The end of the expedition.

Monday, May 11th 2010 – Ghislain

The team is back in Resolute after 45 days on and under the sea ice.

Monday, May 10th 2010 – Manue

Progressing, camping, diving to testify
from this drifting world...

4 team members are actually flying toward Cape Discovery.

Sunday, May 9th 2010 (day 45) – Valentine and Ghislain on the phone.

Today, the day started very early for everyone: 4:00am for the team in order to mark the strip properly and 5.30am in Resolute to wait for their first weather report. 6am: The team says they have a cloud cover of 8/8 and low contrast. After talking with many experts, the pilots decide to wait a little to observe the evolution. 9am: cloud cover is a little lighter up there, they see a shy sun and the contrasts becomes more assertive. This is not ideal but in May, full sunny days almost do not exist anymore on the sea ice. Indeed, the ice melts and it evaporates gases, leads open up and disturb the temperature, all this creates clouds. Cloud cover is anyway much more sustained, "it is the time for weather windows," says Wayne, "we have to find a small window, just enough time for the flight and grab it right away. You never know when will be the next one. Moreover, it does not depend anymore only on the high/low pressure systems that are in the Arctic but more on local air traffic, thus on melting level. Nothing better than their weather report directly from there.

10:30am : the pilots decide to leave Eureka and head to the team, hoping that improved weather observed progresses. 3.30pm: The Twin is now an hour and a half away from the team GPS position. The pilots are in contact with them by satellite phone.
5pm: The Twin has landed well, 4 team members and half of the equipment are on board (Clement, Pascal, Alban and Benoit), heading towards Cape Discovery.
The weather seems this time to help us a little and few clearing-ups appear "at the right time," says Ghislain.

8.15pm: The Twin arrived in Cape Discovery, and dropped off the team. It is already on its way back to fetch the second half of the team (approx. 5-6 hours back/forth). The DC3 will normally leave Resolute at 10pm to get to Cape Discovery.

The flights are currently confirmed. If all goes as planned and the weather makes us one last glance, we should have the team back in Resolute early tomorrow morning local time, so in the afternoon for France, after a full night flying.

Time to go home.

Saturday, May 8th 2010 (day 44) – Valentine and Manue on the phone.

"A large lead opened up today near the camp as we expected and we are very happy because we were able to dive in it. We were able to take photos “half-air half-water”, very nice ones. Samuel, Ghislain and I had our breakfast and a tea in the igloo this morning, it is quite unforgettable and we laughed a lot! Tonight, we just ended our last gas liter to inflate our diving bottles. We plan on diving for the last time of the expedition tonight, the 53rd dives if I am not wrong. We have only very little space left on the computer and on the USB keys for our pictures, we have almost no tapes left for filming, so it is time to go home”. Manue.

Tonight, the Twin Otter decided to leave Resolute and head to Eureka to wait there for a good weather window. It is then only about five hours flight to reach the team’s position from there. The weather might be good for tomorrow, as previously announced, but we will check that at 6:00am tomorrow morning by a weather report from the team and by talking to the pilots right after to confirm or cancel the flight.
If the flight is possible, then the Twin Otter will leave right away to their position, the pilot can then judge the strip found by the team. Once the loading is performed, the Twin Otter will head to Cape Discovery with half the team where it will meet the DC3. A second round trip will be necessary. The return to Resolute will be very late in the evening, if the plan works as expected.
Therefore, if the flight is confirmed, the team will have to mark the strip very clearly tomorrow early morning to make it as obvious as possible.

Drift is helping us, they crossed 88°N last night.

Friday, May 7th 2010 (day 43) – Valentine and Manue/Ghislain on the phone.

"I just came out of the water, the dive was incredible: Samuel and I went down to 35 meters deep, it is the deepest dive done since the beginning. This gave us a very different prospective and we discovered a new underwater life, again a little different than before. It would be very interesting to study also this world at this depth". Ghislain

"We now have an igloo ready with an ice garden table in front of it! Last night, Samuel has slept in, he was very happy to be in a place without smell and snoring noises ... for one night! The dive that I made with Ghislain and Samuel was magnificent today". Manue

Now that the sun is appearing around the pole, the weather worsened around Resolute and northern Ellesmere (refuelling place for our planes). Today, we had a blizzard in Resolute with winds up to 50 km/h and a maximum visibility of 200-300 meters (sometimes even only 10 meters!).
The flight plan has changed a little for logistical reasons: a Twin Otter will leave from Resolute the day before the recovery appears to be possible to be already ready in Eureka for the D-Day. The next morning, a DC3 leaves from Resolute with fuel aboard to refuel the Twin Otter plane north of Ellesmere. This Twin will fly to the team and pick up half of them and equipment. On his return to the supply place, the load will be transferred from one plane to another; the Twin Otter will take off again and head to pick up the other half of the team. Once all are back, we finally transfer everything in the DC3 (which can contain easily all the team and equipment).

The same evening normally, the DC3 should be back in Resolute and the team will start the first step of their return to civilization.

Finally, pieces of blue sky!

Thursday, May 6th 2010 (day 42) – Valentine and Ghislain by email.

"The pilots and Wayne had planned it and as expected, the sun came back at the end of the day. It has been 5 days without it and it now feels really good: the sea ice is amazingly beautiful around us. Huge ice blocks emerge from the chaos south and east of our position, the visibility is excellent: light increase the ice and snow beauty and highlights the contrasts that make this landscape so mesmerizing. This nice weather also offers more possibility for a possible flight back to Resolute in the upcoming days. If it stays like this and provides a proper weather window of at least 24 hours to the pilots, our pick –up flight could happen on Saturday or Sunday. We have all accepted our early return and are now ready to go back on land.

Personally, I would have liked to stay longer, travelling on the ice few more weeks to follow its evolution until the summer. But I am also so happy about what we have achieved: today we made our 47th dive and the images that we bring back are a faithful testimony of the universe around us, there are magical and surreal. It is definitely time to go home to share and comment them. In 42 days we have experienced the strong cold that tired us a lot at our arrival on the ice, then the heat and the wind breaking the sea ice apart, blizzards and white-out days which made us loose our references, and now the ice melting time. If it is clearly visible on the surface as the sun rises in the sky, it is even more striking during dives. The straight and angular lines are now rounder, the cold and hard ice is getting softer, pieces break off here and there and head toward the surface along the ridge like an upside-down avalanche. We will soon leave the sea ice, each of us lives this experience and gets prepared in his own way as it was during the expedition.

We will find the “Kenn Borek Air” white and red planes back and their amazing pilots, then the shore and its colours before actually returning to civilization. Modestly first with the community of Resolute and then more and more close to what we are used to as
we head more south. In the meantime, we are still on our ice floe, as thick as needed to be very protective, and exactly 222.2 km from the geographic North Pole while I am writing those lines!" Ghislain.

Today, we had three weather reports from the team: the first (11am) and second (4pm) described another white day with a cloud cover of 8/8, little light but a visibility superior to 400 meters. For several days in a row the team has not seen the sun. Around 7pm, after the daily meeting with Wayne for the weather forecast for the following days, he concluded our talk : "tonight when they call, tell them to look north ... they should start to see blue sky and maybe even a little sunshine starting right now". 8:15 p.m, the team reports its weather: the clouds are finally leaving towards south, cloud cover is about 3/8 to 4/8, and finally a little light, sun and contrast.

The low pressure system that has been above them for the past days has finally decided to start leaving eastward slowly being replaced by a high pressure system approaching from the west. Winds will then gradually move to the west, then south-west, which, according to Wayne should finally bring more light and contrast. We also meet with the pilots every day who confirm this trend and will be the ones giving us the final “go” whenever they judge that the weather is good enough for a safe pick-up flight. However, tomorrow we will follow the detailed evolution of this announced clear-up.

A reader of our newsletter wrote to us that the unknown animal observed by our divers (picture May 4th) could be a sea gooseberry, Pleurobrachia pileus. Its characteristics: transparent ovoid ball 1 to 3 cm in diameter, light Iridescence on pallets hair, 2 long sticky tentacles branched and covered with colloblast, bilateral symmetry. It is also mentioned for Manue that what has been filmed in the movie "Abyss” by James Cameron is another sea gooseberry: Mnemiopsis leidyi.

Sharing the experience is crucial, during and after the expedition.

Wednesday, May 5th 2010 (day 41) – Valentine and Manue by email

Tonight, 8:00pm

"Today, we dove once with Benoit taking pictures. For the last few days, we feel that the current is getting stronger, nothing scary at all but it is becoming more noticeable. Algae are also more visible every day. While some of us were busy by the diving activity, three team members went checking the strip : it is still there and in good condition! Samuel began to build an igloo, everyone has obviously an opinion on how to do it but so far he is the only one really trying! Tomorrow, I will help him to check how that can work out and perhaps sleep in it if possible before the pick-up flight. Kayak managed to cut the rope with which I had attached it: it then found it very amusing that everybody was around trying to catch it. This led to a lot of funny situations and at least helped Kayak spend its energy a bit!" Manue.

