April 2:
After a fine farewell presentation on Wednesday (March 29) Team 2000 left 100 Mile House on Friday, heading north. Yesterday (Saturday) the team flew from Edmonton to Resolute Bay. Satellite photos show a blizzard at the magnetic North Pole and the resulting winds and poor visiblity means they cannot yet fly north.
They spent the day training out of Resolute on the sea ice, setting up camp and pulling sleds through pressure ridges. Tomorrow, weather permitting, they fly on to the magnetic North Pole.

Sunday April 2nd - Devlin:
Our travel date has finally arrived. Arriving at Edmonton International airport we caravan out gear into the check-in. After a full hour and a half of scurrying around all our baggage gets checked in. We end up running to our gate where they are patiently waiting. The flight to Resolute includes a stop at Yellowknife, North West Territories where we almost lose a bunch of our gear. Devlin noticing a trolley with our gear being taxied back to the airport as we are departing. He promptly informed the pilots and we stopped to have our gear re-boarded - Close call! As we arrive in Resolute, Im struck by the beauty of the wild landscape, I wonder if it will still be as beautiful as I stand humbly upon it with a heavy sled and a few clothes to separate me from its chilling bite. Were actually here and I can hardly believe it!

Blessing in disguise.
We woke feeling tired but ready. All our preparations were completed and we were happy that we could leave. The weather had another idea though and we were told that we could not fly due to white-out conditions at the pole. This was extremely frustrating for me because I just want to get going. However it presented us with a chance to check and re-check equipment and go through various aspects of the route as well as our sun navigation methods. In the afternoon we took out our sleds for a trial run on the sea ice. We also put up our tents to make sure everything is perfect before we leave. Above all we had a chance to rest tired bodies. All in all it was good to rest but it is time to set off, The Pole beckons.

Resolute Bay is a tiny village of Inuit (Eskimo) people, researchers, and logistic suppport staff in the Canadian high Arctic. Surrounded by a rolling hilly landscape covered in snow. We are staying in the Inuit village, close to the ocean which is frozen solid at this time of year. The village is a collection of wood frame houses, with lots of big Eskimo dogs barking outside. The noise is quite wild, the barking of dogs, the high pitched burps and whine of the snow mobiles that the people also use to travel on. Outside any house we can see essential differences between our southern lives and how people live up here; there are frozen seals, chopped up seals, polar bear skins stretched to dry; a huge wooden sled 16 feet long loaded with camping equipment. The Inuit are still living close to the land; still eating seal meat, hunting, and now with the growing interest of western in the arctic, they are guiding tourists, film crews, and supplying expeditions. They are a very happy, if shy people, very helpful to us. The school kids laugh a lot as they play outside, quite oblivious to the cold.

The wind and cold keep the snow packed hard as pavement in places, as Styrofoam in others. It also squeaks like Styrofoam as we walk over it, the sharp snow crystals crunching together with a sound that can send shivers up my back. It is a mild day by local standards, minus 22 Celsius right now. The normal temperatures for this time of year are minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius.

Global warming has had a huge effect in this area, the local people are warning us that the sea ice, over which we will be traveling is getting thinner each year, so much so that they cannot now go in some areas that were used frequently for travel because of the danger of going for a swim through the thin ice. We make a mental note of this!! 

April 5:
The team are planning to fly today to the Magnetic North Pole. The bad weather and thick cloud that has kept the team pinned down in Resolute Bay for the past few days has changed: satellite images reveal that the sky is clear, temperatures are minus 35 degrees Celcius and the wind is estimated at 30 knots - very chilly conditions. The team leader, Laurie Dexter, reports that everyone is anxious to be on their way. The plan is to travel for two hours and then set up camp.

April 5 - Jessica:
Yahoo!!! Finally after 4 days of being stuck at Resolute, we boarded the tiny plane heading to the North Pole! The flight was absolutely amazing! Miles and miles of never-ending glistening white awaited. We received a nice slap in the face once we got off the plane. None of us quite realized what -35°C really felt like. It hurt as it cut straight through five layers of clothing into our bones. We traveled for about an hour to warm up and called it a day as it was already 7 p.m. All I can say is wow!

April 6 - Jay:
It's our second day here. We are in the middle of pressure ridges. It is hard to go on. 3-4 people here carry one sled to pass. We did 6 km today and it is not bad for our first real day. It was nice to have team building in training.

Friday 7th April:
Radio contact with the team is not possible because of a magnetic storm that is affecting communications in the region.

