No Arctic expedition this year...

[DungeonMaster]

I think that I've followed all of those expeditions since 2006 or 2007... But this year nobody even tried to start I think, and very few had planned to. Two years ago i wrote on a french forum that we were witnessing the last expeditions... and they were.

The only thing left to follow should be the Barneo Ice Camp... if they manage to find a suitable floe, last years their flow just got broken... Anyways I wouldn't book a trip to the Last Degree for 2014 or 2015, as it may well turn into a swimming trip.

Barneo setup started in March 15 last year, so it should be long now. Hope they will post on their blog again !

[Neven]

How about those French guys trying to sail across the ice pack and made it almost halfway in 2011 before their solar batteries started dying on them? I always thought that would be a cool feat, but maybe even more difficult now than two years ago.

Here's their website. They're looking for sponsors.

[Wipneus]

Neven, I was thinking about Bernice Notenboom that you blogged about last year. Heard anything about her expedition?

http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/12/the-last-ice-expedition.html

[Jim Hunt]

I'm not sure if this is exactly the sort of "Arctic expedition" you have in mind, but I had a long chat to Kevin Vallely last night. He assured me he and another three team members intend to row through the North West Passage, starting on July 1st 2013!

The previous day Anders Bache of the Fram Museum said some friends of his intended to "kayak to the North Pole".

Kevin said he wasn't crazy enough to try walking to the North Pole in this day and age, though he knew somebody intending to walk FROM the North Pole.

Finally Ann Daniels, who lives just up the road from me, is currently trying to raise money for a solo expedition to the North Pole this time next year. I guess Ann must be "crazy", using Kevin's definition of the word?

[Neven]

Neven, I was thinking about Bernice Notenboom that you blogged about last year. Heard anything about her expedition?

http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/12/the-last-ice-expedition.html

No, haven't heard anything. I'll ask when the melting season starts.

My, all the stuff that people come up with. When all of the ice is almost gone, I will dive under the North Pole! Naked! "Naked under the North Pole"!

[Tor Bejnar]

Wipneus,
Google brings up:
https://twitter.com/bernicenot/status/300145859058864129
Feb 8, 2013 – Bernice Notenboom ‏@bernicenot Feb 9. arctic cold spill in combi with unusually warm ocean water creating the worst storm on the east coast.

[DungeonMaster]

The most incredible thing was Lewis Pugh swimming 1 km at the North Pole in 2007 - watch it TED speech if you haven't yet. Then he tried kayaking, but there was too much ice - he might well try again. 

I was just thinking about "classic" expeditions with skis, without swimming...

[Jim Hunt]

I was just thinking about "classic" expeditions with skis, without swimming...

Ann Daniels is the nearest to your specification then, but she anticipates having to do some swimming on top of all the skiing.

[NeilT]

Looking at this, everyone seems to feel the same.

That anyone trying to get to the Arctic will have 0% success in 2013.

The sign of the future and not that far away....

[DungeonMaster]

Quick update : Barneo team has started moving, they finish preparation steps, should be on the ice soon.

[DungeonMaster]

Ann Daniels is the nearest to your specification then, but she anticipates having to do some swimming on top of all the skiing.

Jim, I daily read all the Catlin expeditions and would love to read news about Ann's trek - but I can't find a link on this new expedition - can you please provide a link?

[Neven]

How about those French guys trying to sail across the ice pack and made it almost halfway in 2011 before their solar batteries started dying on them? I always thought that would be a cool feat, but maybe even more difficult now than two years ago.

Coincidentally I will be translating the documentary of their 2010 expedition next month. There's a very cool part in it where they have to weather out a huge storm in the Beaufort Sea. I learned a lot from that. Maybe I'll ask Sébastien Roubinet if he will let me shot that part on the ASIB.

[NeilT]

Jim, I daily read all the Catlin expeditions and would love to read news about Ann's trek - but I can't find a link on this new expedition - can you please provide a link?

Her Twitter account is here.  She states on her twitter account that she lost the website when moving providers but there is nothing about 2013.

