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Wilmette Beacon (February 1, 2012)
Wilmette Explorers Witness South Pole Centennial
There's white and then nothing.
Snow and ice forever. The only thing welcoming you is the sun, the bright dictator ruling the land from a seemingly unmoving perch on high.
It decides when you can visit, its glow blinding off the endless bed of white, but still warm enough for survival.
It's negative 30 degrees, you're 9,000 feet in the air and it's the driest place in the world here at the Earth's bottom.
Welcome, to the South Pole.
Wilmette's Rick Sweitzer, 57, was lying motionless in a hole in the frozen ground.
Not to worry, though, Sweitzer chose this sleeping arrangement occasionally during the 56-day trek from Antarctica's coast to the South Pole.
"I dug a trench about this deep," Sweitzer said holding his hands about two feet apart sitting in a computer chair in his company's Wilmette office. "I have a down sleeping bag. For me, it's the most comfortable sleep of the year."
Sweitzer, along with fellow guide Dirk Jensen, also of Wilmette, led a group of 16 amateur adventurers to the southern most tip of the planet on behalf of PolarExlorers.
It took nearly two months and 700-plus miles of cross-country skiing, but this expedition had a mission larger than just general sight-seeing.
This trip was to celebrate the spirit, history and importance of all exploration as Sweitzer and crew descended upon the South Pole on Dec. 14, 2011, 100 years to the day after Roland Amundsen and his team, the first humans to reach to bottom of the world, did the same.
The group, consisting of adventurers from all over the world, converged with hundreds of others ready to take in the moment.
"They had a ceremony and it was a very moving moment," Sweitzer said. "The Norwegian Prime Minister [Jens Stoltenberg] spoke and Amundsen was there in spirit. It was quite a touching moment, especially for those in our industry."
The South Pole may be an adventurer's goal, but it isn't often visited.
Sweitzer said the amount of travelers who've been there is "countable on one page," but after the centennial year it would have to be a "very long page." He added there are usually about three total expeditions to the pole each year. In 2011, there were 20-plus.
At the actual South Pole, which is 90 degrees latitude, there is a small sign to mark the spot. That sign is moved slightly each year to compensate for the gradually moving ice.
The sign recognizes not only Amundsen's arrival, but also Robert Falcon Scott's. The British Scott was on his second expedition to Antarctica, and in a polar race with Amundsen.
Scott and his four companions made the Pole on Jan. 12, 1917, 34 days after Amundsen. Unfortunately, Scott and his mates perished on the return trip; however, Scott's arrival date is also revered and celebrated in the world of exploration, especially in Great Britain.
Not far from the actual South Pole is the ceremonial South Pole, where a metallic sphere sits atop a striped pole and is surrounded by the flags of the 49 countries, including the United States, involved in the Antarctic Treaty.
Here, at the ceremonial spot, pictures were taken and heated visitation centers were set up for guests to eat, socialize and celebrate the centennial.
"It was a pretty big deal and very successful," Sweitzer said. "It's a very big deal in England and Norwegian. And there you all are, right there, at the bottom of the world."
The start of new territory
Sweitzer and company comrade Annie Aggens grew up in Wilmette at different times, but with similar life philosophies.
The back roads and beaches of the North Shore could only contain them for so long. They each had the spirit of an explorer.
"From a young age I had a passion for the unknown," Sweitzer said. "I grew up thinking if I could think it, I could do it."
Aggens, a 1988 graduate of North Shore Country Day School, began doing multi-day trips at a young age.
At 9, she would go on overnights for four days, which soon turned into 10-day trips, and by the time she was in college, Aggens would take off for 50 nights at a time.
"It just appealed to me," she said. "Then, the further North I went, the more interested I was.
"Luckily, I had very adventurous parents, who supported my dreams instead of holding me back."
Aggens had to skip December's trip to the South Pole, however. Of course, she wasn't too mad to be taking care of her 8-month-old daughter, Piper Hearne Aggens Jensen, who is partially named after English explorer Samuel Hearne.
Her husband, Dirk, returned with dozens of photos.
Aggens joined PolarExplorers in 1997, and has made trips to both the South and North Poles, as well as dozens of other locales with the globetrotting Wilmette-based adventure company.
PolarExplorers is an offshoot of Northwest Passage, 1130 Greenleaf, which was founded in 1983 by Sweitzer.
As a full organization, Sweitzer, Aggens and company offer adventure trips to places all over the world, including Greece, Ireland and Mt. Kilimanjaro. It also plans local trips, like a kayaking adventure in Devil's Lake, Wisc.
And in the summer, you can find Sweitzer and his qualified band of trainers kayaking at Gillson Beach or the Skokie Lagoons.
PolarExplorers was officially founded in the early 1990s, with the first official trip to the North Pole taking place in 1993. Since then, it has led 40-plus expeditions to the poles.
PolarExplorers also led a group to the North Pole for its centennial, which was April 4, 2009, 100 years after it was first reached by Americans Robert Perey and Matthew Henson, and four Inuit men.
Sweitzer said only about 10 people in the world were at both the South and North Pole centennials, and all 10 were with PolarExplorers.
Where do I sign up?
PolarExplorers expeditions are initially open to anyone. Of course, not everyone has the resources to participate in the lucrative travels.
Not only do you have to spend four or five days training in the bitter cold of Ely, Minn., but predictably, the expeditions don't come cheap.
It is a global business, and thus prices on the website are in Euros, but for a full trip to the South Pole one can expect to pay around $50,000. Some trips PolarExplorers offers are far less, and some are much more.
Northwest Passage offers a variety of expeditions that hold a wide range of price tags.
Leaders of the training exercises in Minnesota take potential explorers through everything they may face while skiing on ice and snow in the pole, like the universal nightmare of falling into freezing waters.
"It's not infrequent that people go through the ice," Sweitzer said. "The truth is, it happens. I've seen it multiple times."
He added it's not as bad as your nightmares: "Your instincts take over; you get out of the water."
Cracks or rips in the ice are a danger in the North Pole, which lies on the Arctic Ocean, and is essentially a large sheet of ice moving with the aggressive waters.
The South Pole, on the other hand, is on Antarctica, a large land mass. Thus, the land is impervious to such quick changes in geography.
There are more than cold waters to fear, however. Temperatures are very low, and things like hypothermia and frostbite come into play.
The training trip covers all these and then some.