April 7 - Naoki:
It's third day in the Arctic! We still continue to walk in the pressure ridge. We walked just 3 km today even though we skied a full 7 hours. I made a hole in my pee bottle, and I spilled my pee in the pot on the dinner. This is worst accident in my life.

Saturday 8th April Magnetic North Pole:
The team reports by radio that they are in very heavy sea ice pressure ridges, making travelling difficult. They have travelled 8 miles in 3 full days. They are all well and in good spirits. Temperatures are in the minus 30 degrees Celcius range with winds from the north.

April 8 - Renaud
After a night of being woken up by the huge cracks of the ice, and with finally no ice breaks around the tent, we're gone again. But this day is bringing us out of the maze built by those every-form and every-size ice blocks, to a flatter section. We're on the ocean still but out of the ridges! The result is quickly seen! 9 kms for today in the exact direction we wanted! I think we might miss those walls of ice that could reach around 8 meters sometimes.

April 9 - Dylan
Today (-25 to -35° C) sunny and beautiful. We are leaving the practice and venturing out onto flatter sea ice. I am inspired by the landscape around me, the harshness of the cold speaks to me of my own frailness as a human being. I said I'd never believe this whole thing was real until we landed on the polar ice cap. Now the arctic wind snaps at my face reminding me with every moment to be thankful for following this dream.

Monday 10th April - Magnetic North Pole:
Dylan Spencer reported today by HF radio that the very difficult travelling through rough ice has eased off for now, and the team is moving faster on smoother ocean ice. Temperatures are minus 26 degrees Celcius, with light winds. All members of the team are well.

April 10 - Devlin:
Today was a milestone. We reached our first way-point called Cape Germaine. We made camp on land tonight after a good day of 16.2 km, our best so far. We also increased our travel time to 8 hours. We are now traveling between 10 am and 6 pm. With the sun at its highest, the zenith, at 2 pm, we are using the warmest hours of the day to travel by.

April 11 - Mercedes:
In terms of hours of skiing it was the shortest day but hopefully it was the longest in distance, 16.8 km. We crossed an amazing long and flat white landscape. At the end of the day, we met with all the team in our "Laurie's Girls tent," considering conditions it was a long time (20 min). We talked about the resupplies and the conditions of everyone. Even though some have blisters or little aches, everyone is in good spirits.

April 12 - Heidi
Today we traveled our longest distance yet: 19.9 km. Whoo Hoo!! Laurie taught me how to navigate like the native people using the ripples in the snow called sastrugi. We set up camp in very strong winds which makes every task longer and colder, but one can't expect more in the arctic, eh??

Thursday 13th April - North Magnetic Pole: The Pole To Pole team have traveled 55 miles (88 km) in the first week of our 9 month (21,000 mile, 33,000 km) expedition. We are now averaging 12 kilometers per day. The difficult pressure ridges of frozen ice are hard on people and equipment. To climb over some ridges we have to balance on skis over ice blocks stacked 10-20 feet high.

The toll is as follows
- skis broken
- ski baskets broken
- ski skins ripped off the skis even though they were screwed on before leaving home
- blisters on feet from the twisting and moving for 8 hours a day. Mercedes from Argentina is probably the worst; hers are quite deep.

  In addition high winds and the cold contributed to very strong tent poles being broken!! Despite this the team is pressing forward. The team have encountered some open water (leads) to date. Open water is formed by the ice movement, and can be wide as several kilometers. The only option if wide leads are encountered is to wait for the lead to freeze over. This usually takes one day. Small leads of 20-30 feet are crossed by traveling along the lead until a place where the lead has narrowed to 3 feet is found, then we step across using our skis as a bridge.

  Temperatures are in the minus 20-30 degree Celsius range now.

April 13 - Jessica:
Today was very windy and very cold. I had to wear my Darth Vader mask all day long to prevent the wind from slapping at my face. My goal was to make the biggest snotsicle known to man. Your breath causes moisture to freeze at the end of your mask. 8 hours of heavy constant breathing made a snotsicle 6 inches long!!

Friday 14th April - North Magnetic Pole:
 A good days traveling, we did 20 kilometers, (12 miles) over smooth ice. It looks like the major pressure ridges are behind us.

April 15 - Jay:
Very windy whole day. Our team was not able to go on. So we just stayed in the camp, have a day off. It was not good to stay and to not go on, but at the same time it was perfect time to have a rest. I was personally tired, but after this day off . . . Im fine now. I am ready to keep go on.

April 15 - Naoki:
From early morning, it was continued very strong wind.  So we couldnt go today also. We enjoy talking and took rest and we talked about resupply in the evening.

