Into the Cold: A Journey of the Soul Page #3

Not for vegetarians.

This right here, is a blend

of bacon and cranberries.

So the bacon was fried up

just to the point of producing...

...all that fat and grease, then the

cranberries were thrown in...

...and poured in a blender and

blended to this consistency.

Now when we get up to the Arctic

this will freeze solid and...

...we'll be able to chunk this off

with a knife and eat that...

...almost as a snack on the trail

or thrown into our dinner at night.

This process is a fine balance

between calculating each meal"s...

...caloric intake and exacting it

against the precise weight...

...we will be pulling. lt is a virtual

science, and the magic number...

...should not exceed 2.4 pounds

of food each per day--

For a caloric value of around 7000!

This is one pound every 5 days,

for two people? That's not much.

Let's stick this stuff back in here.

-Yeah.

Very important stuff.

-One sheet per day.

-One sheet per day, yeah.

We watch it.

Our protein drinks.

-This is the powder?

Yeah.

Herbalife protein shake and power

bars, electrolytes, candy and...

...cereal are each carefully

examined to meet...

...the exacting criteria of

the unforgiving scale.

5 days worth of food for two people,

one mission. 30 kilos. 30 pounds.

Keith is a strict numbers cruncher.

l am so used to carrying

extra camera weight that...

...l am somewhat looser in the

approach. But l know that...

...out on the ice, after a few

days of intense effort,..

...l will be cursing

the extra butter!

-This is 4, 8, 12, 16 days.

-Right.

Rick has arranged for us to

invite the elders to dinner.

This turns out to be a great

thoughtful gesture.

The elders bless our dinner and

share with us the manner...

...in which climate change

is affecting their lives.

Over the years, it just became

smaller and smaller and...

...now it's just basically a

religious holiday.

lt takes 500 square miles to feed

one person in the Arctic.

Excessive carbon emissions in our

cities are leading lnuit to poverty.

Their culture endangered, they truly

put a face to global warming.

After the dinner, the elders sign

the Polar Explorer flag...

...that will be flying on our tent

every night. And they bless our trip.

Outside the sun is hanging

low on the horizon--

Casting a pink glow

on the frigid landscape.

Keith and l decide that tomorrow

we will ski out and test our gear...

...one last time before departure,

including our blogging technology:

An iridium satellite phone

and an HP lPAC.

We will sleep on the ice,

preferably near a pack of dogs.

They provide early warning

for the bears!

One was sighted outside the hotel

just three days ago!

March 21st, 2009. Another day

going over the pack list,..

...and shedding a few more

pounds off the loads.

How much is your weight, Keith?

-Not too sure yet.

lt was a balmy -35 last night.

lt's still quite icy out there.

Got my good friend here. We'll

be friends you and l, aren't you?

That's my personal kit, right here.

Keith has got about the same.

Camera equipment, GPS,

ion batteries,..

...and an easy chair,

which is a killer item.

ln the tent it's like this and it's

more comfortable than most sofas.

The cold kit here,

for the colder days.

And this one here,

for the warmer days.

Socks, underwear, not many

of them as you can tell,..

...for a month and a half or so.

Face gear, head gear, glasses,..

...the iPod of course. And then

the base layers, the boots--

Those are important. Quite a few

pairs of gloves, wind stopper vest,..

...over mitts, inner layer for the

boots, water and thermos,..

...and then finally of

course:
the sledge.

We are waiting for Keith"s sledge

to arrive in Resolute...

...as it did not make it on time for

the scheduled flight on the way in.

Fingers crossed that

it arrives today by cargo,..

...otherwise we will lose a day.

There are always rich encounters

in Resolute; people who,..

...just like us, wait for

the go-ahead...

...on their way to make

their dream come true.

Take Tarka and Catlin for instance,

who have crossed...

...the Chinese Gobi desert on foot

over 4,000 kilometers in six months.

Or Michele who is on the footing

of departure for a solo ski trip...

...from the South Camp lnn to

the Magnetic 1996 North Pole.

Gobi refers to the type of desert

that it is, as opposed to its...

...geographic location. There's lots

of Gobi deserts around the world,..

...but the Taklamakan Desert is

the largest of the Gobi deserts,..

...so people will tend to

call it the Gobi Desert.

We started in the middle

of the Gobi Desert, 40C.

As we moved east through the winter,

it got colder and colder,..

...averaging out to about -35C

over a two month period.

How does it compare

to this weather here?

This feels considerably colder.

l think -35 is

quite different to -40.

Minus 40 and below

is quite a big jump.

For some reason it feels

considerably different,..

...but up here you get much

stronger winds and wind chill...

...is a lot worse than

what we found in China.

We walked from the West Viewpoint

of the Great Wall,..

...walked right across it, then up

over the mountain range,..

...which are again massive amounts

of region in Northern China.

Then we headed out all the way

across to Northern Korea.

How long did it take you to do this?

That took us about 6 months,

give or take a few days.

167 days it took us, with only

3 days off. A long time.

Final packing of the sledges.

They weigh in at about 190 lbs,..

...including fuel, which is better

than l had anticipated.

We have confirmation,

weather pending, that...

...we will be wheels off at 7 AM.

T-minus 10 hours.

-Oh, l know why--

-Why is that?

Because you have your

extra food in there.

-And the toilet paper.

-And the toilet paper, yeah.

We're T-minus 1 1 hours now.

So after 8 months of waiting and...

...planning and suspense, and

whether or not sponsors would...

...come through or not, and all of

the training and everything else,..

...if weather permits, which of

course, in these parts,..

...often doesn't-- right now anyhow,

we're leaving tomorrow morning at 7.

lt's 8:
00 in the evening, so

seven o'clock tomorrow.

And can l just ask, just purely for

me, why you've chosen to do this?

Other than the obvious answers,

are the centennial of Peary's...

...reach of the North Pole in 1909.

lt's clear that there won't be a...

...bicentennial because the ice

is just changing so rapidly;..

...its' melting so quickly. lt still

gets very cold in the winter,..

...but it just warms up very rapidly

and the all of a sudden it's gone.

Any time soon it'll be gone

in the summer months.

But l think the underline story

of any of these Arctic stories,..

...and l think anyone who travels in

these parts would know, is that...

...part of those trips is also trying

to find yourself in the process.

lt's all kinds of adventure,

and it's a climate message and...

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