Here are highlights from the February 2000 issue of Expedition News. For a free sample issue, send a self-addressed stamped envelope (33 cents postage) to the below address. - The Editors
February 2000 - Volume Seven, Number Two
is a monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online and by mail to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.
Two Norwegian adventurers and frequent traveling partners plan to depart this month on a record 1,677-mi. trek across the frozen Arctic Ocean. Rune Gjeldnes and Torry Larsen, both 28, hope to become the first to cross the ocean on skis and without assistance or supplies from the outside. In the past decade, nine expeditions have tried and failed to set one of the last great polar records.
This year, an expedition called Ethiopian Venture plans to study stalagmites and tree rings in Ethiopia, build an historical climate profile of the country, and, hopefully predict future climatic events.
New York artist Reid Stowe, 48, and his recent bride, Laurence Guillem, 26, lived in their own private Waterworld for over half a year. They spent 196 days at sea in the South Atlantic on their 70-ft. gaff schooner, living self-sufficiently and out-of-sight of land. And oh yes, lest we forget, they traced an imaginary giant sea turtle in the process (See EN, April 1999).
- A German-led expedition departed early last month to repeat an epic 800-mi. boat journey in the wake of British
Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton 84 years ago.
The four-member Shackleton 2000 Expedition will attempt to follow the exact iceberg-strewn route taken by the British
explorer when he took to small boats after his vessel, the Endurance, was crushed in pack ice and sank in November
1915. His voyage is regarded as one of the greatest survival feats of the 20th century.
Australian Peter Treseder and Briton Tim Jarvis, who were attempting to cross Antarctica unassisted, had to abandon their journey on Dec. 19 just two days beyond the South Pole after finding that fuel had contaminated a significant part of their food. The Operation Chillout Expedition returned to the Pole and was airlifted out by Adventure Network International, according to the Antarctic Non-Government Activity News (ANAN).
- Catharine Hartley, 34, and Fiona Thornewill, 33, became the first British women to walk to the South Pole in early January after a 700-mi., two-month trek across Antarctica. They were part of a nine-person guided team which included Thornewill's husband, Mike, a 37-year-old policeman.
- Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark headed for Greenland in early January for a 2,100 mi. (3,500 km) dog sled expedition expected to last four months in extreme Arctic weather conditions. Using three sleds, each pulled by 13 dogs, the six-man expedition plans to set off from Quaanaaq in the northwest this month, traveling on skis along the shore. Prince Frederik, 31, and his teammates hope to reach the east coast village of Mestersvig by mid-June.
A New Year's Day millennium special on CNN examined what's left to explore in an engaging conversation with Explorers Club members and extreme medicine pioneer Ken Kamler, M.D., oceanographer Sylvia Earle, archaeologist Angela Schuster, giant squid expert and author Richard Ellis, and EC President Fred McLaren. Says Sylvia Earle in the opening, "The really frustrating thing is to be at this turning point in history and have so many people not realize how much there is left to discover right here on earth. The greatest era of exploration is just beginning."
- Explorers Club members have discovered the North and South Poles, the ocean's deepest trench, and circled
the globe non-stop in a balloon. On March 25, 1,300 members of this prestigious 96-year-old international organization
will explore the halls of New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel during its Millennium Dinner.
This year's theme is "Time and Exploration" and will feature presentations by the last men to walk the
moon, the Director of Time at the U.S. Naval Observatory, and the discoverer of Peru's Inca Ice Mummies.
An exhibit of expedition suppliers will precede the dinner along with a particular favorite of the organization
- a selection of exotic hors d'oeuvres which this year will feature edible insects.
Speakers for the Club's first annual dinner of the Millennium are: Captain Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on
the moon; Michael Finley, Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park; Dennis McCarthy, Director of the Directorate
of Time at the U.S. Naval Observatory; Carolyn Porco, planetary scientist of the Cassini Mission to Saturn; Johan
Reinhard, the world-renowned archaeologist who unwrapped the secrets of Peru's Inca Ice Mummies; former Astronaut
and U.S. Senator Harrison Schmitt, next-to-last man on the moon; and Neil De Grasse Tyson, an astronomer and director
of New York's Hayden Planetarium.
And about those insects .... one favorite tradition of The Explorers Club annual dinner are servings of exotic
hors d'oeuvres that are reminiscent of what explorers sometimes call food as they travel the world. "Tarantulas
are on the menu and I understand they are particularly tasty," said dinner chairman and Club member Doc Hermalyn.
"Let's face it, explorers have to be ready for anything when they travel to remote corners of the earth. They're
not always going to be served Peking duck." (For more information: 212 628 8383; www.explorers.org).
- Tibet, Nepal, China - Easy 7000, 8000 meter peaks. Cho-Oyu, Mustagh-Ata, Nojin-Kansa. Low cost. Well organized.
mazur@cybernet1.com, www.cybernet1.com/himalaya; tel. 406 363 7747.
- Join ZEGRAHM EXPEDITIONS and the world's TOP EXPLORERS as we travel to the most remote and remarkable places
on earth. Underwater archeologist JAMES DELGADO leads submersible expeditions to the wreck of the legendary Titanic.
Explorers FRED McLAREN and DON WALSH dive deep under the Arctic ice in high-tech subs to a 19th-century shipwreck.
In July, oceanographer SYLVIA EARLE and nature photographer ART WOLFE delve deep underwater to observe six gill
sharks. And in November 2000, best-selling author CAROLINE ALEXANDER tells the story of explorer par excellence,
Sir Ernest Shackleton, during our Circumnavigation of South Georgia. For reservations/information: ZEGRAHM
EXPEDITIONS, 192 Nickerson St., #200, Seattle, WA 98109. Phone: 800 628 8747, 206 285 4000; Fax:
206 285 5037; Web site: www.zeco.com; E-mail: zoe@zeco.com
.
EXPEDITION NEWS
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