Sunday 16th April - North Magnetic Pole. Minus 20 degrees Celsius:
  We have been pinned inside our tents by gale force winds for the last two days. As we wait, the moisture from our breath and our cooking freezes and falls into our sleeping bags, and makes them wetter and heavier. Each day we are adding about a pound of moisture. They are now really damp and losing their warmth. Fortunately they are synthetic bags, as down bags would probably be useless by now. It is pretty clammy, my clothes are damp as well. One advantage of the wait is that the resting is giving our blisters a chance to heal. The team is doing well with the wait, sleeping lots, counting the squares of ripstop fabric on the ceiling of the tent, and telling stories of our homes. It is pretty noisy in the tents, the wind makes the tent fabric flap and the tie downs hum.

April 16 - Renaud:
Finally were gone and tonight Ive got a special task: Im the cook as always 1 day out of 3.  Cooking is simple around here.  The first thing to do is have some water and for that we melt snow blocks.  Then for evenings we have 3 meals depending on the day: potato, rice or couscous and always soy and soup. The morning is oatmeal with hot chocolate. No lunch in days but breaks every hour with Gorp, sausage, a piece of cheese and chocolate.  Its not very varied but we are hungry anyway and its quite good after all!!

April 18 - Devlin:
Today we went down to the ocean. This means skiing downhill with your sled which normally goes faster than you do.  So many different styles were employed, some better than others.  Personally, I pack my skis on the sled and then run and dive on my sled.  This means I go tobogganing down the hill. This certainly seems to be the fastest and the most exciting way to get down. The only problem is that you cant steer or stop, but that just makes it more fun. At the end of the day we all got down safely and we headed off back onto the sea ice.

April 19 - Mercedes:
When today I took off my goggles - surprise!! I felt something extra on (like heavy) my cheek. Welcome to my first frostbite experience! Its big and swollen, and its very dark and hard . . . but thankfully it doesnt hurt. For the next few days Im going to use a sexy pad to cover most of my left cheek. Its the new Arctic Mode

Thursday April 20th 2000 - North Magnetic Pole It is getting warmer!!:
  Today we covered another 20 kilometers south, over fairly flat sea ice. The temperatures are minus 17 degrees and the sun is shining, a wonderful day to be out here. To our left we can see Elef Rignes Island, which we climbed over 2 days ago. Ahead of us is King Christian Island. We are doing well, blisters under control, frostnip stable, food good, navigation easy on such a sunny day. As our compasses do not work this close to the magnetic pole we navigate by using the position of the sun in the sky. At 6 am on our watches the sun is due east, so we travel 90 degrees to the position of the sun. By noon the sun is due south so we travel with the sun in our faces. We are getting good at this method of travel.
We are getting low on food, we have about 4 days left. We are getting a resupply of food by ski equipped Twin Otter aircraft, hopefully on Sunday.
Tomorrow is Easter, so we are keeping and eye out for the Easter Bunny, we hope it visits all of you!!

April 20 - Heidi:
Laurie and us girls stay in a big green mammoth of a tent. It goes up in literally 3 minutes which is super in extreme cold.  The problem is that it is horribly horribly cold. Let me give you a bit of an idea as to how cold it is . . . to use toothpaste or sunblock you have to leave it by the stove for a good 5 minutes, the ever dependent duct tape doesnt stick without some heat, the ink in this pen has frozen twice already and will freeze at least two more times before this entry is done, the lighter freezes, you have to wear a hat in bed, the moisture makes ice crystals on the roof which then falls on you in the night and if you do something silly like forget to empty the pee-bottle, youve got a pleasant surprise in the morning. There are a couple of good things about the cold, it is a great motivator to go skiing and it keeps us from smelling . . . at least it makes the stink less obvious.

April 21 - Jessica:
Today as absolutely amazing! It was one of the most beautiful days I have ever seen. The sky was more blue and clear than you can possibly imagine and the arctic sun was blazing radiating its majestic light and even its heat. The team could definitely tell a difference in temperature as we rejoiced at the idea of being able to strip down to only 2 layers of clothing. As the perfect day drew to an end, we had an incredible sighting. We saw our very first Arctic Polar Bear!! It was an absolutely breathtaking sight as the massive 1000lb bear stood on its hind legs trying to find our scent in the wind with its nose in the air. With 2 guns out ready to shoot if needed, we could only marvel at the magnificence of the creature as it paced back and forth, closer to us in curiosity. At 30 meters away, and still approaching, Laurie was forced to scare it away by shooting off to the side. As we continued, about 200 meters away, we found its tracks leading to its pee, poop, and a freshly dug hole for finding a seal! It was definitely the perfect ending to a perfect day!!

