Supporting Epilepsy Action Blog

Training for the Magnetic North Pole

So the decision has been made!  In 2010 I shall be part of a 12 strong mixed-gender team attempting to walk unsupported from Resolute on Cornwallis Island, 360 nautical miles to the 1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole.

As the Magnetic North Pole moves around a lot of the years and decades, its position is constantly changing.  The 1996 was surveyed and established, and since then has become the goal for the Polar Race, and subsequent to that the Polar Challenge, amongst other Expeditions.

This was not a decision for me to be taken likely.  The temperatures are likely to be down to -50C and below with windchill, we'll be walking across sea-ice on an Expedition which could take up to 30 days (and nights), pulling all of our equipment, food and fuel by man-power alone, in a hostile environment home to 80% of the world's Polar Bears.

But the decision has been made, and this weekend in January, we were back to Ogmore in South Wales meeting the team, and practicing with the kit we'll be using.

Half of the Expedition is made up of people who succeeded with me on Baffin Island in 2008, and it's great to be heading back to the ice with them!