2008 North Pole Champagne Flight Blog

Polar Explorers has several variations of Champagne Flights to the North Pole this year. Some guests are participating in the Expeditionary Champagne Flight which includes one night at basecamp Borneo (see update from April 10). Others are taking part in a special version of the Night at the North Pole Champagne Flight. This program includes one night at Borneo, skiing a short distance to the North Pole and overnighting at the North Pole (1st update on April 11). Then we have the standard Champagne Flight involving the flight from Longyearbyen to Borneo, helicopter flight to the North Pole, returning to Borneo and then back to Longyearbyen all in one day (1st update April 11). As you can see, if you are interested in any type of adventure to the North Pole, we have quite an array of options. Just give us a call or send an email and we'll find the right one for you!

April 12: Special Night at the North Pole Champagne Flight
The team left Borneo by helicopter and put down on the ice at 1:00 PM. It was another beautiful day with lots of sunshine, good visibility and great ice conditions. Temperature was -23 to -26 C (-10 to -15 F), light winds from the northwest leading to a slight southerly drift. They made great progress covering 10 km (5.4 nautical miles) in less than 4 hours and reached the North Pole. Those familiar with Arctic travel know that this is a great pace! They made camp and enjoyed a 6 course meal replete with spicy Szechwan soup. They look forward to a good sleep and flight back to Longyearbyen late tomorrow afternoon. Click below for full details (in English this time).

April 11: Special Night at the North Pole Champagne Flight
Rick Sweitzer, Cao Jun and their intrepid team of explorers from China (Li Xing, Yu Liang, Liu Aiming, Zhang Yundong, Wan Jie and Li Zhenfu) arrived at Borneo today. The position of Borneo is currently 88 19.88 degrees North, 14.08 degrees East. They report perfect weather with light winds out of the south (hopefully this will continue, giving them a slight push northward). They have full sunshine and excellent visibility. Temperature is around -10 F (-23 C).
They left Longyearbyen exactly on time this morning at 10:00 AM and arrived in Borneo around noon. The plane was quite full with 32 passengers on a variety of different expeditions. Borneo camp is in great shape. It was great to see many friends up there and they were glad to see our teams back this year. The team went out for a practice ski this afternoon and look forward to their days ahead skiing to the Pole.
Click the button below for our first audio updates in Chinese! The first has an intro from Rick in English followed by updates in Chinese from the team.

April 11: Standard Champagne Flight
Chris Maher and his team of Kris Bunya (Los Altos, CA), Jurgen and Rosa Buchholz (Barcelona, Spain), Bonnie Wade and Ann Pescatello (Berkeley, CA) flew from Longyearbyen to Borneo this morning. They had a chance to explore the camp at Borneo for a bit as they awaited the charter helicopter. They then flew to the North Pole and had absolutely fabulous weather for the experience. They will be flying back to Borneo and then directly back to Longyearbyen.
Click below to hear what it’s like to stand at the top of the world!

April 10: Expeditionary Champagne Flight
Chris Maher, Peter Roe and Victoria Forrest (North Yorkshire, UK) arrived at the North Pole today at 4:15 PM Longyearbyen time by charter helicopter. They were greeted with calm winds, unlimited visibility, clear blue skies and cold temperatures (-20 C; -4 F). After traveling with the dogsled team on the charter plane to Borneo, Chris and the team boarded the MI 8 helicopter for the 1.5 hour flight to the North Pole. Along the way, they picked up 2 ski expedition teams from various countries. After their celebrations at the North Pole, they returned to Borneo where they will spend the night snowshoeing, skiing, playing a few rounds of golf and enjoying the frozen Arctic Ocean.

All told between the members of the dogsled expedition team, champagne flight guests overnighting at Borneo, expeditionary champagne flight guests skidooing to TempleFjorden and Barentsberg, Polar Explorers has 20 people currently enjoying the Arctic wonderland.