North Pole trek to bring attention to Global Warming called off due to frostbite

[Queasy]

link

MINNEAPOLIS - A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite.

The explorers, Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, on Saturday called off what was intended to be a 530-mile trek across the Arctic Ocean after Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment.

"Ann said losing toes and going forward at all costs was never part of the journey," said Ann Atwood, who helped organize the expedition.

On Monday, the pair was at Canada's Ward Hunt Island, awaiting a plane to take them to Resolute, Canada, where they were to return to Minneapolis later this week.

Bancroft, 51, became the first woman to cross the North Pole on a 1986 expedition. She and Arnesen, 53, of Oslo, Norway, were the first women to ski across Antarctica in 2001.

But the latest trek got off to a bad start. The day they set off from Ward Hunt Island, a plane landing near the women hit their gear, punching a hole in Bancroft's sled and damaging one of Arnesen's snowshoes.

They repaired the snowshoe with binding from a ski, but Atwood said the patch job created pressure on Arnesen's left foot, which led to blisters that then turned into frostbite.

Then there was the cold - quite a bit colder, Atwood said, then Bancroft and Arnesen had expected. One night they measured the temperature inside their tent at 58 degrees below zero, and outside temperatures were exceeding 100 below zero at times, Atwood said.

"My first reaction when they called to say there were calling it off was that they just sounded really, really cold," Atwood said.

She said Bancroft and Arnesen were applying hot water bottles to Arnesen's foot every night, but had to wake up periodically because the bottles froze.

The explorers had planned to call in regular updates to school groups by satellite phone, and had planned online posts with photographic evidence of global warming. In contrast to Bancroft's 1986 trek across the Arctic with fellow Minnesota explorer Will Steger, this time she and Arnesen were prepared to don body suits and swim through areas where polar ice has melted.

Atwood said there was some irony that a trip to call attention to global warming was scuttled in part by extreme cold temperatures.

"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming," Atwood said. "But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."

 

[loup garou]

More amazing is that they dug up Ann Bancroft for the expedition! :shocked:

 

[sixone]

Surely she can spare a couple of toes for a good cause. :roll:

 

[spidey07]

The ironing is delicious.

:thumbsup:

 

[Queasy]

This is my favorite part:

"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming," Atwood said. "But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."

Built-in excuse. Global Warming is unpredictable and capable of anything. The fact that our assertions don't meet what we expect is proof!

 

[alm99]

Originally posted by: spidey07
The ironing is delicious.

:thumbsup:

 

[Conky]

Excellent story! :thumbsup:

The only way this story could've been better is if they had frozen to death. :laugh:

 

[b0mbrman]

Hey now. Frost bite is no laughing matter.

[Edit] Never mind. Just read the whole story...I guess that is pretty funny

 

[grrl]

What are you ironing and why should we care?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman
Hey now. Frost bite is no laughing matter.

Agreed. Wishing harm/death is not cool.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: grrl
What are you ironing and why should we care?

I don't know, but it's delicious...

 

[doze]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: grrl
What are you ironing and why should we care?

I don't know, but it's delicious...

grilled cheese sandwich, college dorm style?

 

[grrl]

Originally posted by: doze

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: grrl
What are you ironing and why should we care?

I don't know, but it's delicious...

grilled cheese sandwich, college dorm style?

Sounds delicious.

 

[hellokeith]

Earth 3, Whacko fanatic scientists 0

I wonder if they bought their gear from Al Gore's company?

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: spidey07
The ironing is delicious.

:thumbsup:

I wondered how they could get frostbite while ironing? The iron should have been warm enough to prevent that...

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: BoomerD

Originally posted by: spidey07
The ironing is delicious.

:thumbsup:

I wondered how they could get frostbite while ironing? The iron should have been warm enough to prevent that...

I guess it was just that cold...

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: b0mbrman
Hey now. Frost bite is no laughing matter.

Agreed. Wishing harm/death is not cool.

Maybe not, but when it happens it is funny. If you don't know them of course.

 

[daniel49]

with all the drowned polar bears up there from the ice melting. why didn't they use thier fur to stay warm?

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Reminds me of the time the Greenpeace folks came up here to Alaska to camp out and harass some oil field workers. Before they headed up north, they stopped in at a furrier in Anchorage and tried to get some wolf fur ruffs sewn onto their parka hoods. The furrier in question had no problem with it until he saw the Greenpeace logos on their parkas. :laugh: He kicked them out of his store, then called the other furriers in town to warn them, then fed the story of their hypocrisy to the newspapers.

