More recent technologies – ones that we take for granted – have also now become mainstream in polar adventuring. Lightweight iridium satellite telephones have superseded bulky radios, giving adventurers instant access to the world, and the internet. Expedition news is channelled to popular news and tracking websites, giving polar hopefuls enough information and inspiration to leap from their armchairs and into their polar fleeces.
To cater for this burgeoning market, experienced polar adventurers – including specialists in North and South Pole treks – are turning their hands to guiding. Although well established on the world's mountains, guiding the public on ski or dogsled expeditions to the poles is comparatively new. These trips serve as an introduction to the world of polar expeditioning, as training towards more serious undertakings, or simply as ‘peak-bagging’ exercises. Full-length guided expeditions, from a coastline to a pole, are less common but on the increase; and very recently élite guides have begun leading a ski trek from Canada to the North Pole, the ‘K2’ of polar expeditions. This most gruelling of treks was once the domain of professional adventurers, but now paying customers can simply hire a guide and have a go.
One upshot of this emerging industry is a desire among guides to standardise guiding practices, encourage professional conduct throughout the entire polar guiding process, and endorse those dedicated few who make it their profession. In April 2010 a meeting of the world's pre-eminent polar guides was held in Longyearbyen, Norway, to discuss the formation of an international polar guides association. This body hopes to set a paradigm that emerging guides can aspire to with the knowledge that they will be among the elite of polar travellers. But in order to become an endorsed guide, the polar adventurer will first have to rack up an impressive personal history of Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, by and large following the widely accepted model outlined in this book.
The polar regions are changing dramatically as a result of climate warming. Increased summer melt-water on the surface of Greenland's glaciers makes its way to their underbellies, lubricating the rock/ice interface and speeding glacial flow. Greenland's mass balance is out of whack; more icebergs calve into the sea than snow falls onto its ice-cap. Greenland is liquefying and the melt is contributing to sea level rise. Looking further north, in the short ten years I've been skiing on the Arctic Ocean I have witnessed changes: more first-year ice, thinner pack, a greater frequency of storms. It doesn't bode well.
Turning south, the colossal ice-cap of East Antarctica is almost unchanged, but the Antarctic Peninsula is transforming dramatically – receding glaciers, declining sea ice, summer temperatures rarely dropping below freezing, diminishing Adelie penguin numbers, grass and moss growth on hills.
Climate change has brought the polar regions a notch forward in our collective consciousness, the irony being that more interest leads to more activity. Fortunately a robust nationally administered permit system, in Antarctica at least, coupled with the world-class environmental ethics and practices of various organisations, puts environmental consciousness and responsibility squarely in the hands of the user.
The visual splendour of a so-called monochrome environment destroys the myth of the poles as simply frozen deserts
A re-vamped branch of polar expeditioning has emerged in recent years. Cars! Heavily modified by Icelandic specialists, 6×6 vehicles are now making their way across the ice to the South Pole (and soon enough to the North Pole), covering hundreds of kilometres a day in heated luxury. Being the first to attempt the use of cars on a South Pole expedition, somewhat unsuccessfully, Shackleton would be somewhat gratified to know that, a century later, his idea is bearing fruit. How the traditionalist trekker views such a development is another matter. Does it belittle or heighten the achievements of a skier travelling at 3km/h? A small band of specialist adventurers are striving to redress the daily-distance balance, using steerable kites to harness the wind and covering distances in hours that would take the traditional sled-hauler weeks.
Modern man has forgotten the art of survival
There are myriad ways and means of reaching the North and South Poles. Irrespective of your field of interest, if it's to the ends of the Earth you want to travel, then there are pages within this book that you must read. If you are setting off on skis and towing a sled behind you, then read it from cover to cover.
You may be a guide, a client, a private adventurer, a scientist or researcher, a government administrator or station worker. Whoever you are, you have this book in your hands because of factors – time, circumstance, technology, media, climate – that have never before converged. The modern North and South Pole adventurer lives in exciting and daunting times: who knows what the future will bring? The trick is finding a happy and sustainable medium between the desires of the enthusiast and the needs of the environment.
Polar travel is my lifeblood. It is the lifeblood of Dixie Dansercoer and of dozens of others fortunate enough to have travelled the ice as we have. We know its arcane attractions, its secret allures, and feel fortunate that not everyone cares to discover them. To those who take the time to uncover the mysteries – go well, tread lightly, confront the challenge, and prepare to be astonished by the surreal beauty of the poles.
Eric Phillips, President of the International Polar Guides Association (IPGA)
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
Ever-increasing coverage in the press and on television, for the enthusiastic consumption of armchair adventurers, have made active polar travel seem more and more accessible. The number of people travelling to the polar regions has been on the rise over the last few years – just as trekking and mountaineering in the Himalayas has grown at a great rate over recent decades – and the demand for practical information has increased correspondingly. It has so far been met by a few publications such as Lonely Planet's extensive guides, and maps detailing every square kilometre, all readily available in the bookshops. You can even order them online and see them drop through your letterbox a couple of days later.
The reality of polar travel is a whole different story. All polar literature – from the many heroic expeditions that satisfied nationalistic pride, commerce and (only later) science through to modern-day exploits – feeds our natural curiosity. The inquisitive streak in every human being pushes them towards the unknown. But even though it seems as if nothing has been left undiscovered there still is a huge difference between the armchair adventurer and the inquisitive traveller who wants to be submersed in the ‘real thing’. There is a real danger in the decreasing gap between ‘knowing’ (from television programmes) and ‘understanding’ (by physically experiencing the intensity of the outdoors). It would be foolish to claim to have acquired experience by watching a documentary, reading a book, attending a lecture by a polar explorer or spending a couple of days in the cold with all the comforts of modern-day life nearby.
While guiding groups to the polar regions, I have seen the normal reactions of those unused to the harshness of the cold or the whipping anger of the katabatic winds, and have reflected on what the goal of polar expeditions should be. We all have our own reasons to go out there, but being completely at ease in testing conditions can only come with many years of experience. Before you can afford to be so relaxed, however, and actually appreciate the beauty of a storm or the ability to survive in inhuman temperatures, you need to have everything under control and functioning smoothly. And that can only be achieved by assimilating a large amount of knowledge through gradual immersion and progression through the frozen world.
In this book I offer a solid foundation for those wanting to invest time and energy in the tedious preparations necessary to feel at ease in the very difficult and sometimes aggressive polar environment. If you are properly prepared you will know how to cope with a blizzard or the danger