Posted on 06/11/2005 6:26:41 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Ice was too unstable for pair to travel across)
One week after a Russian helicopter lifted them to safety off deteriorating ice on the Arctic Ocean, explorers Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen said they believe that climate change caused by global warming is breaking up the ice cap earlier than usual and would prevent anyone in the future from making an unsupported crossing of that ocean in the summer.
Dupre and Larsen, a Cedarburg native, in interviews Friday described their abbreviated 24-day expedition as one filled with "heartache" at their lack of progress combined with harrowing encounters with unstable ice and polar bears.
Larsen admitted being "scared to death" of the dangers the ice posed for most of the first two weeks of their journey, which began May 10 at Cape Arctichesky in Siberia.
"At the beginning of the trip, one of us was falling through the ice every day, sometimes up to our waist, or just a leg, or a foot, would break through," he said.
All the while, on cross-country skis or snowshoes, each of them pulled a canoe loaded with 350 pounds of equipment and food.
At times, the weight of the canoes, coupled with thin ice, made it seem like "the ice was pulling us in," Larsen said.
He eventually became comfortable enough with the routine that he could enjoy his surroundings, though.
"It's such a huge wilderness," he said. "I would go back in a heartbeat."
After 24 days, they were only 45 miles from their starting point - 1,200 miles from their destination at Ward Hunt Island, Canada - and willing to admit defeat at the hands of an earlier-than-normal breakup of arctic ice. They had planned to complete the crossing in 100 days.
Even so, Dupre and Larsen, who now live in Grand Marais, Minn., said they both plan to return to the arctic next year to become the first people to ever travel from the geographic North Pole to Greenland - half of this year's planned expedition - without the aid of dog sleds, airdrops of supplies or ships.
Such a strategy will provide a solid footing for the start of the expedition, at least, Dupre said.
Next year's trip also will enable them to continue talking publicly about the possible impacts of climate change, Larsen said.
The Arctic Council, a research group of scientists from the U.S. and Russia, has found that the arctic ice in summer already has shrunk 15% compared with its expanse 30 years ago at this time of year.
"I think we're creating awareness of global warming," he said. "I think our coming off the ice early helps to make a case that it is happening." Threats beyond the ice
Continuing to create awareness of global climate change is fraught with danger beyond thin ice.
One of the four massive bears that attempted to kill and eat the explorers was trying to break down their tent while they were inside firing flares to scare it away, Dupre said. It pounced on the tent twice, and they both got a close enough look at the predator to describe it as larger than the tent.
After four flares did not discourage it, Dupre finally drove it away by firing a .308-caliber rifle shell between its legs.
"It's quite astounding to be that close," he said. "They must have thought we were big seals and would be a great meal."
After the fourth encounter with a polar bear, Dupre feared that their stock of flares was being depleted much more quickly than he had planned.
"I told Eric we would run low of bear deterrent using two to four flares per bear."
Larsen said he gained a great deal of respect for the bears' ability to swiftly cross even the jumbled, broken-up ice floes and swim beneath open water.
Apart from the near-death confrontations with the bears, Dupre said the most dangerous day of their journey came in mid-May, when they crossed a half-mile lead, or opening, between ice floes.
"We crossed it on skis while going as fast as we could dragging the canoes behind us," he said. "Our ski pole tips would actually poke through the ice."
"As we skied across, a slight wave formed in front of us from our weight on the thin ice," he said. "We could see the ice bending and rippling. If one of us had broken through, it would have been difficult for the other to rescue him." Ice broke early
Each day was filled with the same frustrating and exhausting pattern of toil - ski or snowshoe across an ice floe, paddle canoe through a lead if the water was open, then ski or snowshoe across another ice floe.
"The polar ice broke up three to four weeks earlier than usual this year," Dupre said. The ice floes drifted south - the opposite of where the men wanted to travel.
Their goal was to become the first team ever to cross the ocean unassisted during the three months of midnight sun, when the sun remains above the horizon 24 hours a day.
After making a few miles of progress on the ice, they would rest for several hours in their tent and emerge to find that the previous day's work had been erased by the drifting ice.
"We were prepared for all the conditions," Dupre said. But not the warm temperatures in the mid-30s that broke up their travel platform, the ice.
In a normal year, polar researchers had told them, ice would drift northwest from Cape Arctichesky until mid-July.
"This year it was drifting south already in May," Dupre said.
"We couldn't out-travel this conveyor belt of ice we were in."
We're DOOMED! DOOMED, I tells ya! ;)
Be of good cheer. No doubt the world is unfolding as it should.
Article states, ""It's quite astounding to be that close," he said. "They must have thought we were big seals and would be a great meal."
Uhh, Yeah! And this is the "expert" who can confirm global warming! I wonder what he was smoking while in the wilderness.
I doubt it, I'm sure it's just that they ran out of weed.
Note to intrepid expeditioners: START EARLIER!
A little Metallica for them:
I don't know how to live through this hell
Woken up, I'm still locked in this shell
Frozen soul, frozen down to the core
Break the ice, I can't take anymore
Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm Trapped Under Ice
Crystallized, as I lay here and rest
Eyes of glass stare directly at death
From deep sleep I have broken away
No one knows, no one hears what I say
Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm Trapped Under Ice
Scream from my soul
Fate, mystified
Hell, forever more
Scream from my soul
Fate, mystified
Hell, forever more
No release from my cryonic state
What is this? I've been stricken by fate
Wrapped up tight, cannot move, can't break free
Hand of doom has a tight grip on me
Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm Trapped Under Ice
Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm Trapped Under Ice
Hmmmm -- they had planned on averaging over 12 miles a day and actually did under 2 miles a day at the beginning of the trip?? At that rate, it would've taken them almost 2 years to make the trip.
Funny, I was just there and the ice was fine.
Wasn't that the lesson of the Donner Party?
Oh, crap.
I'm sure these two are completely qualified to say their $0.01 worth about global warming.
Oh, crap.
We are DOOMED.
LVM
"Even so, Dupre and Larsen, who now live in Grand Marais, Minn., said they both plan to return to the arctic next year to become the first people to ever travel from the geographic North Pole to Greenland - half of this year's planned expedition - without the aid of dog sleds, airdrops of supplies or ships."
Well, these two will be attempting this again next year, so let's just assume that's the last we'll hear from them, LOL!
But if they're killed due to their own stupidity, I'm sure they'll end up Saints & Martyrs for "The Cause" of Global Warming. ;)
This article just totally cracked me up. It's amazing to me that they weren't killed! This reminds me of that guy and his girlfriend who were recently eaten by bears in some wildlife refuge. I can't remember his name, but it was in the last Reader's Digest.
But, but, "Wild bears is our fray-uhnds!" *Rolleyes*
I don't know what they call it nowadays, but it used to be called "Alaskan Thunderf**k".
I used to work near Grand Marais, MN. There's a lot of moonbats, new agers, and liberals of all stripes. I don't know these fellas, though.
Ouch.
"Global Warming" or "Climate Change" or " Natural Weather"...
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