The weather that the team had today is not good: a white-out half day this morning (cloud cover: 8/8) followed by a slight clearing-up early afternoon (cloud cover: 7/8). This is very important for pilots who judge the flight feasibility by the light and contrasts available there. It seems like it will clear up tomorrow.

Over the last months, we have been in contact with various schools in France, some team members met with students before departure. We agreed to give them news directly from the ice if possible so they can follow very well this adventure. So, since the drop-off near the north pole, we have organized some phone meetings to share this experience with them: the students of a school in Auray (France) and of one in Etel (France) have for example talked with the team for a few minutes. Many relevant questions were asked and the team took great pleasure replying: "Why is the sea ice melting faster than expected?", "Have you met polar bears?", etc...

In one of those schools, students are now preparing a small exhibition for all other students of the college and thus will relay this adventure. In Auray (France), the teacher wrote that "children were excited, the eyes full of sparks and very happy to be able to hear Emmanuelle”. This enthusiasm is mutual; the team will visit them once they are back in France. We would like to thank Delphine Barnaud and Pascale Coustumer for their availability. In addition, we also thank the students of Yannick Audrain at the College / High School in Enghien (France) who sent words of encouragement to the team for those days.

Tuesday, May 4th 2010 (day 40) – Valentine and Manue on the phone

"Today once again we had a rather white-out day. In this case, we do not go check our strips and we try not to go too far from the camp site in this weather. We dove again and saw so many crustaceans. The light is very different now under the ice considering the melting period.

Some team members have now curious ideas for their spare time: Alban today wondered what it would be like to sleep in his sled ! So we found him laying inside it, just his head out ... The experience is apparently successful, he seemed at ease! But still decided to choose the tent for tonight!”. Manue

Today, we discussed with the team about the schedule, once they are back in Resolute. Apart from that and in order for Wayne to be able to help them find other strips if necessary, we take “reference” on the satellite photo (leads, very old ice, etc.) and compare with what the team tells us. This is necessary to confirm with a high precision their GPS position. They therefore describe what they have around them very precisely: "500 meters north, a ridge compression and thin ice, our runway is oriented northeast / southwest 1km north of our camp, etc. "... The photo was taken on April 30th at 12:16 GMT, the team has reported its position that day at 7:16AM precisely. This together with the system on our website developed at the University of Lille, will give us a very precise idea of their environment.

In addition, the team now gives its GPS position and an accurate weather report twice a day to give as much data as possible to the pilots.

Funny specimens observed.

Monday, May 3rd 2010 (day 39) – Valentine and Manue by email.

“Even being on "standby" for our pick-up flight, we have not stopped our activities so far. The diving activities keep going and do not look alike. For the past three days, we see the ice melting from below and the beginning, yet discreet, of algae development on the ice. The sharp edges of the ice blocks are changing into curves. The ice is polished and the ceiling before so hard is now almost as "slush", we can dip into it. The ice is eroding, and we can scratch it on several centimeters. The algaes gives to the ice a green color in some places that will soon blur the visibility on top. The signs of summer ... a bit early, however: we are only on May 3rd!

Going deeper a little bit more, we meet strange creatures, from jellyfish to weird spaceship (have you seen “Abyss", the movie?) which flash when the light is on them, red or green, sometimes with very long filaments, sometimes shaped like airship that inflates and deflates during swimming and floating towards us. What a world! And what a privilege to witness this "life from below"! Ghislain and Benoit have managed to take pictures and images of these science-fiction creatures. As soon as we are back on land, we shall present our images to the scientists capable of identifying such specimens.

We profit as much as possible from these last moments outside of the world. On or under the ice, we remember where we are, how much we wanted to be here and live this adventure.

I often see a team member sitting on an ice block at the top of a ridge, thoughtful. As far as I am concerned, I put my harness on and go for a walk playing with Kayak. It became so agile to jump between the blocks and understanding which way to go, a real dog from the pole!" Manue

Behind the scenes of the expedition (continuation):Thanks to Louis, Christine and Wayne for their daily implication...

The ice melting observed from down below.

Sunday, May 2nd 2010 (day 38) – Valentine and Ghislain on the phone.

"Today was almost a white-out day, not even our now usual clearing-up in the evening. We found a new dive site, very close to the previous one but again different. We now clearly see the sea ice melting from below: it disintegrates when we touch it, there is a mixture of salted and freshwater, we can easily pull some ice blocks off. There are also yellow and green algae forming under the ice. Each dive, we discover different animals: crustaceans, plankton, etc.. With Samuel, we have seen today a specie of crustacean 10cm * 10 cm, which has red-color shades when the light is on it and is quite filamentary. I hope to find out what it is once we are back. In any case, we really are touching the heart of another world. We went down to 8 meters deep, but it is wonderful to see the evolution of the ice melting from underneath! Tomorrow we dive on the same site and depending on the pick up flight date, we will organize the future schedule. ” Ghislain

Today, the good weather window has been too short for our pilots to make the necessary flight. We are listening to them and waiting for their “go” for the two required flights.

Behind the scenes of the expedition :the team members on the ice have adapted their whole lifestyle and schedule for the past several months considering this expedition. Behind the scenes also, some members are working on land...

Waiting for a good weather window.

Saturday, May 1st 2010 (day 37) – Valentine and Ghislain on the phone.

"Today, we did two dives: we took beautiful pictures and amazing shots with the camera. It has been three days since we are diving on this site and just today, we have observed sea angel, hundreds of them ! I went checking the two strips conditions with Emmanuelle and Kayak: it is in good condition and that is good news. The cloud cover varies considerably during the day: for the “Twins” to land, it requires a good weather so that pilots can distinguish also the contrasts, so we need a clearing-up or few sunny hours. We felt another shock again last night from the ice movement.” Ghislain

Before the actual flight for picking up the team, the pilots must organise gas supplies along the way. According to Wayne Davidson and if the forecast do not change by tomorrow morning, it is possible that there is a weather window for this tomorrow afternoon.

“Hello Planet Earth, here is sea ice planet talking".

Friday, April 30th 2010 (day 36) – Valentine and Vincent by email.

"In response to some concerns, no we have not been washed away yet! The situation is difficult but not desperate at all !

The ice accelerated degradation changed a lot the overall planning and forces us to find an alternative to the pick up flight that we had planned in the case, which finally appears, where ice conditions become particularly difficult. In fact, the current ice conditions prevent the plane which dropped us on March 26th from landing safely. It was a DC3 that was able to take all our equipment and us 8 on board, but which could now even if it manages to land, weaken the ice and then not be able to take off.

The airline company we deal with, specialized in polar flights, is itself surprised because last year they were able to fly the DC3 until May 16th. The solution now offered is to use two Twin Otter aircrafts that can drop at very low speed, allowing them to land on very short distances and thinner ice. But logistics is far more complex to implement because the "Twins" are less autonomous and must first be loaded with fuel, then multiple fuel supplies have to be organised on the way and they finally refuel there during the “official” flight. This option requires a wider nice-weather window and more pilots, but “Kenn Borek Air” is actively working on it and thinks they will be here by the beginning of next week.

In the meantime we keep monitoring the ice floes around us because it was only -6°C this morning and they start to feel at ease... Even today, new cracks emerged, and we felt a sudden move during the compression process. But the strip that we have identified still remains as solid as the first day we found it. We cross our fingers for it to last few more days...

Even if the ice is getting soft, the team keeps working and is doing fine. The camp is set on a 4-meters thick ice, and without any need to be careful, we still have 14 days of food. Organizing our pick up flight is a full-time job for some of us, but the underwater images work is not neglected at all. We have enough gas for three more days to inflate the diving tanks and the divers are really determined to use all of it! Yesterday and today, they were motivated to shoot images upside down, palms to the ceiling, mask cleaning by the top of it and the camera upside down as well... Not easy to move in this case underwater, some grumbled, but the result is surprising, it feels like watching one more time the first steps walked on the Moon, each shot takes us to a totally unknown world.

We are sad we have to leave the ice so quickly, but eager to share it with you all soon. "Hello Planet Earth, here is Planet Sea Ice, we are coming !". Vincent

We have to adapt considering the sea ice unpredictability...

Thursday, April 29th 2010 (day 35) – Valentine and Ghislain on the phone.