"The key is have an awareness of what's going on in your body," said Aggens, who is one of the company's top guides. "And awareness of things around you. Spilling over boiling water is a common problem."
As a crescendo to the centennial in the South Pole, Sweitzer was joined by others in a recreation of a famous photograph of Amundsen and his crew standing outside their base tent in 1911.
The four men stand seemingly independent of one another, hoods down around their necks, the ripping cold not affecting their line of sight, which leads slightly upward atop the tent admiring two flags waving in the dry breeze.
It's the spirit of the explorer.
Wilmette-Kenilworth Patch (December 20, 2011)
Wilmette Company Leads Trips to South Pole for 100th Anniversary
A hundred years ago this month, the first humans to ever set foot at the South Pole planted their flag in that supremely inhospitable place.
Today, hundreds of people from around the globe are returning to that flat, white expanse of Antarctic ice to commemorate the centennial anniversary, including about 30 adventurous souls who are either skiing or flying to the pole with Wilmette-based >.
The company is leading six expeditions during this Antarctic summer, which is the most it has done in a season. The first two groups arrived at the South Pole in time to mark the Dec. 14 anniversary of Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s arrival at that spot 100 years earlier.
One group of six flew to the pole. Another group of 12 flew in but skied the “last degree,” roughly 12 miles, to the geographic South Pole, explained Annie Aggens, the company’s director of polar expeditions.
You can read blog entries and hear short video clips from the two groups on PolarExplorers’ South Pole expedition blog. Not surprisingly, the clips feature a disproportionate amount of discussion about weather (in the -30 Fahrenheit range) and food (particularly chocolate).
Additionally, a group of six skiers is en route to the pole, making the full 700-plus-mile trip from the continent’s edge, Aggens said. Another pair of groups — one flying the whole way and another skiing the last degree — hopes to be there for the anniversary of British Navy Captain Robert Falcon’s Scott’s arrival at the pole on Jan. 17. In total, PolarExpeditions’ guides are bringing 29 or 30 people there this season.
History looms large
Amundsen and Scott were battling one another for the title of first man to the South Pole in 1911 when they set off from different spots along the Antarctic coast. Amundsen and his men proved better prepared and beat Scott by more than a month.
Scott, who famously wrote, “Great God! This is an awful place,” upon his arrival, was despondent to find the Norwegian flag already there. The sadness turned to tragedy when he and his crew died on their return trip.
Today, the South Pole is occupied by the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, an American scientific base that houses about 250 people in the summer and a skeleton crew of about 50 in the winter. That includes scientists who do research, such as using giant telescopes to peer into the depths of the universe or working on a neutrino detector buried in the ice that looks for the miniscule, nearly massless subatomic particles. There are also all the support staff needed to keep the station running, such as cooks, equipment drivers and construction teams.
That summer population is being eclipsed by the 300 or so tourists expected over the course of the season, the bulk of whom were there for the Amundsen anniversary and another large wave that’s coming for Scott’s centennial.
Aggens said the increased bookings for South Pole trips this year were due in large part to the anniversary.
“There’s a general interest in history and excitement of being down there for this celebration,” she said.
Aggens, who has been to the South Pole once before, sat out this year because she had a baby in May. (That likely won’t keep her sidelined for long — she brought her older child on a trip to the Arctic, when she was 18 months old.)
Aggens still feels the tug of history from her office in Wilmette.
“Scott and Amundsen were two exceptional explorers,” she said. “These were magnificent feats of exploration in every sense of the word. … It’s hard to imagine what it would be like today to embark on such an expedition without the comfort of global communications.”
A trip of a lifetime
PolarExplorers charges between $40,000 and $65,000 for its South Pole trips. It was gearing up for extra interest this year, due in part to its experience with increased bookings two years ago for the anniversary of American Robert Peary’s arrival at the North Pole.
“It was a natural for us to have another centennial year season down south,” Aggens said.
About half the company’s clients are American; the rest hail from all over the world. Two are locals — one is from Evanston and one from Barrington.
“All those Chicago winters should hopefully help out,” Aggens joked.
Global Post (December 14, 2011)
Polar Explorers Director Annie Aggens is quoted in this article about tourism to the South Pole
South Pole's latest tourist attraction
When Robert Falcon Scott arrived at the South Pole 100 years ago, he wrote in his diary: “Great God! This is an awful place.”
The desolate, flat expanse of white nothingness was not improved by the realization that Scott had been beaten to the spot by his rival.
Norway’s Roald Amundsen arrived on Dec. 14, 1911, a month ahead of Scott, who got there on Jan. 17.
Scott then died on his return trek.
The hordes of tourists — by South Pole standards — arriving this week at the same spot to mark the 100th anniversary of the race to the Pole will be met by a much different sight: the world’s southern-most gift shop.
Two temporary tents are being set up this week to give visitors a sense of history and an understanding of what happens at the US scientific station that now stands at the South Pole, known as the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Plus, a chance to buy souvenirs. What trip to the bottom of the Earth would be complete without a commemorative hat and T-shirt?
The South Pole was the final frontier of terrestrial exploration when Amundsen and Scott, a British Navy captain, set off on their race 100 years ago. Today it’s considered by many to be the final frontier in adventure travel.
About 300 visitors are expected over the course of the short summer season. Some will ski from the continent’s edge, while others will fly in.
For the 250 scientists and support staff who live at the station during the summer, the figures are huge.
“We expect that it’s going to be a little chaotic,” said Andrea Dixon, the South Pole’s tourism coordinator. “It will be crazy, but fun.”
The peak of the tourist boom will come on the anniversary of Amundsen’s arrival on Dec. 14, when over 100 visitors are expected, including a Norwegian delegation led by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Dixon said. Last year, 266 tourists dropped by the pole over the whole two-month summer season, December and January.
Summer visitors can expect temperatures in the -40 to -20 Farenheit range and a great deal of bustle at the station as everyone tries to take full advantage of the short summer to get their work done.
The decision by the National Science Foundation, which runs the US Antarctic Program, to set up the visitors’ center and gift shop was made in part to corral visitors in a spot that wouldn’t interfere with day-to-day life at the station, Dixon said. They will also be offered guided tours of the station.
The US station houses scientists as well as the support staff — cooks, cargo handlers, construction crews, etc. — who keep the station running. The scientists are there to take advantage of the South Pole’s unique position and use tools such as a neutrino detector buried 1.5 miles under the ice to study the nearly massless sub-atomic particles or a massive telescope that peers into the universe in search of dark matter. A skeleton crew of about 50 people stays on during the winter.
