Modern-Day Polar Explorers

Most of the post-dinner activities on the ship have been bar talks and the like where an expedition team member regales passengers with stories. We’ve not been attending them. For two reasons. One, we use the time to rest up for the next day. Two, gathering in large groups in an enclosed space for a couple of hours when COVID-19 can still rear its ugly head is not something we want to risk.

(You might say that we gather in large groups for the lectures, so what’s the difference? There is no eating and drinking in the Ambassadors Theater most of the time, so people are more prone to keeping their masks on then.)

Tonight, however, there were special guests onboard and they were going to give a presentation. So, we headed to the Ambassadors Lounge to be regaled by their story.

Our guests: Borge Ousland and Vincent Colliard, a pair of modern-day polar explorers.

The Topic at Hand: Borge’s winter crossing in the Arctic … entirely in the dark.

Borge is the first person to solo to the North Pole … and he also did a solo crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole. He and Vincent are in the midst of their latest quest … to ski across the 20 largest glaciers around the world as part of an expedition called the Ice Legacy Project.

In their words … “Glaciers are in fast decline due to rising temperatures, causing threat of long-term sea level rise. They are crucial as a fresh water source for millions of people worldwide. This is why glaciers need to be better known and protected. The world needs to find technical and political solutions to the environmental crisis. This long-term expedition is meant to be an incubator to that process, a visual example and a window to what is happening.” ~~ from the http://www.icelegacy.com/ website.

Christian had convinced Borge and Vincent to join us at our first scheduled stop in South Baffin Island. Well, we all know how that turned out. Instead, we picked them up in Arctic Bay this afternoon and will drop them off in Dundas Harbor on Devon Island tomorrow. From there … well their plan is to ski across the Devon Ice Cap. We wish them good luck!Weiterlesen