The day has been spent to find solutions considering new data mentionned by the "Kenn Borek Air" pilots last night, today we received a high definition Radar Sat 2 ice picture (nominal resolution 3 meters), centered on the position of the team. Wayne began to study this and he observes first that there is almost no old ice in the area. This therefore starts confirming the report of the pilots yesterday. We expect for tomorow accurate information from "Kenn Borek Air” (dates, pilots’ names,  flight plans, etc..). to organize their flight back quickly.

We would like to thank Thomas Logan from "MDA Geospatial Services / RADAR SAT 2 for graciously providing us with a very high resolution satellite picture as soon as possible.

Mother Nature is not helping much...

Wednesday, April 28th 2010 (day 34) – Valentine and Ghislain on the phone.

"Today we did two dives, one with Alban and Benoit then the second one with Benoit, Samuel and I. The site is still superb, and offering very different prospective. But the weather is not great, the sky is grey and it is very humid so once again it feels cold. The ice is very fragmented, and more and more every day, it changes very quickly." Ghislain

This afternoon, “Kenn Borek Air” organised a meeting with its best pilots and the company management to assess risks related to our flight, considering the ice conditions changes in the past two days. Indeed, nobody could predict what is happening and at this speed, but the fact is that it melt very quickly, much more than expected and compared to recent years. They concluded that it is now getting more and more risky to land a DC3 on the sea ice, even taking into account the strip the team had found. It might be possible to land but it is a heavy plane and it risks to break the strip. It would be impossible to take off then, causing many problems (chartering other aircrafts for emergency recovery, etc..).

It is sometimes difficult to depend on these uncontrollable factors, but as they say themselves: "We had everything planned for maximum safety and we did strictly monitored it daily, but Mother Nature has decided differently”.
The plan must be thought again with these new data.

An unavoidable decision now.

On April 21st, the team was considering coming back from the sea ice earlier than expected for obvious logistical reasons. Since then, we are in contact a lot with “Kenn Borek Air” pilots and observe very carefully the evolution of the sea ice: the ice conditions are hard this year, the ice is thinner, spring came fast and is very warm so it starts disintegrating quickly. Since yesterday, logistical and weather constraints have become more an issue and so, we have to take care of it and deal with it now.

According to all our sources (ice charts, analysis of the arctic temperature compared to averages, daily drift check, weather forecast, etc..) and after detailed analysis of the ice evolution by Wayne Davidson, it seems that this winter is followed by a warm and sudden spring. For several days, temperatures have been about 10 to 15 degrees Celsius above normal for the period. Each day on the satellite map, we discover new leads, patches of ice breaking up, and now the sun is always here. Wayne warns us: "Now, the open leads will not close anymore, it's too warm, I check it two or three times a day and I can distinctly see it : the ice melts, the drift increases, the satellite maps show this more and more clearly, Spring is beginning with our usual month-of-June weather."

The team give us every day new data directly from the field: "We are witnessing a quite clearly change for the past 2 days : the leads open, compression ridges are formed around us following the movement of two ice floes, we heard craking noise underwater few days ago, we notice the same one now in the tents at night, you can feel the ice pressure releasing slowly, it is fairly clear”.

The team would like to stay on the ice as long as possible to maximize their efforts and their diving sessions. But to meet the logistical constraints associated with this area in the world, and for obvious security reasons, we evaluated all possible options since April 21st.
Today, "Kenn Borek Air” pilots and managers with which we are in almost permanent contact have announced that the flight needed to pick the team up (so, one DC3 and one Twin Otter, the same configuration as the drop off around the north pole) will no longer be possible in the upcoming days.
The DC3 aircraft, which is useful for us as it can contain up to 2000 kg, is also heavy and if the ice is too thin, it might not support its weight. It becomes dangerous to land it and / or take off loaded with equipment and men. The Twin Otter is much smaller and lighter but less autonomous in gas: it can contain only 4 people and 4 sleds up and can not go to 88°N without a supply of gasoline on the way. So, we need both: the twin otter will land first and then lead the DC3 for a good landing if possible, as judged by the pilots.

To maximize our chances of leaving the team as long as possible on the sea ice, we also got in contact with another expedition (also on site and therefore with the same problem) in order to eventually "share" this pick-up flight: more people to fetch, so the planes organization is different and would have provided a little more time there. Finally, this solution was not feasible on their side.

Tonight, we all studied, discussed, observed, thought and rethought and with the advice of Wayne and the pilots’ strong recommendations considering the sea ice, we have decided to organize this pick up flight. We have therefore confirmed to "Kenn Borek Air" that we wanted to book a DC3 and a Twin Otter for a day as soon as possible.

Since it is not easy to land a DC3 on the sea ice at this time, the team has to help a lot and so since today, they organize groups to look for potential "strip". We must find a runway of 1000 meters long, relatively flat, not too much snow, with at least 90 cm thick ice all along and make it visible from the air. Samuel and Clement started today and already possibly found a track! They could not believe themselves: "we have not crossed that since we are on the ice. We hope that it will remain in the same condition until the plane arrives, but it is very good for the moment, we are confident".

We will have more information tomorrow for the possible date for the flight. This can be done very quickly, depending on the weather of course and the availability of aircrafts and pilots. We try to keep the team on the sea ice as long as possible but we will be on stand-by for their pick-up flight from Thursday on.

An « artistic » diving spot...

"Today we did two dives on a new diving spot : we are around the same place and did not move the camp, but just chose another entrance door (drilled another hole). We would describe this site as en “artistic” one: beautiful curves, very pure ice, lots of crystals, it is very beautiful and again different. Some of us already ranked it as their best diving spot since the beginning. As far as the underwater camera is concerned, it works very well, we have some very beautiful shots. For the pictures, Benoit has had some problems today but yesterday he managed to take some nice fishes, sea angels, jellyfishes, etc..
Tomorrow I'll dive with Benoit and Ghislain”. Manue

The team has a good weather forecast for the next few days: nice and cool (about -20°C). According to Wayne Davidson, they already have “warm” temperatures for the season but still remaining "cool” enough for the ice quality. Overall, according to our sources, the average temperatures in the Arctic ocean right now are 10 to 15°C higher than what is normally observed at the end of April.

“Up there…”

"Up there". It is like this that we defined the North Pole during the preparation of the expedition and the training sessions both in Tignes and Bessans: "When we get up there...", "Up there, we will need to ...”.

For a month, "Up there" is our "here" and we do not only walk and dive here. We also do a lot of other activities: tinkering, scientific surveys, taking picture, filming, getting clean, communication... In summary, we live here and it is nice to see that we manage it more easily every day, even if the cold is still hard sometimes. We have learned to live in the snow, to evaluate the outside temperature considering the tenderness of our cereal bars, the more or less strong chocolate flavour, the degree of the biting feeling on the cheeks or more personally considering the sound of the camera objective : when it squeaks, it is below -30°C! Each morning and evening, Clement comes with the right answer and we realise sometimes that we are far from the truth: "Well, it is -41°C!"…And we gambled for -20°C!

However, we can now for sure identify a lead that is not frozen enough or an area with snow powder to be avoided. Only the white-out days know how to make us lose our references, we realise it when we hit on a snowdrift while skiing, always surprised to have been fooled so easily.

What surprises even more is the landscape fragility. If it was hard during the first week here to imagine one day a boat sailing in this vast chaos, we have also seen that this apparently motionless world can change rapidly. A light wind and our landscape is transformed! A rise in temperature turns everything to a collapse world: breaking up the white ocean and spreading crazy moving ice floe all over the place. The water back to its liquid state seems suddenly so easy. In the meantime, we enjoy every day offered on this fascinating sea ice and we work really hard to bring back the best images possible.

Vincent

30 days on the sea ice...

No communication with the team today.

They sent yesterday evening some pictures from the last days, which certainly took a long time for them and a lot of charge from the equipment. We will precise all data as soon as we talk to them again.

This morning, they called Thierry Robert (Film director) on the phone so he can follow what the team has been filming since the beginning of the expedition at the surface as well as under the ice, they are in contact very regularly. This allows Thierry to check precisely what has been done by the two cameramen, to eventually solve technical problems and to talk about the weather affecting more or less the filming: it is of course easier for Vincent (and the camera) to shoot when the outside temperature is above -30 ° C. For Ghislain, it is needed to be very careful with the temperature in the divers’ preparation tent in order to reduce the risk of frost on the lens of his underwater case. Same problem for Benoit.

The planning was to dive on the site described by Ghislain yesterday evening, which would reveal again another hidden side of the sea ice.

According to the weather forecast, the team should have a wind coming from West/South west tomorrow morning (Sunday) 10-20 knots and the wind should decrease and turn south on Monday morning.

Blizzard less strong than expected and crackling noises heard under the ice.

