COINS Foundation Blog

Following the unfortunate collapse of his original expedition, Mark has now decided to RACE to the north pole!! Find out how well Mark is doing here:

What is the Magnetic North Pole?

The first question I know most of you will have is this – what is the Magnetic North Pole?

The Earth has a number of “North Pole’s” – the most common being True North (aka Geographic North), or put simply, as the Earth rotates around an axis, the point at the North and South where that axis would extend from the surface of the Earth. Think of a globe on a stand.

The Earth also has a Magnetic Field much like a bar magnet, which moves with time – when you’re looking at a compass the needle will point to the Magnetic North Pole, however this point is currently moving roughly North West by around 26 miles per year. There is a similar Magnetic South Pole in the Antarctic which also moves.

There is also a “North Geomagnetic Pole”, but I shan’t confuse you anymore than I have here – suffice to say if you’re interested, try Wikipedia!

The Magnetic North Pole was first established by the explorer James Clark Ross in 1831, who located it on the Boothia Peninsula, which is part of the Canadian mainland to the North West of Hudson Bay. At roughly 70° North, that was roughly the same distance South of Resolute Bay – our start point – as we have to head North for the 1996 position! Roald Amundsen subsequently found it in a different location in 1903, and subsequent research established it moving North West from Canada into the Arctic Sea.

In 1996 its position was established and surveyed using magnetometer and theodolite at 78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W. The Magnetic Poles are also referred to as the “Dip Poles”, since they are the point at which the needle of a compass – were it to move about freely – would point directly down at 90° to the Earth’s surface.

Since 1996 the position of the Magnetic North Pole has drifted somewhat further North West into the Arctic Sea and in time is expected to pass the Geographic North Pole and head down to Siberia.

The 1996 position however has become the “official” Magnetic North Pole, and since its official survey has become the source of many challenges and expeditions. The annual Polar Challenge and bi-annual Polar Race send teams of three to race the 360 nautical miles to the Magnetic North Pole from Resolute Bay, however while still a gruelling challenge, these include two resupplies en-route with support.

By contrast our Expedition is entirely self-supported from start to our pick-up at the finish, and we won’t be trying to beat anyone but ourselves!

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Packing Weekend

This weekend we all met in a barn in Gloucester to pack up all the kit, food and equipment we’ll be taking with us to Canada. Aside from fuel – which we’ll pick up when we arrive in Resolute – every other bit of kit had to be tested, weighed and packed into the 12 sledges and 12 bags we’ll be transporting from Heathrow to Ottawa, then onto Resolute. Due to weight restrictions on Air Canada and First Air – one of the airlines we’ll use which services the Nunavut region of the Canadian North, our bags must weigh not more than 23kg and the sledges 32kg.

All our food was stripped of packaging and repacked into the day bags we’ll use for energy during the day – chocolates, sweets, nuts and so on – and tent food for breakfast and evening meals. Soups, tea, powdered milk, sugar and so on were emptied into freezer bags in tent-size rations.

Tents were put up, checked and taken down, fuel stoves lit and packed with repair kits and spares. Thermos flasks, pan handles and karabiners were taped to prevent the chance of cold metal coming into contact with skin and ski poles were measured, cut down to size, labelled and packed into ski bags with skis and bindings.

After the fabric and poles were checked for any faults, one of the tents being slightly wet from use was moved into the house we were staying in to dry out completely, and fuel bottles were washed with washing up liquid to remove any smell of fuel – which may prevent them being allowed on the plane if checked.
When packing we’re careful to distribute the supplies across all the sledges and bags – so if one bag or sledge goes missing we don’t lose all the stoves or all the bindings for example. It’ll be a lot easier to replace one fuel bottle than nine, and in any case we have spares of pretty much all kit. It’s a very long and tedious process, but essential to make sure we get to the start line with everything we need for our Expedition to stand a good chance of success.
In the evening we all went down the pub for a team meal, the last team meal before we leave, it’s now getting real, we are going soon!

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Training in Switzerland
This last week a few of the team including me went out to Switzerland with a sledge and harness, hiring cross country skis to practice pulling the sledge across snow and ice. It’s far different to pulling a sledge across the sand (or tyres for that matter!) and also gave us a chance to practice the skis, which even for me, now being an “experienced skier” (not) is very tricky to say the least.

The Fischer Crown skis have a toe-only binding so the heel lifts up, allowing a walking motion, and the skis have grooves in the bottom which allow them to slide forward but “bite” the snow as you pull pack. We practiced on the flat, building up weight in the sledge and then trying up and downhill – needless to say we all spent some time on our arses! However by the end of the first day we were all feeling pretty confident.
We stayed in the beautiful village of Wengen, pulling the sledge up and down the Lauterbrunnen Valley to Stechleberg and back. It was a great few days that just gave me a bit more confidence that maybe i could make it on ski’s and if I just practice, practice, practice then I may just pull this off!

Wengen village is the starting point of the North Face of the Eiger, the world’s most respected climb for experienced mountaineers. I spent a few minutes just dreaming “if only we had a couple more days here then, I would love to give it a go” Then the cold wind blows in my face and reminds me, I’m training for the North Pole, there no mountains there!

And………….me being me, i did bring my ice axes and crampons to Wengen just in case, but alas I never did get any climbing in, maybe a return visit is in order, watch this space.

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Last Training Weekend-Ogmore
On a wet Friday evening we congregated in the Pelican pub just south of Ogmore, in the aftermath of the snow which covered much of Southern Wales, now melted on the frozen ground causing fields to swamp, rivers to burst their banks and even cattle grids to overflow. It was this that greeted us on our last training weekend before we leave the UK at the end of March. From now on when we meet for a weekend we’ll be doing the long, painstaking task of checking, packing and rechecking all the equipment we’ll be taking with us.

This weekend was simply to revolve around tents, stoves and sledges on the Saturday, a team dinner on the Saturday night and on Sunday a long walk – a good opportunity to get to know the team better and discuss any queries and concerns.

After getting soaked in torrential downpours on the Saturday morning however, and with most of our tents, sledges and stoves covered in wet sand from Ogmore’s sand dunes – a perfect environment to practice pulling sledges on the many other occasions I’ve been down here – we decamped back to the pub to dry out, and took the opportunity to piece together all the maps which chart our anticipated route to the Magnetic North Pole.

Camping in our groups on Saturday night was a good opportunity to go through the routines which will become our daily lives, although thankfully we won’t have wet mud to contend with! It was also an opportunity for those who haven’t done similar Expeditions before, to discover what it’s like cooking and sleeping, while packed in like sardines, with 4 to a tent!

On Sunday the sun dried us out and we got back to the skills training which will become essential to our success – understanding importantly the MSR stove which will be our lifeline for all heating, water and most of our food. The other essential components on which our success will depend are our shelters – tents were put up, taken down and put up again, taking it in turns in our teams of 4 to make sure each person knows how they operate, and the weak points to look out for.

Although there is a lot of detailed planning and organisation behind these Expeditions, fundamentally their success comes down largely to the basic elements of survival – water, food, shelter and warmth. A solo Expedition to the Geographic North failed last year after just 2 days – sending £250,000 down the drain – because two plastic pressure stove-valves costing £60 failed in the cold. These are the realities of Arctic exploration and our success will depend on our diligent attention to the small details which keep us watered, fed, warm and sheltered from the wind.

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