The visitors center and gift shop are both semi-circular tents with skylights and heaters. The computers and cash register inside will be powered by solar panels.
Visitors interested in a South Pole magnet or anniversary patch can pay only in US dollars, no credit cards or other currency.
One of the challenges of operating a gift shop at the South Pole is that the area is a time-zone free-for-all.
Think about it: all the world’s time zones converge on that little point. Since it’s light 24 hours a day in the summer, it doesn’t really matter what you call noon and what you call midnight.
The station runs on New Zealand time, since US personnel fly to the continent from Christchurch. But tour operators and arriving delegates tend to stick to their native time zones.
Dixon says she’ll open for business whenever needed. “I’m expecting I’ll be called in the middle of the night,” she said.
Annie Aggens, the director of polar expeditions for PolarExplorers, a guiding company in suburban Chicago, said her tour groups will be thrilled to have 24-hour access to the store and visitors center. PolarExplorers is bringing 30 people on six trips to the pole this year by both ski and plane who have shelled out between $40,000 and $65,000 each.
The trek there is the main activity, whether fully or partially powered by their own cross-country skis or making the trip by plane. Aside from the requisite photo ops, a trip to the visitors center and gift shop, and a tour of station, there’s not much else to do but gaze out at the plain of ice and marvel at how anyone managed the trip 100 years ago without Gor-Tex, GPS or a warm cup of tea awaiting them.
Folha de Sao Paulo (December 13, 2011)
Article from a Sau Paulo newspaper about the 100 Anniversary of Amundsen and Scott. The author of the article, Ivan Finotti, was a member of our South Pole Centennial 20K Ski Expedition. Click to see the full article.
Wilmette-Kenilworth Patch (December 20, 2010)
Eco-Explorer Raises Awareness on Melting North Pole
Each time Annie Aggens journeys to the North Pole, she notices thinning ice and less snow—two of the most glaring signs of global warming. It's a worrying scene, Aggens told Patch.
"The Arctic is changing faster than anywhere else on earth and we really don't have time to debate whether or not climate change is happening, or the best way to do certain things in the political scheme," Aggens said.
Aggens is a Wilmette-based tour guide who takes groups of visitors on snow expeditions of the North Pole through her company, PolarExplorers. Like renowned adventurer and environmental activist, David de Rothschild, Aggens uses her journeys to reveal the causes and effects of a warming planet.
"We do expeditions from the Canadian coast to the North Pole and where we depart from there's usually ice." Aggens said, "We're beginning to have to think about where we depart from because pretty soon there might not be ice and you can't travel with skis over water."
Realizing they have an environmental impact during expeditions, her adventure company calculates the carbon emissions during the helicopter flights to and from wherever they start skiing. Sustainable Travel International handles Aggens' company's carbon neutrality via a calculator that computes how much fuel was used up.
"When the helicopter comes to pick us up at the North Pole, it leaves a little trail of exhaust going through the sky. It looks like a little black ant with a tail because it burns fuel very dirty," Aggens said.
According to Nick Piedmonte, STI's vice president of operations and finance and director of carbon management, funds were collected from PolarExplorers based on emissions calculations from their air, ground and hotel travel to repay ecological damage.
"The funds were directed as an investment into a reforestation project in Madagascar," Piedmonte told Patch.
Additionally, Aggens' group sends out information to other adventure companies on how they, too, can make their polar expeditions carbon neutral. She also incorporates awareness presentations into her expeditions that talk about the effects of climate change.
According to a study by University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center, there is scientific evidence that backs Aggens first-hand encounters with thinning ice in the Arctic. "Thickness [of ice] is important, especially in the winter, because it is the best overall indicator of the health of the ice cover," noted NSIDC scientist Walt Meier in his research. "As the ice cover in the Arctic grows thinner, it becomes more vulnerable to summer melt."
Aggens' explorations depend on the age of the ice.
"We did our first North Pole expedition in 1993. That started in the beginning of May and ended middle of May," she said, adding that, "Nowadays, if you're not off the ice by the last few days of April, you won't be able to find pilots to pick you up because they're not willing to land on the ice."
While camping at night Aggens and company look for multi-year ice–more than four years old—to travel on and provide freshwater for drinking.
"We would probably sleep on first-year ice if we had to, but the probably is it's much more flexible and it's only a couple of feet thick and it's much more likely to break if you have bad weather and also the ice starts moving around," she said.
In addition to diminishing ice, increasing amounts of fog also make conditions unsafe for pilots. As nature has changed, the duration of the expeditions has shortened.
"We've lost two weeks of the season. Two weeks earlier in just a decade. And that's a big change. It's a very big change," she said.
Five years ago was when Aggens said she noticed a drastic turn, and propelled into an environmental campaign.
Between September 2002 and 2005, sea ice, which is mostly forzen seawater that eventually turns into freshwater, dropped to figures that were 20 percent below the mean recorded between 1979 and 2000, according to a NASA news article. What's more, between 2004 and 2005, sea ice recovery—the amount it renews—was the least it had ever been on record, and melting arrived at its earliest in the Arctic region.
"The winter of 2005 saw a dramatic change in the ice up there. We were up in the Arctic getting ready for expedition to the Pole and we kept hearing stories about people running into horrible ice conditions," she said. "We thought we had to do something.'"
Alarmed by the environmental downturn, Aggens and some fellow explorers created a climate change awareness group— International Consortium of Explorers Concerned for the Arctic, Antarctic and Pole(ICECAAP).
"When you love something you want to take care of it," she said. It's also something she loves to share with family, as well as fellow eco-adventurers. Aggens has already taken her 18-month-old daughter, Lola, to visit the pole.
"I took her along last year. I just put her in a little sling and she was inside my parka," she said. "I would love for her to cross Greenland with me... but we'd really let her decide on that."
And as she continues to fight against global warming, Aggens hopes that others take up eco-exploration campaigns.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough," she said. "But then I think… if we can plant 10 more of me around the world, then they can talk to their students and their families and their communities, and then we're having an affect."
