Penny Ice Cap Crossing 2011, Baffin Island

After 18 days on the ice, skiing over 250km with air temperatures down to -25C, winds upto 70km/h, we completed the traverse of the Penny Ice Cap opening up a new access point in the process. We overcame polar bears, blizzards and thin sea ice. We saw the beauty and majesty of nature in her most brutal form. Ice, thousands of years old of infinite shades of blue. See some photos below, stories to follow. This expedition is dedicated to Janye Lee. With whom I will not get the chance to share these stories and photos with. I wish you could've seen these...

Penny Ice Cap (Take Two)

Is it goldfish syndrome, stubbornness or a desire to succeed that makes us try and try again when we have failed? My grandmother kindly reminded me of my frozen toes the last time we tried this route. Friends commend me on having the courage to try again and my mother says I'm just stubborn and that 'I should just get married'. But for whatever the reason I am at the eve of our departure for Baffin Island. A documentary on Shackleton and polar travel ominously plays in the background on BBC 2 behind me as I write this note. A glance at the documentary behind me shows the team discussing a broken crampon... let's hope that that will not be a feature of our expedition.

But back to our reality and our expedition. We have different strategies to last time. We have new clothing, another guy to keep us amused and most importantly we're going a month later in the season - much warmer!

Of more interest to you guys at home, you can follow our progress on a spectacular 3D map with a special fly in feature that allows you to sit back and follow our route. We'll be updating our blog everyday and schools can get involved by asking questions which will directly arrive to us to answer through the wonders of satellite communication. Our website and blog site for you to bookmark is: http://www.etelive.org/baffin (Follow 'latest updates' to see the maps).

-------------------------- Je vais ecrire un petit note en francais pour le monde francophone. On partira demain pour nos expedition a Isle de Baffin.

Vous pouvez nous suivre sur nos site de web: http://www.etelive.org/baffin. Regardez vous la carte en 3D!! Trop cool!

Alors, j'espere que je ne vais pas avoir trop froid cette fois et j'espere que vous nous souhaitez le mieux de chance! Dans un mois mes amis...

Baffin Island in 4 days time

As I sit and write this I have a million things to do. There is kit everywhere in three different countries and two different continents. Yes, somehow I got roped into (pun intended!) heading to Baffin Island again to re-attempt our 2008 crossing of the Penny Ice Cap. Three weeks ago I was looking forward to a quiet month in April to watch spring blossom. But three weeks minus one day ago I was suddenly faced with the prospect that I was due to part on a polar exped in three weeks minus one day time! I have to admit there wasn't much coercing required but that didn't make the mountain of organisation any easier.

Whilst I arrange my gear, check, double check and triple check I leave you to check out our flashy blog with exped maps in 3D, polar expert panel on Education through Explorations website:

http://www.etelive.org/content/contentete.numo?id=105

La Tournette

A terrible season this year in the Alps but I managed to get at least one decent ski touring route in. La Tournette, a beautiful 2,400m mountain overlooking the city of Annecy in the French Alps. The climb starts at 900m and the finish is a little scramble up a rocky face before topping out onto the peak.

Back to Baffin

In the summer of 2010 I went back to Baffin Island, the same location as our polarventure expedition in winter 2008. It was fascinating to witness the changes that the island experiences between the winter and summer months.

As well as the video above, the other videos as well as my Climate Change project can be viewed on the expeditions page. Go to Baffin Island 2010.