Tonight, 10:20pm local time:

"The blizzard they called for started this afternoon but weaker than expected, which was very much appreciated. We have made two dives to our new site, again extraordinary and unique: we are on a very large ice floe, 3-4 meters thick, and at the junction of three similar floes. There are several very impressive ridges and very useful leads in the area. Diving on this site is like cave-diving: wells, faults, light wells, a very thick ice, which so far we have not had. I recorded an hour of underwater images today and Benoit took beautiful pictures during the second dive with Alban. In fact, they came out of water because they heard cracking sounds underwater! This was actually the wind pushing the ice floes against each other but it must be very curious to hear from below.” Ghislain

The team called when they were all gathered in the main tent for dinner. The blizzard did not pass fully on them, they only had a bit of it, however we must remain vigilant until Saturday morning. The weather forecasts for both Sunday and Monday are good, with warmer air.

The forecast calls for a strong blizzard.

«Today it is sunny but cold... we had -40°C this morning: it is of course better for the ice conditions but hard again for the men. We started progressing again this morning but the ice is really chaotic and progression quite slow. We had to cross very large compression ridges, it was very tiring. Today, we looked for a good multi-year ice area for setting up the camp in order to be safe for the blizzard announced for tomorrow. Tonight, we found our camping place and also our next diving site! We are in a very beautiful area again, a dozen compression ridges and leads around us, we are at the crossroads of several old ice areas. We should be relatively well for tomorrow but in any case, we are prepared. If the weather allows it, we will dive as soon as possible tomorrow.” Ghislain

The weather forecast today calls for a blizzard for tomorrow (Friday): in the morning, wind : south/south east 10-20 knots with warmer air. In the afternoon and evening: Wind south/south east 20-30 knots. A low pressure system is coming from the west and heading east very quickly creating this phenomenon. Saturday: they will be in the center of another low pressure system and so no wind or very light one. The good weather is supposed to come back on Sunday.

A pick up date earlier than planned.

The team considers now getting out sooner than expected from the sea ice for obvious logistics reasons. The aircrafts may soon not be able to land in the ice conditions to pick them up and reaching the shore is not doable anymore this year.

Indeed, the distance travelled towards the shore is too short so far: this is partly due to the ice condition of this year that does not allow the planned progress with significant sleds weight (including the considerable weight of all the necessary diving equipment). In the coming weeks, temperatures will only increase and the sun will be higher, so the sea ice will turn into a huge ice chaos of ice and then finally open water. In addition, one of our main missions is to bring back a faithful testimony of this place in the world, , the underwater show is so much more impressive than expected that priority was given to diving rather than progressing.

So we are just looking for the moment at all the possible logistics options to be ready when needed.

You can find an article writen by Wayne Davidson on the arctic sea ice conditions in 2010 under the following section : The Environment / The Arctic

Manue by email (written the April 20th)

“As you know by valentine, we stopped for two days on our third diving spot. What struck us all at our first immersion here is that we went into a three-dimensional world: ice cliffs and ice ridges fall down of more than twenty meters below the surface on each side of us. Note that we stopped here because we had a crush on it, seeing this freshly refrozen lead a foot away from a beautiful compression ridge. Once again, we are pleased to see that it is by travelling and walking around that we find our better diving spots. Our curiosity is double when we progress: we look at the surface also trying to imagine its underwater side ! The lead we have in front of us moved a lot since we got here: it first reopened and then closed forming a new compression ridge.

All this happened with noise and squeaks which can only be done by the sea ice. You will certainly hear them in the expedition movie thanks to Vincent, who spent hours getting shots in from of this lead and that I saw backing up very suddenly a couple times when the ice was breaking up under his feet. We also monitor a crack that passes close to our big tent.

The weather forecast seems to have postponed the blizzard to Friday and it is very beautiful and cold weather today. A quick word on our three non-divers for a change ! Vincent as I just said spend a lot of time filming and we are all looking forward to seeing his images. Pascal and Clément regularly are in charge of the surface security during dives, they take it with great seriousness and in a good mood. It is very important because the diver before getting into the water is not autonomous.
He needs help for everything, put the instruments, masks, defrost the equipment before and after the dive. Underwater, they keep us connected by holding the security rope "not too tight but not too loose" ... They have all our confidence for this serious job. They also record the scientific report for the weather records and the snow thickness... when they do not compete during a “Go” game!”. Manue.

Clement is busy during diving days on the sea ice.

“Like for all diving days, I take care of things helping the dives : I'm helping the divers with equipment, I melt snow so that we have hot water or soup quite often, etc..
I am responsible for writing down the weather data, so to do the necessary work (GPS position, temperature, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, humidity, etc.) as well as doing the the daily scientific report (snow and ice thickness). I'm also taking care of the program that we follow to study the divers’ physiology. So, once a week, each diver must swallow a capsule and observe on a small box the body temperature that appears, then it is recorded throughout the entire day. I make sure that this is properly done. In addition, we also do a study on the sleep: 5 of us have constantly on the wrist since March 9,2010 a bracelet measuring the activity in particular during the various phases of sleep (pace and quality).

Furthermore, while we put all the batteries to charge in the morning, I take this moment to be by myself a little (sometimes with music) or do something else ; this morning I went to take pictures with Benoit outside of the camp for example ... We do not miss activities at all. Tomorrow, they will dive again and we think of leaving from Thursday.

We have decided to change the people distribution in our tents tomorrow, this has not happened since the beginning of the expedition. In fact, we preferred to keep the same groups in the beginning for everybody to find their habits first. So from tomorrow on, we will have Manue Pascal, Alban and Samuel in the big tent, Vincent and Benoit in the first small tent and Clement, Ghislain in the other small one.

A brief summary of our first weeks: I found the beginning very hard, getting up in the morning, leaving my sleeping bag, I had some small frostbites, my sled was heavy (160 kg) it was very hard to manage everything. My harness has now truly another shape after 26 days with me here! But now, it's going well, we enjoy being here, nevertheless the ice conditions are always very chaotic so it is hard to progress". Clément

Ice cathedrals are apparently very well named.

Today, 10:00pm local time:

“Today we had good weather and beautiful arctic lights. We made two dives : Benoit and Alban first and then Ghislain and Samuel. We have tried to enter in the compression ridge, passing below and slipping between the blocks and the falling ice. Again, a new world opened up to us, it was right there from the beginning but we not even imagined it. We really have the feeling of evolving in cathedrals: blocks, columns, pillars, walls, everything is there!
We had a problem with the video case today, a problem again due to strong temperature differences, this will be solved tomorrow, but therefore we have decided to stay on this site for another two days to get our work done, film these cathedrals very well and then let the announced blizzard passed. We will try to find another diving spot when we start to progress again from Thursday on”. Ghislain.

The weather forecast calls for a blizzard for several days in a row but keeps postponing it. Yesterday, we thought that a blizzard would arrive in the area where the team is from Thursday on as a high and a low-pressure systems were getting closer South of their position and the isobars were getting tighter. However, since this afternoon, the forecast has changed: the high pressure is finally dominant and will in fact help keeping the low pressure system far south west of their position. Weather Forecast for Tuesday: Wind S / SO at 10-15 knots, the same weather as Monday. Wednesday: Moderate wind from the east, getting a little colder.

The underwater scenery is fabulous in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.

Today, 9:30pm local time:

“We stayed at the same diving site as yesterday, it's so awesome and amazing: what a great show. I dove with Ghislain and Samuel. I stayed in 30 minutes, Samuel 50 minutes and Ghislain about 1 hour 10 minutes during which he could for example film us taking the ice temperature underwater. I had the impression of being as in space during this dive, I had never had this feeling underwater before: there are ridges everywhere, visibility is extraordinary. Then, Benoit and Alban dove for Benoit to take pictures.
We did our diving hole in the refrozen lead we were talking about yesterday (which passes between the 2 parts of the fractured ridge). During the night, the lead opened again and the thin ice broke down everywhere. It was beautiful and so we dive into the lead now.
We had beautiful weather today, temperatures ranged from -31 ° C to -21 ° C with the wind. Tonight, it seems a little warmer. We will stay here tomorrow and then probably start progressing again on tuesday morning”. Manue.

“The dives are really amazing: I could shot today a jellyfish specie, approximately 10 cm in diameter, that had rainbow reflection in the light of my headlamp. Superb. We took the temperature of the ice underwater today, so after having made an ice carrot underwater : -2.8°C. The maneuver is not easy because once the ice sample is out, air bubbles are going in the hole, and it is then not easy to read the result. We will therefore confirm that tomorrow.” Ghislain.

While the divers work and discover a marvellous world, non divers have a lot of activities to do: almost constantly melting snow in order to have hot water, making soup, helping divers to dress and prepare themselves before the dive, help them out after it, they finally have a little time for hobbies: apparently, Pascal and Clement keeps playing to “Go” game inside their tent (Pascal wins for now ...).
Divers no longer seem to have enough words to explain their wonder and joy of their dream becoming true. The team morale is very good these days.