The Sunday News-Register (December 25, 2005)
On Top of the World
"...The planet Earth actually has two North Poles - a geographic North Pole and a magnetic North Pole. The geographic pole, according to About.com, is the northermost point on the Earth's surface, located at 90 degrees north latitude. All lines of longitude converge at the pole. The North and South Poles are connected by the planet's axix, the line at which the Earth rotates.
Located about 450 miles north of Greenland in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, the geographic North Pole has six months of daylight and six months of darkness. Sea ice usually covers the pole, but water has been sighted there recently. Robert Peary and his partner, Matthew Henson, are credited with being the first people to reach the North Pole in 1909, along with four Inuit, indigenous arctic people. An American nuclear submarine crossed the pole in 1958, and today dozens of planes fly over the pole as they travel between continents.
The magnetic North Pole differs from the geographic North Pole in that it is in motion and has even switched places with the magnetic South Pole at least a few times during the Earth's history, according to Wikpedia.
Published reports indicate that the magnetic North Pole is in Canada now, but remains in motion and could be in Siberia in 50 years if it maintains its current course and speed. The magnetic pole is the place to which magnetic compasses point from nearly any place on Earth. The Earth's magnetic field is produced by the movement of molten iron beneath the surface of the planet.
A company known as The Northwest Passage with offices in Wilmette, IL offers expeditions to the geographic pole, traveling by ski and/or dogsled. The excursions leave from Longyearbyen, Norway, and require participants to pitch in and help with setting up camp, cooking, tracking and more. Following a champagne celebration upon reaching the North Pole, a flight returns expeditioners to Norway, where they can take a hot shower, have dinner and spend the night in a lodge.
A ski trip covering one degree of latitude could be scheduled for the alternative dates of April 16-27 in 2006 at a cost of $17,000. Company officials recommend that participants have a high level of both skill and physical fitness before embarking on such an expedition. Information provided by the company states that SAS is the only commercial airline flying in and out of Longyearbyen, and connections are made through Oslo.
The trip takes a total of 13 days, including a day of preparation and a flight by chartered aircraft to a Russian research camp, from which the ski trip will begin. For seven days, participants will travel by ski and sled, four to ten hours a day. Campsites will be set up along the way. Upon arrival at the pole, each person in the party will be able to make a brief telephone call to any place in the world.
The company also offers a one degree dogsled and ski trip, between April 16-28 this spring for $22,500. A two degree trip, beginning as early as April 11, costs $27,500.
Trips to the North Pole by air also are available at costs from $9,500 to $13,500. Participants will depart the same Russian research camp, Borneo, aboard a helicopter. The craft will land at the pole for a celebration similar to those of ski and dog sled excursions.
By Jennifer Compston-Strough
Chicago Tribune Sunday May, 8 2005
Vacation with Icy Reception
The trip to the North Pole has gripped mankind since 1818
Annie Aggens stood at the top of the world marveling at the frozen horizon of white stretching for millions of acres. A step in any direction took her south. For a moment, until the ice of the Arctic Ocean shifted, she was positioned at the North Pole.
The brief visit to the northernmost spot on the planet culminated a frigid two-week April journey from Chicago. Aggens and six fellow travelers crossed open leads that could plunge them into 12,000 feet of icy water, negotiated rubble blocks of ice on skis and courted frostbite from a deadly wind that threatened to freeze exposed flesh.
The effort expended added to the satisfaction of reaching 90 degrees north. "When we got there," says Aggens, 34, of Wilmette, "it was really sweet."
The idea, the mystique, the romance of the North Pole, has gripped mankind's psyche in earnest at least since 1818 when the British sought a Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
During her pause at the Pole, Aggens, a student of Arctic history who trained by dragging tires tied around her waist through city streets, let her mind drift to past explorers who opened the path north. Ships were trapped in cement-like ice and expeditions endured harsh winters while crews perished from scurvy. All the while hardy leaders dreamed of fame, glory and riches, of scientific and geographic revelations and of history writing their names in capital letters.
Aggens thought of Elisha Kent Kane, Charles Francis Hall, Fridtjof Nansen, Frederick Cook, Matthew Henson and Robert Peary, and the controversy of 1909, when the argument over who reached the North Pole first erupted.
Against that dramatic backdrop, it seems somewhat curious that citizen adventurers of the 21st Century, guided by firms such as the aptly named Northwest Passage of Wilmette, now take vacations at the Pole. From the North Shore to the North Pole.
Neither governmentally nor militarily selected as in days gone by, clients willing to spend $15,000-plus and committed to pushing their bodies 78 miles northward in minus-35-degree cold, qualify. This is a holiday for those who would rather recline on the white snow of the far north instead of the white sands of the tropics.
Still, many find it surreal the Pole is visited routinely.
"A lot of people look at you for a while," Aggens says. "`Surely she doesn't mean the North Pole.'"
`What's there?'
The North Pole is a moving target in the Arctic Ocean. Unlike the South Pole, it is not on land. It does not stay still, either, and frequently those who camp near the Pole awake to find they have floated miles backward.
"The average adult question is, `What hotel is there?'" says Rick Sweitzer, the operator of Northwest Passage who has led groups to the North Pole 12 times since 1993.
Also commonly asked: "What's there when you get there?" Except for flags tour operators raise, it's snow and ice as far as the eye can see.
Sweitzer led the first commercial trip to the North Pole when other adventure travel companies thought the notion was outlandish.
"We asked people to write wills," Sweitzer says. "It cost about $20,000 to get them to trust us with their lives."
Aided by expert musher Paul Schurke of Ely, Minn., Sweitzer mapped out a plan recreating Peary's last two degrees of latitude gain, or about 130 miles. Departing from Resolute Bay in Northern Canada by dog team, the leaders guided 11 civilians to the Pole. It fulfilled a dream of Sweitzer's and nobody died. The group partied with vodka and beer.
"We had a remarkable adventure," says Sweitzer, now 50. "It was one of the finer moments of my life, without a doubt. And I knew I was in business."
He was, but the game has changed. Over the last decade, the starting point has moved from Resolute to Siberia to Norway. The price soared to more than $27,000, then dropped to $15,500 as the location changed. "Champagne flights," taking those who merely wish to stand at the Pole without fighting the elements, were added and cost $13,500.
Iridium phones are carried for rescue protection. The method of approach now is skiing. There are many competing guides of many nationalities jumping off from a communal tent site at 89 degrees north called Borneo Base Camp.
This all reflects the age of the adventurer who wants more from a vacation
than a tan.