The 2013 trip is advertised here and it has a link for contacting Alex Huggan for more info.

All I could find.

[Jim Hunt]

I daily read all the Catlin expeditions and would love to read news about Ann's trek - but I can't find a link on this new expedition - can you please provide a link?

Sorry DM, but I've been AWOL on the blog for a bit. I see what you mean - If you click the obvious link on Ann's home page you end up somewhere rather unhelpful. Obviously it didn't happen in "Feb 2013"! I'll make some further enquiries.

[ChrisReynolds]

From the satellite images and from Christy's Greenland Blog, I think expeditions on the ice look like a much too dangerous proposition.

[Jim Hunt]

It seems Ann's just got back from working in the Caribbean. She tells me that "The website is having a few snags at the moment.  It's been a bit hectic recently but it's on the top of my list to do".

She also sends a picture of what a solo expedition to the North Pole involves in this day and age:

"Sometimes using the sledge like a canoe"

[DungeonMaster]

Barneo team have found a floe - hope it won't split as it did in 2012 (or was it 2011 ?)

[DungeonMaster]

Ouch, I was wrong after all.

There's no sign of a "classic" expedition, however I read about two Russian expediations on Barneo's blog:
- MLAE-2013, started from Severnaya Zemlya, planning to reach Resolute (!!), in 2 special amphibious trucks ; they reached the North pole on april, 7. They already reached the Pole in April 2011, which I had missed. They have met first-year ice and leads.
- two Russians started a dogsled expedition from North Pole (via Barneo) to south Greenland on the same April 6. They website seems to be empty so far.

Trucks have a chance as they can cross leads, but I'd be surprised if dogsleds succeed.

I'll try to post main updates here.

[Laurent]

There is an expedition from greenpeace :
http://intothearctic.gp/

[Laurent]

http://www.underthepole.com/eng/presentation/project/
They want to prepare this year and go under greenland ice in 2014.

[Jim Hunt]

There is an expedition from greenpeace :

which is already being discussed here:

http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,196

[Laurent]

http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/the-tara-oceans-polar-circle-expedition-departure-on-may-19th-2013.php?id_page=1351

Tara is going back to the arctic !

[Anne]

It seems Sebastien Roubinet has found sponsorship for his expedition using an ice-boat catamaran hybrid, Babouchka. He and Vincent Berthet are setting out next month. There is a blog hosted by the sponsors, DP Technology, here.

[Tor Bejnar]

Sebastien Roubinet has found sponsorship for his expedition

A thread was started for this expedition, as the expedition is on the ice (or in the water):  http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,435.0.html.  The referenced French and English language blogs are not duplicates of each other; there are more entries in French.

[Laurent]

This Man Will Live On A Melting Iceberg For One Year. Here's Why. (planned in spring 2015)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/25/man-lives-iceberg_n_5709385.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

[Laurent]

This Is Really Extreme Science': Adrift in the Arctic Ice With a Shipload of Norwegians
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150223-arctic-ice-ship-lance-norway-global-warming-environment/

[cats]

Laurent - thanks for posting - I remember reading about this some time ago but had forgotten exactly when it was supposed to happen.  The Arctic continues to have surprises for all of us :-) !

[Jim Hunt]

Don't forget the drifting Norwegian hovercraft!

http://www.geonova.no/diaries/sabvabaa/

[Jim Hunt]

The latest from RV Lance, on March 10th:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150310-arctic-expedition-sea-ice-sunrise-lance-norwegian-polar-institute/

83.07 Degrees North—We awoke to a deafening noise. First a low grumble and a moan, then high-pitched screeches that brought to mind a freight train grinding to a halt. The whole ship trembled and rocked. Then a peaceful quiet returned.

Outside the Lance’s frost-covered portholes, the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean appeared transformed. Huge slabs of snowpacked ice were piled up nearly as high as the port-side railing. The barren white plain beyond had become strewn with rubble. Squeezed on both sides, the Lance had been lifted three feet (one meter). It was as though, overnight, some titanic bulldozer had rumbled in from the south and rearranged the entire jigsaw puzzle of sea ice in its path.