A diving spot beyond all expectations!

Today, 9:30pm local time:

"This morning we dismantled the camp, walked for 1 hour and we have found a diving spot even better than the one we were imagining yesterday : phenomenal and sensational. The site is located near a huge compression ridges of 6 to 8 meters high, which is broken in two parts. A open water channel passes between the two sides, it even begins to be partially refrozen. We dove to 20 meters deep, and I think the visibility is about 200 meters underwater: extraordinary.

The pictures from Benoit today are amazing, a lot better than what we had from the beginning: the beautiful arctic lights, great visibility and incredible ridges plunging to 15-20 meters are three phenomena that we have at the same time!
Today is the kind of day that justify the whole expedition: we found what we came for and even more! Underwater, very little wildlife, I filmed a small jellyfish (about 2cm long), saw huge and gorgeous crystal icecliffs. With Samuel, we have witnessed a reversed avalanche of ice: the tip of the submerged ice cathedral separated from the rest and therefore ascended to the surface in pieces!

Each dive improves the quality of our work and the data collected. Moreover, we can give you an example of the data noted today : outside air temperature is -15°C, on the ground (ice) there are 16 cm of snow, the sea ice is 50 cm thick. We cut a 12cm-ice carrot in the ice at the surface and the temperature taken inside is -4.5°C. The water in which we dive is -1.8°C. We have to make a carrot in the ice under the water to finalize our measures.

We will of course stay around this dive site and profit from it probably Sunday and even Monday. We will try to send pictures from all this as soon as possible. In addition, the ice around us is still very chaotic, it opens again everywhere”.

Ghislain

Very heavy sleds to start progressing again, and the sea ice is more and more chaotic.

Today, 10:30pm local time:

"We started skiing again, we all have very heavy sleds, each with us having extra kilos from the supply flight. We spent the morning cleaning and tidying our sleds, and then around 1pm, we started to head south.

It was very hard today because of our sleds’ weight but also due to the very chaotic ice area, there are blocks everywhere. We climb on them to try to find the best path, but we really are in an ice chaos filled with snow… We had such heavy sleds today that every bump seemed like a mountain to us. Nevertheless, we had fewer problems with leads, today we only had to ski around one, which was not refrozen enough to support our weight.
I guess that all this chaos is partly due to the warm temperature we had few days ago!
The ice blocks are much more impressive than before: their heights and diameters seem to have multiplied by three: for some, I would say ... until 6 / 7 meters high and 3 meters in diameter now.

Everyone was very happy to start progressing again, the morale is good, it is sunny and it feels good ; we also greatly enjoyed a calm day (no wind) therefore we have been able to clean thoroughly our sleds and finally able to remove all the snow piled up inside for days. I also recorded several shots and sequences more easily in those weather conditions, which was very pleasant.

We look forward to finding our next diving spot. We hope to find a location near large ice ridges in order to film these ice cathedrals. Given that the underwater relief is the image of the relief observed outside, we should have the chance to see beautiful things around here". Vincent.

Spectacular shots acquired during a 6 days break in progressing.

Today, 8:00pm local time:

There are quite a few clouds at this time (cloud: 5 / 8) and the warmer southern wind announced by Wayne arrived, which provides them with temperatures a little “nicer". The weather forecast is good until Saturday with a wind that will weaken and turn south-west, a strong wind / blizzard is to watch for Sunday and Monday. However, this blizzard announced already weakened in intensity since this morning.

You can find an interview of Ghislain Bardout (in french) by Tristan Vey (LE FIGARO.fr)

First underwater pictures, from under the sea ice!

Today, 9:20pm local time:

"Great day: the underwater pictures work went really well, the underwater camera and its case work great too now, it is the second day we can get high quality shots. We reached a step where we solved our technical problems, we can begin our exploration work with all the equipment provided, which will allow us to make great images! Today it is sunny, the team morale is good. The first dive was made by Samuel and Ghislain (for images) and the second by Manue and Benoit (for pictures). We see a lot of fish, angel sharks, small jellyfish, diving conditions are really incredible. We will dive again tomorrow, then we will leave Thursday for about 4 days of skiing, and finally stop for a 4-days diving session”. Ghislain on the phone.

"Twentieth day on the sea ice, apparently people say that the worst is behind us : the first fifteen days. It is true that the sea ice have not opened its doors easily, very chaotic ice, a lead after another, a ridge after the other as well, white days, blizzards and so on ... But still everyday we realise how marvellous it is to be here, to progress, and for the past few days to dive. Profiting from our supply flight, we stopped for several diving days.
The exploration side of our expedition really began: I was just in the water myself with Benoit for the ninth dive of the expedition. The underwater side of the sea ice is as we had hoped and even more magical! Nothing like it, you enter under the ice like in another world. The angel sharks fly around us, small and fragile, while blue emerald ice ridges dive and tangle endlessly. Under my palms, more than four thousand meters deep make me realize my tiny size in all this gigantism...
Last night, we watched Ghislain underwater images which are fantastic, it allowed the non-divers to have an idea of the magic "from below". The day after tomorrow, we will resume our skiing days towards south, searching for the best places to make pictures and images. We keep up with the same strategy: eat up and “use” gasoline right after the supply flight and progress again at a faster pace when we are a little lighter. Our drift was mostly towards the east lately ; we even moved to the east of Ward Hunt, which we prefer a lot more ! Valentine sent us all the messages of encouragement, it has been a great moment of comfort and joy for all of us, together with the sweets and surprises she hided inside the boxes !” Manue by email.

A 6 days break in skiing for focusing on diving activities.

Today, 2:20pm local time:

“Today, it is a much nicer weather and life is so easier, it is actually doable to work. Yesterday, we had a hard day with wind rushing around and everywhere, we could not see our pulkas that are just outside the tents, it was impossible to dive, so we did other activities : Ghislain talked about his underwater images with Vincent, Pascal and Clement stayed in their tent and played the "Go*" game, etc…
Yesterday, we realized that our underwater images are wonderful but we had some spots / frost sometimes coming from the lens of the underwater case (due to strong temperature differences). So, this morning, Vincent and Ghislain repaired it and have tried to find solutions. In fact, we can not prepare the case outside (too cold) and if placed in the tent, frost comes on it instantly as it ends outside... Today, we will put our main tent without the double roof above the hole (5 persons tent, used for preparing the divers), a person inside with the case and practically not breathing : so, the case should be at the right temperature. Then we will put the case straight into the water and they can start diving. As I speak, Ghislain and Samuel are preparing themselves to get into the water and go make a series of images. For my part, I finished putting the food supplies received in the appropriate bag for everyone.
The holes in the ice we find for diving are not always easy to keep as they are. Two days ago, for example, it was filling out with ice or snow and it was very impressive.

We decided to stay another 3 days here (up to Thursday included) because we have a beautiful spot for taking beautiful underwater images and photos and therefore we would like to profit from it. Then we will start to ski for 3 days, then stop again for 3 days diving. It also allows us to "use" a little gasoline and food we received during the supply flight and so, leave a little lighter, which will help us move forward in the current ice chaos”.

(*): Strategy game.

The team will soon be officially having permanent day light. You can find an article written by Wayne Davidson about the sunrise at the North Pole in the "Environment : the Arctic " section.

The weather prevented the team from diving or progressing.

Today, 2pm local time:

The team called this afternoon to get more information on the weather forecast for the next 24/48 hours to come.

"For the past 24 hours, we are in a small wind blizzard, the sky is grey and the wind blows from the west at 25km / h (gusting up to 35km / h). The very low temperature and the wind do not allow us to dive today. We are quite stopped in our diving activities by this weather. The wind is very cold and everything would be very long to arrange for diving today. In addition, the wind sweeps the snow and therefore reduces our visibility. We'll probably stay a day or two more where we are because we have a very good diving spot (if weather permitting)".

We of course asked for Wayne Davidson opinion for the next 24/48 hours weather forecast:
The wind they have come from the Arctic, in fact from Alaska, it is very cold. This lowers the temperature significantly. A low pressure system is around northern Russia and the team is located south of this, so they have a quite strong west wind. For the next 24 hours (by Tuesday morning), the wind will warm up a little but will continue to blow at the same speed. In 48 hours (based on today’s forecast), the wind will start to weaken and will have turned south. This wind would be warmer, especially because it comes from Resolute, where the forecast for Wednesday is rather encouraging (temperature between -3 ° C and -16 ° C).

Tonight, the team has sent some pictures of the last days, they will communicate more as soon as possible.

Yesterday : the equipment parachuted is in good condition, today : amazing dives in a very active landscape.