Bill Burd, 61, a Chicago coin dealer, went north in 2003 because the Arctic fascinated him. He spent six days skiing 60 miles in minus-20 weather and was unfazed. "You start acclimating to the weather," Burd says. "You actually start sweating." His reaction upon arrival at the Pole? "Wow, I'm really here," Burd says.
Burt Meyer, 79, a retired toy inventor from Downers Grove, lost 15 pounds in 15 days in 1995 despite eating 6,000 calories daily.
In his family, he was "kind of a hero," Meyer says. Acquaintances weren't impressed. "They said, `You're an idiot and you're back and we're glad to see you.' No one else ever went on my recommendation," he says.
Those who go, Sweitzer says of the approximately 80 clients he has guided to the Pole on the ice and about 80 more via champagne flights, are "big adventure type-A's and polar aficionados. There's quite a bug."
April is the safe season. Any stay beyond May 1 risks more spring breakup than is wise.
For those with a polar passion, the ignorance of the many is baffling. Aggens, Sweitzer and Burd all said the average Joe thinks the North Pole is in Alaska. A century ago that geographic blind spot would be less common in the general populace. The nation's biggest news was the quest for the Pole and the competing expeditions of Cook and Peary.
Who's on first?
Nearly 100 years later, no one is positive either Cook or Peary made it.
It is telling that only a few weeks ago a team of adventurers completed a 37-day, 475-mile mush to the Pole five hours faster than Peary to demonstrate it was possible he did it as he said in 1909.
It is telling that only a few weeks ago a new book called "True North" by Bruce Henderson was released, offering a case that Cook might have made it first in 1908. Cook, Henderson wrote, was victimized by a smear campaign.
When Sweitzer heard Henderson's premise he said, "Oh my God." That's because Cook's claim was largely discredited 96 years ago and he has acquired few fresh disciples. Cook's credibility is weakened more because his declaration of climbing 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley first was shredded and years later he was imprisoned for stock fraud.
In his seminal work, "The Arctic Grail," the late Canadian historian Pierre Berton called Cook "a con man" and "the prince of losers" in Arctic exploration. Yet Cook made remarkable forays into the Arctic and Antarctic and is supported by The Frederick A. Cook Society, a non-profit organization aided by descendants. The society believes history has treated Cook unfairly.
Peary's first-to-the-Pole claim initially was applauded as the genuine article, although recent examination of his diaries raised issues.
"I'm a Peary believer," Sweitzer says. "I have always believed
it. I believe it on faith."
Bert Peary Stafford, a great-grandson of Peary's, is a 56-year-old history teacher in Portland, Ore. Stafford says he thinks improved scientific sophistication ultimately will prove Peary's assertion.
Stafford says he has been aware of the family fame "since I was conscious.
We had relics around the house. We had a polar bear rug. I still have
the admiral's sextant."
The Peary name carried weight in Resolute when Stafford and his brother, Gregory Peary Stafford, showed up in 1997 on a Sweitzer-led North Pole dogsled trip. "I was treated like Robert Redford," Stafford says.
Every April 6, the anniversary of Peary's recorded date at the North Pole, Stafford lectures his five classes on his renowned relation. In Stafford's telling, Peary makes it first.
Following in the footsteps
The wind was constantly in their faces, cutting like a too-sharp razor. The temperature plummeted to minus-35 and the windchill to minus-50.
"If you took your mitts off for 30 seconds, your fingers got chilled immediately," says Keith Heger, 29, an outdoor winter recreation instructor from Morton Grove. "It was cold. It was relentless. You're in your tent and it's still cold."
Sweitzer, Aggens, Heger, and four others skied together. Sweitzer, whose fingers annually are frostbitten in the north, called it the coldest North Pole trip he has taken. Even more surprising was the number of leads, or open-water gaps in the ice. Some were 6 to 10 feet wide. They were like fences guarding the Pole, Aggens says. "There was a lot more open water than I thought there would be," says Kevin DeVries, 37, of Pinckney, Mich., who runs a communications firm.
Only 1 1/4 miles from the Pole, the team came upon a lead 100 feet wide. It was 4:30 p.m. and, hoping the water would freeze overnight, the skiers camped. The lead froze by morning. But the ice drifted south and an expected hour sprint turned into five hours of hard slogging.
Heger packed a Santa Claus outfit--hat, red pullover and white beard--to unveil at the Pole, but the cold intimidated him. "It didn't get pulled out of the bag," he says.
DeVries says he could see how Peary or Cook might miss the Pole because a high tech GPS told the Northwest Passage team it was on the right spot only for seconds. "It's elusive," DeVries says.
Aggens knew where she was. Stinging hands and numbness in her face provided a North Pole welcome.
"The [explorers] had it tough," she says. "But we didn't have it so easy either. We had to work for it."
Peary and Cook returned to civilization seeking recognition for eternity. Aggens returned to Chicago with her own Arctic Grail fulfilled and a different reward in mind. "I'm going surfing in Florida," she says.
-Written by Lew Freedman
The New York Times - February 6, 2005
Q & A
ON TOP OF THE WORLD
I would like to take a trip to the North Pole. Are there agencies that organize these trips? - Joseph M. Hassett, NY, NY
The North Pole and its vast tracts of pack ice and polar wildlife have been a lure for adventure travelers since Adm. Robert E. Peary made his way there almost a century ago. Not many travelers expect to make the trip in their lifetime, but a variety of options are available - none cheap, though cheaper than some years ago - including travel by icebreaker or helicopter or, for the intrepid, on foot, on skis or by dogsled.
One company offering treks to the geographic North Pole at the 90th parallel
is The Northwest Passage, in Wilmette, IL, which pioneered such trips
in 1993. Rick Seitzer, Northwest Passage's founder, has been more than
a dozen times; group size for the trips has ranged from 6 to 16, with
ages from 16 to 69. This year, The Northwest Passage is offering a Polar
Ski trek (next year it will be part dogsled) from remote Longyearbyen,
on the island of Spitzbergen, Norway, with up to eight hours of skiing
a day from Borneo base camp, at 89 degrees north latitude; on reaching
the Pole, travelers celebrate with champagne and photos and call home,
then are picked up by helicopter. The trip is set for April 9 to 21; $15,500
a person, which includes some clothing and equipment. A Polar Shakedown
trip ($2,500; April 5-9), a training session, is all but obligatory, and
makes the trip much more enjoyable, says Mr. Sweitzer. If such a trek
sounds too rigorous, you can take a Champagne Flight by helicopter from
the Borneo base camp, $11,500 to $14,000 (three to five days), departing
April 9 and 18. Information (800) 732-7328; www.northpole-expeditions.com.
