Bernice Nootenboom and Expedition Hope

[werther]

The Dutch science journalist and adventurer Bernice Nootenboom, who knows the way to Neven’s blog, is on the sea ice with her companions Eric Philips and Martin Hartley.

I thought it would be no problem to try to support them on the Forum with this collage of pics. You see some training on Svalbard with the expedition logo and Bernice with her sledge on the ice.



I added an image of the ’07 minimum with the part of the route that the team has covered on their way to Ellesmere.
And, to illustrate the bonds this tiny team has in the far, far distance of our civilized world, I added a pic of mayor Gribl, city of Augsburg, Germany, on the phone with Bernice. Augsburg supports the expedition embedded in their “Plant-for-the-Planet” participation.

The two young women onn the photo are ambassadors of this initiative, that aims at planting “1000 billion” trees in an effort to save the climate.

To follow the team go for: http://en.expedition-hope.org/

According to their blog the team is dealing with a fierce last winter-whack; they endure -38 dC. The daily composites on ESRL/NCEP-NCAR show there's a wide swath N of Greenland showing -2 to -3 dC temp anomalies during the last days.

Reason is the long trail of winds passing the ice pack between Alaska and Greenland. Part of the steering winds that push the pack into Fram and the Barentsz Sea.

[Jim Hunt]

There's also some pictures from Expedition Hope on Martin Hartley's web site:

http://www.martinhartley.com/news/

and/or Twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/MartinRHartley

Plenty more from previous Catlin expeditions at:

http://www.martinhartleypolar.com/

[Jim Hunt]

A map from Barneo. Expedition Hope are heading in the opposite direction to everyone else!

[Jim Hunt]

From Bernice on the Expedition Hope Blog yesterday:

When Eric turned on his GPS this morning, he stated in disbelief that we had drifted back 11 km to the east overnight. The wind rattled the fabric of our tent all night long and our mats and sleeping bags are covered with snow from the blowing drift finding a way through the zippers of our tent. “It is miserable outside, and if there is no visibility, I am not keen on going out given yesterdays experience”.

Martin went outside. He reported nil visibility and drifting snow blowing horizontally. It is official, we are caught in a blizzard. The barometric pressure dropped to below 900 bars and keeps on dropping. Cully reports a giant storm covering all of the Arctic. The storm is moving towards Russia but winds of 30 to 56 km/hr are reported everywhere on the Arctic ocean. My nose and fingers are still recovering from frost nip and I am not particularly interested in more exposure and risk serious frostbite if we need to ski in this freezing wind. In the meantime, the odometer on the GPS reads a drift of 1 km to the east per hour: that is 24 km overnight! We are now at same longitude as when we started 10 days ago, which is starting to be a concern. Pray for a wind shift in the eastern and southern direction. Too much to our chagrin we call in a tent day.

The expedition map from Barneo confirms the difficult conditions:

[cats]

Very interesting expedition to follow. 
There is another expedition led by Eric Larsen (Save the Poles)  http://www.savethepoles.com/updates/]  [url]http://www.savethepoles.com/updates/ [/url] -  that is going from Canada to the Pole - opposite direction to Expedition Hope.  Interesting to read the blog and see the ice conditions they are encountering.

[Jim Hunt]

There is another expedition led by Eric Larsen (Save the Poles)

Thanks for the heads up cats. I've created a dedicated thread for the Save the Poles expedition.

[Jim Hunt]

The latest photo from Martin Hartley:

This is what happens to the surface of frozen ocean during high tide, under a full moon... It breaks up!

[Jim Hunt]

Expedition Hope are speeding in roughly the right direction once more. According to Eric Philips' blog:

Eight hours in the harness gave us a record 22km. Woohoo! We crossed many leads, all with a slender ribbon of slush where it freezes last. These are often tricky to cross but our amphibious sleds make great barges, rafts and bridges. 589km to Canada. A couple of fog banks passed over us and although the sun doesn’t provide us any warmth as yet the effect of it’s disappearance has quite a psychological impact.

However Barneo seems to be speeding towards the Fram Strait!

[ChasingIce]

The Dutch science journalist and adventurer Bernice Nootenboom, who knows the way to Neven’s blog, is on the sea ice with her companions Eric Philips and Martin Hartley.

Bernice is a hilarious.  Loved her latest blog update from yesterday. 

I speak compassionate to my sled and call her baby while Eric curses when she gets stuck behind a block of ice and calls her b*tch.

[cats]

After getting a resupply and a relocation to the west via airplane (they had drifted about 142 km to the east), Expedition Hope is at 85deg 14min N, 79def 18min W and battling lots of pressure ridges and big leads. 

[werther]

Reading the blog on their site, Expedition Hope, it is announced that the team cannot fulfill their goal.
Having followed their journey from the beginning, it was clear through MODIS 250m resolution that the team would be extremely challenged after passing the 400 kim distance.

The ice North of Ellesmere may be mainly MYI, but through the last few years its structure has become much less 'solid'.

The descriptions by Bernice and the team will remain an intimate close-up of that quality just a few years before the Arctic Ocean will enter the stage of essentially ice free during late summer. Their experience will probably be the last on this route and in this time of the year.

I thank them for the possibility to see and feel through their eyes and senses... what a document they made!

[Clare]

Hear hear Werther,

They have battled so hard and it must have been a hard call to make, to stop now. But their safety is the priority & it was never about their egos etc etc. It's now up to the rest of us to complete the task/challenge they set.
Go out & plant a tree!