"This is our second diving day in a row, we dove 2 times yesterday and 2 times today. It was very complicated to set it up today because this morning it was -39 ° C with the wind sweeping the snow violently everywhere. So, we moved a tent 1 meter away from the hole in order to prepare the divers. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready, the hole had closed. Therefore, we had to make a second hole. The wind blows hard from the west. The landscape is changing slowly but significantly over several hours, our hole was first opened then closed and moved, a lead opened then closed, etc. ... The landscape is moving, living, drifting mainly eastward and slightly southward. For the last few days, we have drifted far west and were about 32km away from the direct route between the north pole and the north shore of Ellesmere island, so we are happy to move a little eastward now !
Both dives today were made with specific purposes: one for pictures and the other one for camera shots. The first dive was done by Alban and Benoit (photographer) and the second by Ghislain (underwater cameraman) and Samuel, still underwater right now. They have had some very interesting lighting effects when leads open, observed 6 sea angels, the changing landscape has led to capture all sorts of fascinating ice shapes under the sea ice.
The day was still spent in the blizzard (25km / h wind, gusting to 35km / h). This blow snow on freshly frozen leads and participates in this changing landscape..."

"As far as the supply flight is concerned : The DC3 did several back and forth over us, it was a very delicate maneuver. They tried everything to land the parachute near the camp. However, 2 parachutes fell into the water, but the boxes below have fallen on the ice, 3 feet away from a lead. Then the last two parachutes were launched a little further for security. The conversation with them was very good, they gave us a final "goodbye" and the aircraft left after those amazing manoeuvers.
Everything landed in good condition in the cardboard boxes (for food and others) and in the rubbermaid bins (gasoline). We only opened so far the "personal affairs" boxes that were needed urgently (especially for Vincent, who was unable to dry his clothes properly since he fell in the water). We received for example 5 more shovels to help us cross the leads. We had planned to only take them at the next supply flight, but given the state of the ice here, we have no choice: 1 shovel per person will now enable us to have 2 persons paddling on our two sleds "raft".
We received all the encouragement messages sent by Valentine. We are very pleased to see that many people follow the expedition very closely. We also tasted the very popular "surprises" found in the boxes (chips, fruit in syrup, apples, homemade cookies by Sandy, etc..).
We made a cardboard boxes wall that protects us from the wind and allows us to brush our sleeping bag being a bit protected. We have not yet fill out our pulkas as we try first to end the food and gas we had left".

Tonight, the team suffers from the cold again, after nearly 4 days with warmer temperatures. The heat has also some drawbacks (ice very chaotic) but the team and equipment have enjoyed this short break.

We had to parachute our equipment during the supply flight and a diving session is in progress.

Today, the team called several times to finalize the supply flight organization with the most current information. This morning at 6:45am local time, the team gave its position (above) for the pilots of "Kenn Borek Air Ltd” in charge of this flight. So, the pilots have their last position, their drift from the previous night (1.4 km westward in 8 hours), their satellite phone number, the team knows the VHF frequency on which to communicate with the crew once on site and our equipment has been loaded on the plane: everything is ready.

10am this morning: the DC3 takes off with our supplies (food for 1 month, gasoline, mechanical parts to replace, personal belongings, etc..), almost 1100/1200 pounds well packed. It has also been prepared for parachuting in case the plane could not land because of the ice condition. The team looked for a track but the drift is quite strong and it is difficult to "keep" the same quality of track / ice for several hours.

At 6pm : Finally, the news comes, Manue calls:
"We just saw the plane, talked to the pilots (very nice) and we just saw 5 parachutes dropped with our equipment on it. Unfortunately, the plane could not land, the ice is so chaotic around here, it was too dangerous. The main thing is that we have our equipment to keep going for the next month: 3 parachutes are very close to us but 2 have landed quite far because the pilots were afraid that they fall into the water and prefer to secure them. It is difficult to give a distance but we are right now going to find them with Samuel, Benoit and myself to bring them back to the camp. From a distance, we could see a parachute was not deployed properly but we will have more details once there. Today, we have blue sky and a great visibility, which is very nice after so many white-out days! A dive is in progress right now, we will give information on it tomorrow.
We asked the pilots about the ice conditions observed south of us : in fact, it was very chaotic lately and required very important efforts (it is very rare to find such chaotic ice condition at this latitude mid -April, other teams are in the same chaos and also insist on this). The pilot told us that from above, it seems like the ice is bad around 87 to 88 degrees north but it is in better condition from 85 to 87 degrees north.
We will get more precise information on the ice from them back in Resolute. We are eager to get out of this chaos”. Manue

Tonight the team is busy grabbing and gathering all the supplies dropped and will give news of the dive tomorrow and of the material received. Morale is good, they are glad to dive and take a short break from this impressive chaos.

N.B: "Kenn Borek Air Ltd." Management refused to allow a team member on board for safety reasons and considering the ice conditions that would probably required more parachuting drops than expected (very technical drop from a DC3).

Three days diving and camping at the same spot and the day before the supply flight

This evening, 8pm local time:

"Here we are, around our diving spot for the next three days normally. Today, we had to cross several leads and we are still in a white out. As our GPS positions indicate, we are drifting quite strongly to the west. A big lead, 80 meters long, has been crossed today. It was newly frozen but we soon observed that the ice was too thin to go skiing on it and too thick to paddle with our shovels (*), so we had to find another solution. Alban put his dry suit on, went in the water and broke the ice with his arm. He has acted as an icebreaker before the sleds "raft". It was very impressive, we filmed all this but that is definitely some unforgettable shots. On its side, kayak adjusts well to its new environment and is very agile now for a lot of things.

We settled the camp tonight on our diving spot, around an open lead that closes down on a pressure ridge, so we can make images of the two, which could be incredible. We also surveyed for a runway for the DC3 tomorrow (weather permitting), but we are in a white out day (**). The ice is about 50 cm to 1 meter thick, with 10-25 cm of snow on it. We sampled 4 ice carrots taken on potential runways: each time, 80 to 90 cm thick" Ghislain.

In Resolute, our equipment for the supply flight is fully ready: after many hours sorting, checking, rechecking, packaging all this properly and labelled precisely). We hope the weather will allow the landing.

Listen the radio interview (in french) broadcasted yesterday By Lucile Solari ("Prise de terre" Radio Suisse Romande)

The sea ice is highly fragmented with “warm” temperature

"Today we had a day where the temperature ranged between 0 and -10 ° C. So, The sea ice looks like it was late spring (May / June): many leads, a huge chaos, broken ice, it did move a lot under our feet all day, it is very fragmented. We again had a white out day, except this morning and tonight, when the sun appeared. We have crossed many leads and progression has been difficult. We have travelled 7.2 km in 8h30. Kayak fell in the water today, it is fine but it was a little scared. Getting ready for the supply flight, we plan on diving Saturday, Sunday and maybe even Monday. Tonight, everyone has his own list and the collective list is about to be ready. Tomorrow we will try to find a “runway” for the plane to land on Saturday but the actual sea ice might not allow it. In fact, we must find a "track" of at least 3500 feet and test the ice every 1000 feet to make sure we have at least 96 inches thick ice below our feet".

Ghislain

Then started the requests for the saturday flight : "Adds a few tea bags, 2 large bags of sugar, remove half the soup (we have some left), etc." ... Then came the personal demands "For Samuel, 4 packs of wipes, for Clement, a pair of silk socks, for Ghislain one underpants and a T-shirt, etc. And of course, this flight brings them food supplies and fuel for a month.

The weather forecast is quite good

Exhaustive weather check today considering the actual blizzard: The low pressure system arrived from the South-east, went to the North Pole and then leaves towards south-west. We think that the was located in the south of it, so at the edge of the blizzard. Tonight, Wayne noticed that this low pressure system is already weakening. The east wind should also decrease.
The significant drift mentioned by Ghislain yesterday is of course explained by strong east winds, "pushing" the sea ice. However, when the winds associated with this low pressure system will decrease, the ice will more likely keep on drifting westward. Indeed, a high pressure system north of their position will also create the same movement.

Wayne thinks that the temperatures will become a little warmer in this part of the planet, as spring comes. This may be a good thing for the team but ideally, it should not warm up too quickly in order to maintain a good ice quality and thereby help their skiing progression.

The team has an interview tomorrow morning for a radio channel. The broadcast date will be well informed on the website.

Ghislain’s point of view on the first 10 days

No phone communication with the team tonight. They sent pictures yesterday and a message written by Manue directly from the ice. It seems they are saving power and batteries tonight.

See the diaporama of the arrival

"Sunday was a very good day despite a rough start, this morning (like yesterday), it was very humid, lots of clouds, very cold, so it has been really hard to get out of our sleeping bags. Then the weather cleared up, blue sky and bright sunshine and finally progressing has been very nice because we found a lead (*) on which we skied for 8km towards South.

