The North Pole. 2023.
Skiing to the North Pole was one of the dreams I had when Johan Ivarsson and I reached Ambarchik Bay 2005. If we had continued another 2000 km north-west we would have made it. I remember when I took this first picture of Johan heading North I felt a little bit scared. From here to the North Pole there was nothing but ice. No land. It was the same route that our friend Dmitry Shparo and his team took. In the year of 1979 . They might have been the first ones to reach the North Pole. Certainly not Robert Peary.
Almost 20 years later I am finally turning my eyes toward the North Pole. But first a crossing of the Greenland Icecap. Right now I am spending a major part of my time dealing and wheeling to get both Expeditions onboard. Just finding the right equipment is a huge task. And selling your idea so one can fund an Expedition. It is a task demanding 40 hour weeks. Having said that, I love it!
But why now? I believe a lot of folks just don´t get it. The fact that our life, earth, it is technically just a very succesful experience. It can end any day. So there´s no time to loose. Just live your dreams. In a 100 years nobody will remember us any way. For me Covid-19 has made this fact even more clear to me. Live life to its fullest. Live your dreams, small or big, as much as you can.
For those of you who haven´t seen the film Minus 76 degrees, see it here https://vimeo.com/451752697 and do share it!
An article in Explorers Journal about the Expedition here
These photos of Johan Ivarsson and I skiing the last distance from Cherski to Ambarchik Bay have never been published before. I got the idea to write this after reading this article in the Economist. An article about Sergei Zimov and his Pleistocene Park in the area. I wanted to write about our meeting with him and his wife Galina. But we took no photos. I remember Sergei was upset with us because we didn´t stay with him. He had set up a cabin for us. Local politics made that impossible. Unfortunately. He was quite a character!
Read this fantastic article here