The Christian Science Monitor - February 17, 2004
Christopher Sweitzer has been to the North Pole twice. The first time hardly counts, though, since he was only 18 months old. As a fifth-grader last April, he returned with his dad, Rick, whose adventure travel business has been offering North Pole trips since 1993.
On his latest journey, a 5 1/2 day trip, he arranged to call his classmates at Highcrest Middle School in Wilmette, IL on a satellite phone. "The connection was pretty good," says Chris, an outdoorsy 12-year-old who likes to play soccer and baseball when not skiing.
Their trip was far shorter than the one Robert Peary and Matthew Henson took in 1909 (see story on facing page.) Chris traveled mostly by air.
He and his dad flew to Spitzbergen, an island north of Norway. From there they took a Russian charter flight (in a special plane designed to land on ice) to a basecamp on the frozen Artic Ocean, 60 miles from the Pole. A helicopter took them to within five miles of the Pole. They cross-country skies the rest of the way. It took three hours.
The skiing was a lot tougher than Chris was used to. He often had to get over tall pressure ridges of ice. Another surprise was where they stayed. "I never thought about having a base there, with big tents," he says.
Tents are used at the oddly namced Camp Borneo (the island of Borneo is very hot and humid). The camp is temporary. The Russians who run it set it up for several weeks, usually in April. The camp requires a large, flat stretch of solid ice at least three feet thick, so planes can land.
The tent Chris and his dad stayed in was about 20 feet long, 10 to 15 feet high, and heated. "It was pretty nice," he says, surely more comfortable than outside, where the temperature was about minus 10 degrees F. (and minus 25 at the Pole).
When Chris called his classmates, they wanted to know what animals he'd seen. On the entire trip, Chris saw only one seal. He didn't see any Polar Bears, which was probably just as well, since they have been known to attack humans.
Chris worked so hard skiing the last miles to the Pole that his perspiration froze on his face, Because it's so cold, rest stops are short and infrequent. On the trips he leads, Rick Sweitzer says the group stops about once an hour just long enough to give you a little nourishment. "Every time you stop," Rick says, "it takes 15 minutes to warm up when you start again."
When the Sweitzers' GPS unit told them they had arrived at the "Pole," (there's no actual marker), they found they had company. A group of runners was competing in an extreme marathon, running (well, mostly walking) around a one-kilometer loop. There was a five-hour limit, and only a few contestants finished the race.
Chris watched - from inside the heated helicopter that shuttled him and his dad back to base camp. - by R.A.
Daily Herald- December 17, 2003
Arctic Advice
To learn how to keep warm during a Chicago winter, we went to a man who's
broken a sweat at the North Pole.You step outside and the biting cold
attacks you. The wind charges, sending daggers into your skin. The calendar
says winter begins December 21, but your toes have been numb for a month.
Every winter, you freeze, curse, and freeze some more. Before you head
to Arizona, listen up: You can beat the cold, providing you know how.
Rick Sweitzer of Wilmette has spent years perfecting the art of staying
warm. For Sweitzer, and explorer who's led expeditions to the North Pole
since 1993, it's not just about comfort, it's about survival. The same
principals that help him endure Arctic winds and bone-chilling temperatures
can keep you toasty when you're shoveling your car out from under a 6
foot snow drift.
Think in layers: You'll need three layers of clothing from head to toe, Sweitzer advises, Start with the wicking layer. Everyone sweats (and with three layers of clothing on, you will, too), but perspiration ot other wetness can leave you feeling cold. Choose fabrics that wick moisture away from your skin, such as silk or polypropylene long underwear, glove liners, sockliners and balaclava (a face and head liner). Next, pile on an insulating layer. Try a wool sweater or a polyester fleece top and pants, plus socks, mittens and hat. For the third layer, the wind and water shell layer, you'll need a warm parka and nylon shell pants. It's all about the fabrics: Consider the pros and cons of the various fabrics on the market. A down parka buys you more warmth than a synthetic. However, if tou're caught in a heavy rain and get soaked, down loses its insulating abiolity, while synthetics retain theirs. For Chicago conditions, down with a nylon shell should work. Whatever you do avoid wearing cotton next to the skin, says Sweitzer, who can't shake the image of the adventurer whose cotton underwear froze solid after he fell through the ice on a 1993 Arctic Expedition. "Cotton is extremely undesirable," Sweitzer says.
Even when it's cold out, your feet sweat. A cotton sock will retain perspiration or other moisture. making you feel colder. A silk, Capilene, polypropylene or wool sock will wick moisture away. Try a wool sock over a silk sock liner. An explorer's secre tricks: Sweitzer says little things can help. In the Arctic, he wears a parka with drawstrings at the waist and hem to seal out the cold. He takes a tip from the Inuit and wears a fur-trimmed hood which blocks wind and wetness. If it works for the Inuit, it can warm up your walk home from the train tonight. - By Pam DeFiglio
The Boston Globe - August 11, 1996
Burt Meyer and Jim Gieske have a lot in common. Both belong to an elite group of travelers who have journeyed to the North Pole. But they didn't reach the top of the world in the same way.
In April 1995, Meyer, 70, a retired toy designed from Downer's Grove, IL, subsisted on a spartan diet as he traveled 11 miles a day for 15 days behind a dogsled in biting, sub zero temperatures.
And if the daily discomfort wasn't enough, there was always the danger of falling through ice, succumbing to frostbite or attracting polar bears.
But Gieske, 58, a retired surgeon from Easton, MD, expended little energy on a 15 day cruise that departed from Murmansk, Russia, in August 1995. Warm and snug on a Russian nuclear powered ice breaker, Yamal, he ate like a monarch and slept like a baby.
Meyer paid $25,000 for his torturous ride. Airfaire from Illinois to Resolute Bay in Canada's Northwest Territorites, where the trip originated, was extra. Geiske faired a lot better; he agreed to be Yamal's medical director, so his trip was a freebie, and he saved about $18,000 for the cruise as well as the cost of his flight to Murmansk.