The morale of the team is quite good, it varies among individuals and moments. The conditions are hard, it is rough, our hands are freezing, we feel tingles in our fingers at all times. The weather changes greatly from day to day. We believe that all the equipment that was going to break already did (heat gun, razor, one stove) ... so that it should be pretty good for the future. The sea ice changes a lot also : sometimes chopped then enormous ridges, great leads from time to time (Sunday, 4th for example), it is constantly changing. The dives are very beautiful but also very difficult. For now, we have chosen to progress and ski in order to get use to cold, conditions, and find our habits until our next supply flight, scheduled for April 10th. Then, we will do a 2 to 3 days diving session, it will be more peaceful as it is too hard to start everything at the same time, while acclimating ourselves”.

(*) Leads: Waterways in the sea ice; when those breaks freezes again, it creates a "fairly flat" area, helping for fast ski progression.

You can find a new slideshow with pictures of March 26th, 2010, the day we dropped off the team on the sea ice. We would like to thank specifically James Haffey and Russ Hepburn (2 of our pilots) for giving us their pictures.

See the diaporama

News from the pole

"It has been ten days since we watched the plane flying back to Resolute, leaving us alone on the sea ice. Ten days during which we found our habits, skied on the ice in all its shapes and states, made two diving, camped. The sea ice is as planned giving us breathtaking scenery, above and below water. Already 22 minutes of underwater shots and 4 hours at the surface. The conditions are difficult, the ice is mostly chaotic and cold gets to us whenever we are no longer moving. Nevertheless, morale is good for everyone and the enthusiasm is still here ! What keeps on surprising me is the variety of ice conditions, there is not a day that look like the others : we are progressing in always renewing landscape. White and blue walls, entanglements of ice blocks, just frozen leads ... in grazing arctic light, the pole is majestic and we know it needs to be deserve. All this beautiful show around helps us forgetting the discomfort and the pain. We work hard to be every day more rigorous and quick in the daily tasks of the camp and we are getting better!
We focus on our progression until the next supply flight on April 10th, which will be an opportunity for a 2 or 3 days diving session.
Thank you for all your encouraging messages that are given to us by Valentine! And happy birthday to Gege!"

Tonight, the conversation was rather quick and more concerned by the preparation of the next provisioning. The news of the day are thus rather brief, but everything is ok.

They had -30 ° C on the thermometer all day, it is a nice and clear weather but it is very cold with a north wind of 8 km / h.
During their first diving day, they managed to shoot nearly 20 minutes of probably amazing underwater images, the show they had under is commented by them in every conversation. In addition, Vincent shoots “on land” and has already nearly 4 hours recorded.
We did not give news from Kayak since they left and questions concerning it are numerous: "it goes well, the days are a little long for him but he has developed his winter hair and sleeps very well when we set up the camp".

89°N crossed, heading South!

This evening, 8.30pm local time:
"Tonight again, we are not going to charge batteries in order to save fuel, but we should be able to do it soon to be able to send pictures again and be a little more specific for the news. The morale is fine. We tried another way of progressing together today: we each skied at our own pace to see how it goes. Since the beginning, we were skiing all together, but we realized that the first ones had often to wait and were getting cold too much and very quickly. To overcome this, everyone chose his rhythm today and two groups were formed: the first were able to set up camp while waiting for the latter, which is more functional and useful. Our goal now is to reduce the distance between these groups. Today, it has been hard for Clement, who has the heaviest sled (165kg) and is struggling to progress in the sea ice relief. He was assisted by Pascal and Samuel, we will try to lighten his sled gradually. Benoit’s hand is ok today, he progressed normally throughout the day. We are already much faster in the morning to break camp. "

Samuel then took the phone to talk about mechanics of course and also request a shaver at the next supply flight. Apparently, the one they brought died, Samuel was able to shave but Alban did only half of it (*) ... !

As usual, Manue questioned about the weather forecast. On this subject, we would like to thank Wayne Davidson, who gives us his opinion every day on the weather they will have, the ice conditions, winds, clouds, places to avoid and useful tips from someone watching it all from Resolute since 1985. From his weather station, Wayne takes all sorts of data: for example, he analyzes the sun size, heat indicator for the whole atmosphere, sends sounding balloons, develops new techniques to understand weather systems and study them. We'll talk about his work and his help on several occasions.

(*)To preserve the sealing on the diving suits, the team members have to shave regularly: the edges of the hole made for their face in their suit should therefore be as close as possible to the skin.

Very chaotic morning for a clearing-up afternoon, and first slight injury…

This evening, 9:30pm local:
"It goes well tonight. This morning, we were in hell ... in a complete white-out, fog and very cold temperature as well as a lot of compression ridges so we had to progress slowly, hard for everything and everyone. But nice surprise this afternoon, blue sky, less cold, less ridges to cross. For tomorrow, it looks still chaotic but much better than this morning. We drifted 2 to 4 km per day mostly westward and slightly northward ...! However, right now we are drifting southwest, in the last 3 hours, we drifted 23 meters! Morale is good. Tonight, Benoit got injured : he cut between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand with a knife but not deep, so not too bad. Pascal has made three stitches, it is fine now. "

Benoit then took the phone:
"In fact, stupid mistake and injury, nothing important got cut, I am fine and morale is good."

Indeed, their voices seem calmer than yesterday, despite the events of the day: quite strong drift, white-out this morning and small injury. Morale is good (including Benoit), they are saving energy for now so they reduce communications a bit.

Around 10 km in a day, it feels colder than the actual temperature tonight.…

Tonight, 21H45 local:
"The phone conversation will be short because tonight, it's cold and we are right now going to bed. It is going well but the chill temperature feels colder than what it is. We skied for 7 hours and 15 minutes doing 10.3 km. We sleep very well and the sea ice is beautiful, magic, exactly as imagined, landscapes are amazing. We did not turn on the computer for the past few days and we will not do it within the next ones because its cable has a hard time functioning in this cold. We will try to save all the batteries for the few days to come”.

Tonight, the mood seems good but being outside on the phone seems to be cold. Clement took the phone and said hello : "I am fine yes, I was cold earlier but now it is getting better".

Close to there, the logistics base life is getting organized: the next resupply flight preparation requires a bit of time those days : how to drop nearly 450kg of equipment on the sea ice with minimal risk of damage on the ground? We hope to land with the DC3 but all situations must of course be considered.

Resolute is the second most northerly village of Nunavut (Canada) after the community of Grise Fjord, located on the south coast of Cornwallis Island.

Weird schedule but routine is coming…

"This morning we got up at 9:30am because we went to bed at 1:30am last night and we established to sleep at least 8 hours per night. We skied 5 hours and 45 minutes and did 7 km today, which is already a better pace than before. We have drifted 4km to the west and 1km north in the past 24 hours. We slowly find our routine rhythm. We decided to set up a more disciplined schedule: 3 hours in the morning between waking up and the progression start, 3 hours at night between stopping and sleeping. Between the two, we travel regularly with a 5-minute break every 90 minutes. "Ghislain

"It's going great. It is a bit cold but fine. I am ok, the diving day yesterday was quite something : I had a little bit of water in my suit but we will fix it very soon”. Manue

Then Emmanuelle asked for the weather forecast, other expeditions’ news, emails received, news from Resolute lifestyle, etc… They are quietly starting to be better organize, to find each others’ room as well as their collective habits. Orders for the next supply flight already started.

First divings and first feelings from under the sea ice.

Tonight, 8:15 local:

"Here is our position today; we drifted slightly to the west over the past 24 hours. This morning, it was foggy and this afternoon we had a cloud cover of 2 / 8. We have been diving for the first time of the expedition today. Alban and Emmanuelle dove first, Ghislain, Samuel and Benoit did the second dive. It has been very difficult, but we are sure that this will become more manageable by getting more organised and finding our habits. Nevertheless, the underwater show is there and on time, the visibility is incredible, there are ice crystals all over, we even have seen krill (which I had never observed before), it is extraordinary underneath the sea ice. We are currently cleaning the diving equipment, it takes a long time. Tomorrow, we start up skiing towards South”.

They lived an amazing life experience today and I could tell from Ghislain’s voice. They seem highly amazed by the show but also found it difficult to organize this day. This is the first diving day; they have learned lessons and will therefore adjust their schedules and their organization. We can feel tiredness tonight after all the logistics around the 2 dives, we also feel the "wonders" observed...

Small frostbite, a little concern and a great atmosphere!