For a day, 40-mile-per-hour winds and blinding snow pummeled the ship, which became, as Nansen once described the Fram, “a little oasis … in the vast ice desert.”

“I’m very surprised by the frequency of these storms tracking this far north,” remarked an atmospheric scientist with NPI, Lana Cohen, as she stared out the window at a gaping crack that had split the ten-foot-thick (three-meter) floe to which the ship was attached.

[Tor Bejnar]

Thanks, Jim:
An internet search of <<R.V. Lance 2015 Arctic>> brought forth a slew of interesting articles about what researchers are doing aboard (and off-board) the ship.

[LRC1962]

My imagination just caught hold of me, thinking in terms of past centuries to the first arctic explorers having only wooden sail ships no radio and no other humans for 100s of miles away. And understanding that if things did not improve in a hurry they could all die.
Somehow makes one think we have gotten softer in some ways. Why aren't we on the moon?

[Jim Hunt]

The latest from Sabvabaa, on March 16th:

The first glimpse of the sun revitalizes the Sabvabaa team

The return of the light was a big change and brings back a feeling of more energy. Our first priority was to assess the surrounding ice landscape. Our floe or flat area is about 200 x 400 meter and appears like a reasonable place to be. The prevailing scenery in our neighborhood is one with ice blocks scattered around everywhere and in general not particularly friendly for hovercraft driving.

[Jim Hunt]

Sabvabaa has had a few problems. Firstly a pressure ridge formed under their camp. That was followed by a wide lead next to the new camp. Then they had to survive without power in temperatures around -30° C until the Norwegian Air Force managed to air drop a couple of generators:

http://www.geonova.no/diaries/sabvabaa/weeks-31-32-30-march-13-april-2015/

[Laurent]

Anne Queméré will try again the north west passage...
http://www.anne-quemere.com/?p=3711&lang=en

[Tor Bejnar]

Modified Hummers to make 400-mile trek across Arctic Ocean to Barrow (from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska)

A nonprofit company called Drive Around the World plans to test its hybrid Hummers on the U.S. Arctic Ocean from Prudhoe Bay to Barrow and back, a 408-mile journey designed to prepare the team for a Hummer-powered expedition to the South Pole in December.


A team of adventurers planning to drive a pair of hybrid Hummers to the South Pole later this year will soon test the specially modified vehicles on a 400-mile run across the frozen Arctic Ocean off the Alaska coast.

The “micro-expedition” leaving the Prudhoe Bay oil fields next week will give organizers a chance to drive the vehicles in subzero temperatures under the eyes of an Alaska off-road guide trained to handle polar bear encounters, according to the group’s application for a state land-use permit. While polar bears won't be an issue in Antarctica, cold and ice will.

The effort has been organized by Drive Around the World, a California-based nonprofit whose members have conducted previous long-distance treks to raise money or highlight social issues.
...

I hope they don't fall into a crack!
This is "not an expedition" really, so I figured it would fit here. 

[Sigmetnow]

How to engage the public's interest in polar exploration.

'Boaty McBoatface' Dominates Poll to Name Polar Research Ship

LONDON — When scientists in the U.K. asked the public to name their new $290 million polar research ship, they expected the name of an explorer such as Sir Ernest Shackleton or a naturalist like David Attenborough to eventually be emblazoned across the vessel's bow.

However, they didn't factor in the Brits' oddball sense of humor.

By 9 a.m. Monday (5 a.m. ET), more than 27,000 people had voted to name the ship "RRS Boaty McBoatface."

The poll was launched Thursday by the National Environment Research Council, the government-funded body building the ship in Cammell Laird shipyard, near Liverpool.

Expected to set sail in 2019, the 420-foot vessel will "provide the U.K. with the most advanced floating research fleet in the world," the NERC said.

When contacted by NBC News early Monday, a staffer at the research council said no public affairs officials were available to speak because they were all in a "crisis meeting."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/boaty-mcboatface-dominates-poll-name-polar-research-ship-n542431