Yet, both men joined the ranks of adventurers and explorers who can boast they visited the North Pole. Unlike the South Pole, which is land mass covered by ice, the North Pole is nothing more than moving ice, a longitudinal marking on a map.
But that has never stopped explorers from trying to get there. And with the tries came dissapointment, tradgedy and conflict. For example: in 1879, an attempt to reach the North Pole by US Navy Lt. George Washington DeLong, ended in starvation.
Then, in April 1909, a jubilant Robert Peary, thought he had reached it overland and exclaimed: "The Pole at last! The prize of three centuries, my dream and ambition for 23 years. Mine at last. I cannot bring myself to realize it." Some others couldn't bring themselves to realize it, either, and eventually it was determined that he had never reached the actual North Pole.
Then there was the American polar explorer Adm. Richard E. Byrd, who, in 1926, was thought to be the first person to fly over the North Pole. Today, critics discredit the deed, contending that Byrd altered the data and was actually 150 miles short of his goal.
Let the debate rage over who was first to reach the North Pole - Meyer insists he holds the distinction of being the oldest person to trek there.
And Geneve Hein, 17, of Oakbrook, IL, says she's the youngest. Hein, then 16, accompanied Meyer and 12 others on last year's dogsledding trip to the Pole, an expedition by The Northwest Passage, a Wilmette, IL based adventure travel company.
Records aside, just saying you've been to the North Pole is an accomplishment in its own right. For openers, it's cold, very cold. And it's far. But the killer problem in getting there is the expense.
The folks who set off for the coldest spot on earth are typically well-heeled adventurers who have been just about everywhere else. After experienceing the North Pole, there aren't too many travel thrills left, say Pole conquers. To use Meyers words, "It is the ultimate travel experience" and is gaurenteed to turn heads at coctail parties.
Even if you have the time and money, there aren't too many ways to get to the North Pole. There's the brave-the-wilds route offered by The Northwest Passage; the cruise-approach sponsored by Quark expeditions, based in Darien, Conn.; or you can hook up with one of several companies that will fly you to the Pole. The Northwest Passage has an 8-day air tour, which leaves from Resolute Bay and includes stops at islands along the way. It costs $9,480.
The first two options are drawing the most takers. Quark has signed up passengers for it's nuclear-powered cruise to the North Pole this month; and The Northwest Passage is taking applications for two dogsledding expeditions in April 1997. One is coed, the other is the first all-women's dogsledding expedition.
If you have an aversion to discomfort and no desire for physical overexertion, a comfy ice breaker should be just right for you.
However, Meyer and Hein insist The Northwest Passage's expedition is not half as bad as it sounds. "They are a class act," says Meyer.
Founder Rick Sweitzer of Wilmette, IL, 42, a former Peace Corps volunteer, has devoted his life to wilderness travel. Besides the North Pole trek, The Northwest Passage offers a smorgasbord of adventure travel trips, including dogsledding in Canada's Northwest Territories, cycling and rafting in New Zealand, and whitewater rafting in Cost Rica.
Putting romatic notions aside, Sweitzer says dogsledding to the North Pole is not for the average traveler. "You don't have to be a professional adventurer, but it is clearly not for everyone," he says.
The Northwest Passage's expedition requires physical prowess, athletic ability (you had better bve a decent skier), team work and a good attitude, which means no complaining or temper tantrums when you are half way there. Once the Arctic is reached, there is no turning back.
So, to weed out weaklings and stragglers, The Northwest Passage stages a shakdown trip in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, a week long simulation of the North Pole trip. It gives takers a preview of what to expect and, most important, to see if they can cut it.
That whopping $25,500 price tag (it has inched up another $500 for next year's North Pole trip) includes boots, skis, rations, sleeping bags, team jackets and airfare, accounting for 70% of the cost.
"Prior to the shakedown trip, people don't have a clue what to expect," sayss Sweitzer. "Once they see videos and preview what they can expect, they see it as not as intimidating as they thought. They also gain confindence in our experience."
Even with the shakedown trip, videos and pep talks, the real thing is still light years away from a stay in a five star hotel.
Meyer says he did it because he's always had an appetite for off beat travel adventures. He's already been to Africa, and, a couple of years ago, he biked 3,500 miles by himself from San Francisco to Charleston, SC, in 41 days. "It was no big deal," Meyer says. "It was a tough trip, but I just took it one pedal push at a time."
Despite his age, Meyer insists he had no problem keeping up with the rest of the group on the dogsled trek. "It wasn't easy," he confesses, "but you get used to it pretty quick."
Most days went like this: wake up, fix breakfast (oatmeal), break down camp, get the 20 dogs and 800 pounds of equipment ready, ski until lunch (beef jerky, nuts, chocolate, cheese). Then, ski until dinner (stew with rice or spaghetti). Eat, sleep, get up and start over. The goal was to do at least 10 miles a day - no easy feat traveling on ice at 5 degrees below zero, which Meyer swears is warm for the North Pole.
"The hardest thing was getting moving in the morning," he says. "Crawling out of a warm sleeping bag at 7 AM was the toughest part. There was a lot to do. It took about two hours before we got going."
There wern't any major mishaps: Meyer pooh-poohed a temporary case of frostbite he got when his gloves got wet.
But there were those barren fields of blue ice crashing together, forming pressure ridges up to 30 feet high, which had to be negotiated. "You have to either get around them or across them," Meyer says. "You can shoot an entire day dealing with the pressure ridges."
"Day" and "Night" became meaningless terms for the trekkers because the North Pole has 24 hours of sunlight. Nevertheless, no one in the group had trouble sleeping after their long days.
There were also some minor problems caused by moving ice. If it was drifting south - the wrong direction - the trekkers lost ground as they slept.
And while the trip was all about reaching the treacherous North Pole, Meyer and Hein said reaching it was no big deal.
Says Meyer, "It was almost a ficticous goal. The Pole is nothing. It's just another chunk of ice. You're only standing at the North Pole for a few minutes and then it moves. The whole thing is the trip, not the goal. It is not like climbing Mount Everest or traveling to the South Pole, where you go to a place. There is no place at the North Pole."
There aren't any signs to announce that you've arrived. Only a handheld Global Positioning System, a high tech devise about the size of a desk calculator that takes satellite readings and is accurate up to 140 yards, tells you that you are there.
Hardships and all, Hein and Meyer swear the trip was worth the trouble. "It changed my life," says Hein. "When I think back at what we accomplished, everday hassles seem insignificant," she says. "Getting to the Pole represents a major mileston in my life."