Tonight at 9pm local time:
"Today, we started skiing only at 3pm. Indeed, cleaning my pulka this morning, we discovered a small problem: I noticed that the lens of my underwater waterproof case was off the case. It took us almost 3 to 4 hours to repair it. We therefore left only around 3pm. We skied 4 hours on 4 kilometers. We just set up camp. Samuel had a little frostbite this morning on his thumb, it is gone now and everything is fine but we are extremely vigilant for frostbites and equipments use. Around me, it seems that we might have fewer ridges to pass for the next skiing hours, at least for the next few nautical miles I can see. We think of diving tomorrow, although we still have to test the ice to confirm that. "

The atmosphere seems very good tonight, everything is fine, they also say they are increasingly effective setting up camp and seem to start finding some habits back. They drifted 900 meters towards South overnight. Our meteorologist said that they could head a bit South East from now, if they would like to, so that they could maybe find a newly refrozen "lead", allowing them to have a "highway" (less compression ridges, “flatter” ice ).

You can find the show directed by Loïc Etevenard on the preparation of the "Deepsea Under the Pole by Rolex" expedition in Tignes and Bessans in December 2009 (broadcasted in "Thalassa" on March 19th - France 3) on our “Media” page..

First pictures coming directly from the sea ice!

Tonight, a phone call from them at 8:10pm local time:
"Everything is going well. We walked 5 hours and 40 minutes today and we progessed of 4.19 km (this figure is to be confirmed as we had poor signal at that time). We found a leak (waterways on the sea ice) of 70 meters wide, we passed it rowing, everything went well but it was a little tiring. We also spent a few compression ridges and we saw a seal. It is -35 ° C and no wind. We are feeling fine, some minor frostbite to our hands and feet, the generator warms and dry us. We are already much more efficient when setting up the camp”.

Tonight, we had the great pleasure to receive pictures directly from the team on the sea ice to illustrate the newsletter. We are very happy about that. They are in good spirit and seem to begin their adaptation to the cold. They have temperatures that are "fairly high" for this place on the planet. Wayne, our meteorologist, gave a very good weather forecast for them on Sunday and Monday (cold and blue sky, no wind).

Amazing time for a unique expedition!

After a night where everyone enjoyed his warm blanket and a heated bedroom, we tasted a breakfast worthy all of those that we had since our arrival in Nunavut! Surely, stomachs will leave without missing anything...A smile on each face, an euphoric atmosphere, everyone has been highly prepared for this day but... It is here and now! We therefore leave for Eureka airport : after few pictures taking and some last bags storage, we head inside the DC3 plane, for it to finally take us to the final destination (but is not it rather the starting point? ). James Haffey (pilot), Chuck Champoux (co-pilot) and Dustin Booth (steward) are welcoming us very nicely again. Few people have done the flight we are about to do, it creates strong links between this trio and our team.

A final "goodbye for more than 2 months" to “real land”, a very great take-off and here we are in the air for about 4 hours of great show. Everyone starts by looking through the window, thoughtfully, wondering what the end of this special day will be like, then finally, we grab the map, the GPS, we follow precisely our track, some take the opportunity to recover by sleeping, other are filming, taking pictures or even sneaking into the cockpit to see the land, and then the sea ice with an angle of 180° wide! The flight helps us also to get an idea on the ice conditions between northern Ellesmere and the Pole. We're a little further west than the road they should take but the differences are already emerging. Between 84°N and 86°N latitude, the ice is much more fragmented for now. From 86°N, we see a beautiful ice, a few (beautiful) leads here and there and we are all very happy to be here. Just one unknown data: Where will the DC3 be able to land?
Indeed, this remains a mystery until the end. Another plane (the Twin Otter, smaller and therefore lighter than ours) left at dawn this morning to identify places, the ice conditions and potential landing opportunities. We obviously all expect the call and the news. It will land where it is safe, obviously as close to the pole as possible. Meanwhile, we fly towards it. We are almost there and all of sudden, finally, some news! The Twin Otter is at the North Pole and informs us that the ice is too fragmented; the area is not safe for our aircraft, even for itself! That would be too dangerous for us to try something. If even our pilots (22 years of experience!) do not go, they obviously have our full confidence and we rely entirely on their knowledge and experiences. Safety overrides our desire to start the expedition from there and we are already so close to it.
Pilots recommend an area a little further south for landing (about 65 km south of the pole) where the Twin Otter managed to land and is waiting for us. Timing is important: in fact, the Twin Otter pilots must switch off the engine while waiting for us (in order to keep enough fuel to return), it is now between -35°C and -40 °C outside, and they can not wait too long.
Starting from 12:30pm, the DC3 can now see the Twin Otter, make several superb approaches on the sea ice, and finally find its improvised "runway".
It is 1pm, we are at 89°25'03''N * 76°08'01''W: our joy is intense, big smiles, a peak of emotions all around... Not a word anymore in the plane, everyone gathers his equipment to get out and as if we do not dare to walk on this virgin land... nobody starts quickly. We respect so much the place, we waited for it and it represents the beginning of an amazing adventure... But we so much feel like writing it that the first one heads outside followed fast by the other seven. Exactly 15 minutes later, the sleds are unloaded, the security procedures under control, pictures taken and "goodbye" can begin. "Take care of yourself”, "Congratulations”, "It's extraordinary” say those who leave as they came. "See you very soon", "Thank you for being with us”, "we will miss you" say the others. A lot of emotions, few words, strong and sincere hugs, a prepared and desired separation, but it could have lasted few more minutes without a problem. The pilots are in a hurry, we scream the last recommendations "Deeply enjoy!" and the door closes.
From inside the aircraft, the emotion is great: we look at them, these 8 red persons, waving great goodbyes. We try to wave back through our small frozen windows, they know it (without seeing us) and that is what is important.
They are prepared, they are happy to be here, they are together, and they are a pleasure to watch.
After a return flight just as magical as the first one, we were able to talk to them this evening (10:30pm local time): "Everything is going well. We walked 2 hours after arrival; we did 3.3 kilometers toward South. Some had little cold feet but quickly warmed up. Tonight, everyone is happy to be here, we are in our sleeping bags, it is -37°C, no wind, we are happy, this is a rather nice temperature to start with. We of course need to find back our habits acquired during training but everything is fine. We even drifted of 500 meters to the south since we set up camp!” Ghislain Bardout.
Very nice atmosphere, happy from departure, what an extraordinary day, with discoveries of natural beauty, how sad it would be if they become the last witnesses of it.

« I am back in Eureka, 10 years after ... »

The Kenn Borek Air Unaalik Inc. DC3. took off at 6am precisely this morning from Resolute Bay in a very noisy atmosphere and on board 10 members of our team and Kayak, not feeling too safe, and 1100 kilos of pulkas. Thank you again Jeff for the great hospitality at the Qaussuittuq hotel! 2 and a half hours later, we arrived in Eureka on Ellesmere Island, 80° North, to refuel. The weather is not good at the pole, and like the Twin Otter which was ahead of us to prepare the runway on the sea ice, we stop here. We have to wait, I enjoy the fact that the road to the North Pole is not easy to get, for anyone coming!
In fact, I already came here 10 years ago, and I am back with a lot of emotions to the mythical "Weather Station" where I stayed 5 days along with Pascal Fayolle, Sipa Press photographer, Karl Zberg, our pilot, great pilots among the best ones, and Alex Sirros, his co-pilot during the rescue flight of The Great Crossing - Siberia / Canada by Arnaud Tortel and Rodolphe André back in 2000. The old buildings are still here, abandoned, but the new station, just in front of the former one, looks like a gigantic lunar module. We are entering a room that could contain a truck before reaching the entrance where we can leave our clothes, boots and gloves. A dozen of scientists take turns every year here in this weather research station, the Canadian northest one. We enter in here guided by Rai, the Base Manager. I am under the impression of visiting the International Space Station. He gives us our rooms and we get a meeting on the day-to-day life rules. Not a lot of people have the chance to stop by here. Rai was here 10 years ago, as well as André, but at that time, I have not seen either of them. Here people do not stay all year long, a 3-4 months work stay for 3 or 4 months vacation after.
Rai invites us to sit in the cosy dining room. On our breakfast menu, fresh fruits, pineapples, strawberries, raspberries, melon, we did not think that we would find these products here in such quantities! An amazingly modern kitchen, meals of all kinds, with delicious smells… We take a great breakfast before going walking on the frozen fjord, to enjoy the silence and breathtaking beauty of this place. The mountains all around are like petrified. We love every minute of it. Happy!
We find footprints on the ice that never lie. A group of twenty arctic wolves live not far around the Station.
We could stay here for years, if we do not consider the price! Almost $CAD 500 per person per day, of course justified by the place inaccessibility.
My friend Pascal, a thought for you and the old friends: "The price doubled in 10 years, but the cookies are still so fantastic!". Tomorrow, the North Pole will be ours!