifted south before it devided in two pieces north of the Ringnes Islands. Two other explorers that were important for the exploration of Northern Ellesmere were American R. Peary and M. Henson who made extensive dogsled jouneys in the area during several expeditions between 1896-1909. Like Otto Sverdrup, Peary realized the importance of the dogs to be successful in arctic exploration.
Today we are also looking at our route further north of Ayles. I am carrying with me on the expedition, a 100 year old reprinting of a map originally drawn by Otto Sverdrup. Using this map we hope to find traces or evidence of Sverdrup's expedition along the west coast of Axel Heiberg Island. I carry the map very safely with me on the sled and I only take it out in a warm and dry tent. It is with admiration that I look at the achievements of young men like Adam Ayles and all the members of the Sverdrup Expedition who for very long periods and under a lot of strain explored the region of the High Arctic that we are now in.
All is good here. We are ready to get started again tomorrow.
All my best, Toby Thorleifsson"
Saturday, April 19: a day of rest
Expedition day: 21
Position: N 78° 10' W 094° 15'
Distance traveled:0 km / 0 mi
Below is a map showing the route of the expedition around Ellesmere Island. The team has been working their way across the ice over the Norwegian Bay. "The Bay has its name from Norwegian Explorer Otto Sverdrup who between 1898 and 1902 discovered and mapped the whole area we now call the Sverdrup Islands. In addition Sverdrup and his young crew mapped most of the western part of Ellesmere Island. This explains all the Norwegian place names in this region of the high arctic.It is fantastic to enter this area with dog teams travelling in the same way as Sverdrup did 110 years ago. It is also interesting to think about that we Europeans or Americans have only known about this part of the world since 1902." Toby Thorleifsson
This saturday was a day of rest. The team received a new supply of food on Friday, after spending two days searching for an appropriate runway for the plane. After 20 days on the ice, a lazy day in the tent seemed like a blessed holiday for the team members.
Thursday, April 17
Sam Branson writes: "
It s been a long day. Getting into my tent tonight was so nice. Its amazing. In regular circum-stances, the tents we call our homes, would not be percieved as something to look forward too. They are not much longer than 7ft and about 4 ft across. With our bivy sacs in there is not much personal space. Sitting up you have to bend over so your head does not hit the roof. Leftovers from last nights dinner is stuck to the floor and frost falls from the celing. As horrible as it sounds, this tent is a mansion to us. It means warmth and a chance to get out of the bitter winds outside. It is our solace from this harsh environment and tent time is the best part of the day. It means a chance to rest!
Today was a good one. I rode on Toby's sled. His dogs are particualy exhausted so most of the morning was spent pushing the sled instead of being pulled! We set off into the rough ice with little visibility. At one point our sled fell into a wind drift and we cracked a handle. With a bit of DIY we set off again pretty fast. It was tough travelling all the way until about 2pm where we got a lucky break and found some flat ground. Even though travelling was slightly easier the wind picked up and was bitterly cold. I got my first proper ice beard. Snow drifts cover the open flats ahead which means that the plane for the resupply still can't land. Hopefully we will find a spot tomorrow. We are on the last of our supplies!"
Monday, April 14
Day 16
Position: N 77° 33', W 093° 01'
Distance Travelled: 29 km / 17 mi
Sigrid writes:
"We have travelled for over two weeks already. It
is amazing how time flies by out here on the ice. We are starting to have a good routine during the day and things are going faster. With this I mean, setting up camp, chaining out dogs, fixing skiis, pack down camp and move to the next destination.
We woke up this morning with a smile on our face watching the blue sky and sun instead of complete white. Another beautifull day on the ice.
Tobias and I have lacked a stable leader on our dogteam. One day we decided to give Skidich a try. Skidich is a shy little female who came loose in Iqaluit . No one could catch her, so she was loose for weeks. The day before we flew to Resolute we got help to catch her and by luck we were able to get a hold of her. I don't think little Skidich ever thought she was going to lead a team, scared of all people and almost all dogs. Now she is outside my tent happy and proud of being the best leader on mine and Toby's team. She plays with other dogs and she now loves for us to pet her. My little favorite dog Skidich."
Tuesday April 08 :
More ice and more polar bears
Position: N 76,04 W 093,3
Distance traveled: 14.1 km / 8.6 mi
"Out here we often feel like we are completely alone, and it was quite to Eric's surprise to turn around and see a polar bear following him only 10 meters behind. Once the bear lost interest in us and wandered away we were able to continue forward, but only for a couple km before we were stopped dead in our tracks. A dense ruble field of ice lay in front of us, with no easy way through." Sarah McNair-Landy
Thursday April 03 :
Polar bears and dangerous ice
Position: N 75,17.440
W 093,32.633
Distance traveled: 33.6 km / 20.5 mi
"After being spoiled by awsome terrain the last couple of days, we ran out of luck. Dead ahead, on the horizon, lay patches of rough ice. We managed to weave our way in and out, hugging the shore avoiding most of the bigger chunks." Sarah McNair-Landy
Ice chunks can be a great danger and the team must move carefully and at a slower pace. The ice chunks can hurt both the team members and the dogs, as well as break their sleighs. Polar bears pose another challenge for the team. The impressive teddys are paying them more frequent visits. "The last miles of the leg today we crossed polar bear tracks many times, and it was not a surprise when it paid us a little visit. It was a middle sized bear just sniffing around our camp to figure out what we were making for dinner." Sigrid Ekran
Polar bear track
The 30 dogs are doing fine. The lead dog is called Raven, and his job is strenous. "Ahead of the other dogs, he breaks the trail and keeps the momentum going picking the best path. On top of that he takes commands to start, stop or turn." Sarah McNair-Landy
Wednesday April 2:
Day 4 of the expedition
Position: N 74,59.501 W 093,24.430
Wind: blowing snow, NNW
Distance traveled: 28.1 km/17 miles
"Another great day on the ice, as we start to eat through our food and the dogs start to eat through theirs the sleds become lighter and we gain momentum. (...) A large portion of that weight is the dogs food." Eric McNair-Landry
Monday March 31:
"It was pretty cold on the face today. You have to be really careful. My nose had turned white before someone pointed it out to me. Luckily it was not deep and all was ok!" Sam Branson
Saturday March 29:
Position: N 74,38.346 W 094,43.095
Distance traveled: 2 miles
TheTeam set off in the evening, after spending the day packing the remainder of their gear. Sunday will be their first real day on the ice.
"Our first day on the ice, what a great feeling to be finally relieved of all the pre-expedition stress! No more air travel, no more business emails, no more sleepless nights. Ahead of us lies 60 amazing days, spent with 6 incredible people and 30 great dogs. This will be a journey!" Eric McNair Landry
Friday March 28
Scheduled date of departure, but due to bad weather the expedition start has been postponed to Sunday, Mach 30. Food has been carefully weighed and packed into accurate rations to last them through the 60-day-, 1,400-mile dogsled expedition to the high Arctic. The snack bags (which are what they eat throughout the day, on the move) consist of:
100g Chocolate
70g Meat
1 Cliff bar
1 Cracker bar
100g Nuts
Soup
70g Cheese
While still on training for the expedition. Photo: ©2008 Will Steger Foundation, Ben Horton