Beyond a feeling of accomplishment, Meyer says the trip taught him a lot about group dynamics. "There are no grandstanding heros when you are on an expedition like this," he says. "Even though you have to be self sufficient, each person must learn how to succeed as part of a team. Besides the personal triumph there is also a wonderful feeling knowing you did it as a team."
Hein said that she would go to the Pole again if she could find a sponsor. Her parents footed the bill the first time; next time, she's on her own.
Meyer says he'd pass on another trip. It's not because he's not up to it, it's that "life is short and there are other travel adventures to taste," he says. - By Bob Weinstein
Palisadian-Post April 17, 2003
Veterinarian skis through cold & wind to South Pole
With just two days left on his journey to the South Pole, Scott Anderson got frostbite.
The temperature was minus 40 degrees, and the wind was coming directly at his face at 30 miles per hour, creating a wind-chill approaching minus 100 degrees. Just as in the previous 5 days of pulling a 100-pound sled towards the South Pole, Anderson had spent most of the day slogging on cross-country skis toward his destination with a guide and another traveler.
However, today the little bit of explosed flesh around his mouth had not been able to fight off the cold. His lower lip and left cheek froze. Fortunately, face frostbite is generally more benign than frostbite on toes and fingers.The frozen area soon formed a scab and within 10 days had healed completely. In addition, while his face was mending, he got to take a look at the place he had worked so hard to reach.
"After a week of hard physical labor, to see the South Pole and flags, it was an indescribable feeling - a sensation not to be repeated," said Anderson, a veterinarian and 8-year Palisadian. "It was a combination of amazement that I was really actually there, pleasure at having done it...and relief that we were finally there and had a day to relax."
Actually, beacuse of bad weather, Anderson's group had four and a half days to hang out at the South Pole before their plane ride home. Anderson spent much of that time walking around the pole and reading, but he also placed the Norwegian flag at the historic spot. The South Pole generally shifts about to feet each year, he said, so he calculated the location where the pole would have been when Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach it on December 14, 1911.
Like Amundsen, Anderson's wife, Lisa, is Norwegian and also a "big admirer" of the late explorer. She gave her adventuring husband a large Norwegian flag to leave at the pole. Planting the flag caused him to think about how much harder the original expedition had been than his trip. To be the first to reach the South Pole, Amundsen lived for about one and a half years in Antarctica and traveled about 700 miles by dogsled to get there.
In addition, "he and his group had no possible way to get out of there other than by their own strength and skill," Anderson said. "It was a moving feeling to think about that."
This January, Anderson flew most of the way to the pole and skied the final 69 miles. While he was waiting for the plane ride home, another group arrived. This crew was part of a diabetes fundraising expedition, which traversed 730 miles in 61 days, following the path of Robert F. Scott, the ill-fated British explorer who arrived at the pole one month after Amundsen and then perished on the trip home. In the modern journey, Will Cross became the first person with diabetes to travel to the South Pole.
Today when people reach the pole, they find a scientific base, the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which Anderson could see from about 9 miles away because the terrain is so flat. Otherwise, for the remaining miles he traveled, all he saw was snow-covered flatness, although the land does vary slightly in height. Sastrugi, gentle ridges ranging from 1 to 3 feet high, are a part of the wind blown terrain., and Anderson said that although the short ridges don't "sound like much, when you're pulling a sled and it's the end of the day, the ridges are tiring and can tip your sled over."
A typical day of his journey meant rising at 7 a.m. to boil water for morning oatmeal and hot chocolate as well as for a thermos-full of lunchtime soup. By 9:30 a.m. his group was skiing. throught the day, they would never pause for much more than five minutes, because the weather was too cold for standing still. When they stopped at about 6:15 p.m. each night, they would make a scheduled radio check-in call and begin making camp. The three men would build a snow wall on the windward side of their tent and then cook dinner inside before falling asleep at about 9:30 p.m.
The inside of the tent was warm, and the three generally took off their coats and wore shirt-sleeves inside. Rick Sweitzer, the trip's guide from The Northwest Passage company, had been to the North Pole about 10 times before, but never to the South Pole, while Nikos Magitsis, also a first-timer, became the first Greek to reach the North Pole, so he is a minor celebrity in his country. Anderson plans to make his own North Pole trip in the next few years.
Anderson noted that morning and night looked the same in Antarctica, because in the summer season the sun shines 24 hours a day. The penguins and marine life of the coast are not present on the barren interior of Antarctica, and he saw neither plants nor animals during the entire journey.
The weather was uniformly cold. On cloudy days, the temperature dropped as low as minus 40 degrees, but even on warmer days, the temperature never rose above minus 20 degrees, he said. Anderson kept his fingers warm with three layers of gloves and sometimes up to four hand warmers per hand.
Such care is vital. A guide from another pole-traveling group removed his gloves for less than five minutes to help someone, and suffered frostbite on three fingertips. Unlike Anderson's mild case, the guide was in danger of losing his fingertips when anderson flew home. Such frostbite problems had made Anderson acutely aware of keeping his hands warm, and prior mountain climbing trips to places like Tibet had helped him acquire the right clothing and training for the various strenous aspects of the trip.
Although Antarctica is covered with snow, it rarely snows more than 2 to 3 inches a year there, he said. However, because the weather is so cold, the snow never melts. Thus, the winds can create extreme whiteouts simply by tossing the snow off the ground and into the air.
The wind is one of the reasons air travel can be so difficult there. Anderson spent extra days at the pole and had to forego a second planned journey to climb Mt. Vinson, Antarctica's highest peak, because the windy weather delayed the various legs of his journey. If he had attempted to climb Mt. Vinson, weather delays might have then prevented his timely return to his veterinary work at California Animal Hospital and to his wife and their childern, Paul, 4, and Erik, 1. One previous group was stuck at the Patriot Hills Base in Antarctica for six weeks because of consistent wind whiteouts.
Anderson may never have the opportunity to return to Antarctica and climb Mt. Vinson, but that was the one regrettable note in an otherwise unforgettable journey.
"My first glimpse of the pole marker as we were approaching on our skis will stay with me forever," he said. "It's a place I'm unlikely to be again. Even if by some strange chance, I find myself there again, to see it for the first time, and to have made it there myself on skis, it's a feeling I don't think I will ever duplicate."
