Recent decision
The North Pole expedition has been deferred for 12 months. In the meantime
An expedition will take place in Patagonia.
Patagonia
Nestled within the Andes mountain range in the southern Chilean area of Patagonia lie two icecaps - Heilo Nord (north) and Hielo Sur (south). These icecaps are fed by high levels of rain or snow as the wind brings moisture up from the Atlantic Ocean and dumps it on the Andes.
Our expedition will be on the Hielo Sur, an icecap that meanders between mountain peaks from the fiords of Chile, down almost 400 kilometers, to the area well known to backpackers and climbers - the Torre de Paine.
We are intending to ascend the Jorge Montt Glacier, traverse the icecap in a south easterly direction and descend the Upsala Glacier to Lago Argentino. Jorge Montt Glacier needs to be reached by boat and will take a large proportion of our time to climb as we pick our way up the heavily crevassed glacier.
The route across the icecap will take us past Vulcan Lautoro and the Viedma Glacier, providing glimpses of the magnificent Mont Fitzroy. The descent of the Upsala Glacier will again take time and may involve portage of our sleds over the rocks beside the glacier and down to the lake where we will be met by a boat.
We are going in winter to avoid the gale force winds that the icecap is renowned for and to minimize exposure to rain. We’ve been warned to expect large snow falls instead and will be reinforcing our tent with double poles as a precaution. Day length will be short and the temperatures will drop to below -30° at night.
We are expecting a challenging trip that will test our stamina and skills in a setting that will be spectacularly beautiful.
To follow the expedition:
- to receive an email letting you know when a dispatch has arrived go to The Icecap Journeys Updates page and enter details via the alerts tab.
- To see an expedition blog with contributions from schools students go to Aus Patagonia Expedition Blog
- for teaching resource material: journeysforlearning.com.au
- twitter: icecapjourneys
- Listen to 3BO on Wednesday and Friday mornings between 9 and 10 am during the expedition.
- Follow the expedition with students on Superclubsplus
Thankyou to the Bendigo Community Telco for providing the communication kit, DEECD for funding the lesson guide production, School Focused Youth Services for funding visits to 7 Bendigo schools and alpineSAR for managing communication during the expedition.
Thank you to Julie, Bev, Michael and others who voluntarily gave many hours to setting up the opportunities to link into the expedition.
Carbon Neutral to the North Pole
The Journey
The North Pole Expedition is a journey to be undertaken by a small team of 3 or 4 people in February and March 2009. The journey will be a hazardous one - negotiating extreme cold and polar bears between Ward Hunt Island (Canada) and the North Pole. The distance as the crow flies is about 800 kms, though the journey will be considerably longer as sea currents push the team backwards and route finding through open leads and ice ridges will necessitate frequent deviations. Given the effect of global warming in the Arctic there is no garantee of success.
The journey will epitomise the classical challenges of human endeavour. Team members will need to draw deep into their reserves of courage, determination, resilience and hope. They will need to manage their relationships and ability to function as a team during times of high challenge. They will experience strong highs and lows as the inevitable challenges of weather, cold and difficult contrast with the beauty of the arctic, the joys of gaining ground and the emotional warmth generated by a cohesive and productive team effort.
Students in schools across Victoria will follow the journey, learning from the experiences of the team and reflecting on their own challenges and triumphs. Communication from the team will allow real time provision of information - providing students with a learning scenario with no certain outcome - a true reflection of life's challenges. Young people involved in Lead On may also become involved, undertaking real organisational, marketing, communication or support roles.
The North Pole expedition will capture the involvement of young people in the project through the creation of a documentary that will follow the journey of the Lead On participants and some students. The documentary will be shaped to promote mental health - using both the experiences of the young people and the expeditioners to identify real life lessons about resilience and good mental health.
Finally the expedition will follow the precedent of previous expeditions undertaken by Linda Beilharz in being carbon neutral - utilising interest in the expedition to educate about and modelgreenhouse gas emission reduction and offsetting
The Team
Linda Beilharz
Rob Rigato
Kerryn Wratt
What is Carbon Neutral?
- this expedition will have a neutral effect on the amount of Greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
What we put in we will take out!
How do we do it? - we will use an audit tool to predict the greenhouse gas emissions that will occur during our expedition (including the flights to get there and back again).
We will then sequester the equivalent of those emissions- eg by buying carbon offset credits from the Bendigo Bank. The Bank will then plant trees which will absorb carbon as they grow. Those trees will be indigenous to the area in which they are planted, chosen and located to support biodiversity and the water cycle, decrease salinity and generally complement the surrounding ecosystem.
We will be doing what we can to reduce our emissions in the first place by minimising fuel use, reducing use of packaging and choosing low emission production of gear where possible and so on.
Find out more about 'Carbon Neutral'