Sunday 23rd April 2000 - North Magnetic Pole, Minus 18 degrees C:
  Hooray! Were down to our last day of food today when we received our resupply today by Twin Otter aircraft from Resolute Bay. We were really happy to open the bags and find lots of goodies for our taste deprived mouths, and our blistered feet. The big hit are the extra granola and chocolate bars, as well as a variety of cookies that we gobbled up immediately. We received gear to replace the equipment broken in the desperate ice of the first days, new skis, fresh tent poles, and ski pole baskets.
  Bringing in the resupply was Emily Schindler, from Toronto, who is going to travel with us to Resolute Bay. She was accompanied by Lucas Amagualik, a local Inuit (Eskimo). They brought with them snowmobile support that will haul some of the gear that we have been hauling ourselves on our 140 lb. sleds. We have rested all day, eating, resting, sleeping and joking. Life is great on a full stomach!!

Tuesday April 25th, 2000 - King Christian Island, High Arctic:
 Full speed ahead!!
 Great traveling conditions: we did 45 kilometers (28 miles) today in a full day. We are ecstatic at our progress. The temperatures were great: minus 18 degrees C and sunny. We have easy travel conditions also, snow hard packed from the winds, and not too many pressure ridges. Blisters are not getting worse, and the frostnip is healing. During the day we travel for an hour, then rest for five minutes while we snack on our food, then travel for another hour. If we stop longer than five minutes we get cold, so we eat our lunch over several hours, sitting on our sleds, a bit of frozen cheese at this break, a cracker at the next, a fig at the next and so on throughout the day. We do this for about eight hours a day.

Thursday April 27th 2000:
 Another good days travel. We had good traveling conditions again today over sea ice that has only few pressure ridges. We are now approaching Bathurst Island, which we can barely see in the distance. We are more likely to encounter polar bears in this area. Polar bears are a very serious hazard, they have no fear of humans and regard us as food on the hoof if they are hungry. We have with us three forms of protection; one is Laurie Dexter and Simon Amoguliak, who have been around polar bears for years and know how to avoid dangerous situations. Secondly we have with us flares that make a loud bang to warn or scare the bear; thirdly we have shotguns which if we are attacked we can use in close quarters to defend ourselves. The polar bears are feeding on seals that come up on the ice through cracks and leads, if they come across our tracks they could follow us for many miles to find us.

April 30th, The High Arctic, Bathurst Island, minus 13 degrees C. Stormbound:
  The wind is howling outside, the tent is shaking, and we are cozy inside our sleeping bags, where we will spend the day, resting our sore muscles and catching up with our sleep as we catnap and snack drowsily. Weather here is warm again today. In fact, this area may have warmed up by about 1 degree in the last 20 years. Some places have a 30% thinner ice cap than 30 to 40 years ago. This area is not warming faster than other places. And there are no visible effects on animal life, so far. These steps are to switch as soon as possible to sustainable energy sources. We can be wise consumers; consuming products that are local, low packaging, organic, and sustainable. These actions can appear daunting, however on this journey we are moving forward each day by taking a series of simple steps. For example, McDonalds Sweden took a series of simple steps when it reduced garbage to one can a month at its outlets. One can a month. Now that is impressive!! Imagine if we all take a series of simple steps like that, we can change rapidly our environment.

Tuesday May 2, 2000, Sea Ice off Bathurst Island - North Pole guide Laurie Dexter:
18 hour days, sleep deprivation and rough ice.
Ice conditions continue to be extremely rough we have been pressing forward as hard as we can, doing 18 hour days. We covered 35 kilometers (22 miles) yesterday. We are all in great spirits, working as a team, routefinding through the morass of broken ice we are facing as we travel from 3 am until 9 p.m. We are really sleep deprived, team members are falling asleep whenever there is a break; at lunch, while wearing skis, resting on a small iceberg, there is someone nodding off! It is exciting travel, there is lots to solve, and a great ice sculptured landscape to see. We know we are behind schedule for this nine-month journey which is why we push every day. The whole team is in amazingly good spirits, despite the blisters, long hours and less than five hours sleep a night.

May 5th, Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territory, Canada:
  The Pole To Pole 2000 team was seen this morning in the distance cross country skiing quickly towards the village. Local residents phoned the office to report this and to let us know that it is a great sight. We expect the team to arrive in the next few hours. They have now completed the first 500 kilometers of their 33,000 kilometer journey.
  Once the team reach Resolute Bay they will rest then fly and drive to the northernmost road in Canada, the Dempster Highway to begin the bicycling on the second stage of their journey. They aim to start bicycling on May 11th from Inuvik. NWT.