 

[thetxstang]

...and outside temperatures were exceeding 100 below zero at times, Atwood said.

Shens. Huge shens. It may have been dangerously cold, but nothing at all exceeding 100 below. 100 below zero has never been recorded in the Northern Hemisphere since modern-day record keeping was established. (I'm a huge weather fanatic, trust me.)

And 100+ below wind chill doesn't count. The official wind chill values conversion chart was significantly revised in recent years. The prior, amazing, so-called "feels like" temperatures are a thing of the past.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: grrl

Originally posted by: doze

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: grrl
What are you ironing and why should we care?

I don't know, but it's delicious...

grilled cheese sandwich, college dorm style?

Sounds delicious.

only if the george forman grill has never been cleaned in about 4 months and has lashings of steak, burger, sausage juice/deposits/fat caked into it. never cleaning a forman makes sammiches taste awesome. and no im not fat (6ft 3inch 12 stone)

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: Queasy
This is my favorite part:

"They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming," Atwood said. "But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."

Built-in excuse. Global Warming is unpredictable and capable of anything. The fact that our assertions don't meet what we expect is proof!

They were stupid to expect higher temperatures. Global warming means that GLOBAL temperature is increasing, not that you'll have warmer weather.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
Reminds me of the time the Greenpeace folks came up here to Alaska to camp out and harass some oil field workers. Before they headed up north, they stopped in at a furrier in Anchorage and tried to get some wolf fur ruffs sewn onto their parka hoods. The furrier in question had no problem with it until he saw the Greenpeace logos on their parkas. :laugh: He kicked them out of his store, then called the other furriers in town to warn them, then fed the story of their hypocrisy to the newspapers.

Greenpeace isn't an animal rights organization. That story sounds made up anyway, since wolves are an endangered species and the furriers would have been arrested.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
Reminds me of the time the Greenpeace folks came up here to Alaska to camp out and harass some oil field workers. Before they headed up north, they stopped in at a furrier in Anchorage and tried to get some wolf fur ruffs sewn onto their parka hoods. The furrier in question had no problem with it until he saw the Greenpeace logos on their parkas. :laugh: He kicked them out of his store, then called the other furriers in town to warn them, then fed the story of their hypocrisy to the newspapers.

Greenpeace isn't an animal rights organization. That story sounds made up anyway, since wolves are an endangered species and the furriers would have been arrested.

They trap wolves up here, they also have a predator control program where they shoot them to keep their numbers down so that moose and caribou herds can grow in number.

Why not sign up for some wolf trapping classes?

Article about the class from 2005.

Those two species are the most valuable animals trapped in Alaska and together make up as much as half the total value of the trapping industry. Arctic wolf pelts, with their long, silky hair, can fetch more than $400 each, though the average price paid for the 1,500 or so wolves taken every year in Alaska was closer to $225, according to the most recent figures available from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The average wolverine pelt is worth slightly more, about $250.

SOURCE

As for Greenpeace not being an animal rights group, then what is all that business with them confronting whaling and fishing ships to protect whales and dolphins?

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
Reminds me of the time the Greenpeace folks came up here to Alaska to camp out and harass some oil field workers. Before they headed up north, they stopped in at a furrier in Anchorage and tried to get some wolf fur ruffs sewn onto their parka hoods. The furrier in question had no problem with it until he saw the Greenpeace logos on their parkas. :laugh: He kicked them out of his store, then called the other furriers in town to warn them, then fed the story of their hypocrisy to the newspapers.

Greenpeace isn't an animal rights organization. That story sounds made up anyway, since wolves are an endangered species and the furriers would have been arrested.

They trap wolves up here, they also have a predator control program where they shoot them to keep their numbers down so that moose and caribou herds can grow in number.

Why not sign up for some wolf trapping classes?

Article about the class from 2005.

Those two species are the most valuable animals trapped in Alaska and together make up as much as half the total value of the trapping industry. Arctic wolf pelts, with their long, silky hair, can fetch more than $400 each, though the average price paid for the 1,500 or so wolves taken every year in Alaska was closer to $225, according to the most recent figures available from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The average wolverine pelt is worth slightly more, about $250.

SOURCE

As for Greenpeace not being an animal rights group, then what is all that business with them confronting whaling and fishing ships to protect whales and dolphins?

I guess arctic wolves aren't protected, despite being the same species as gray wolves.

Protecting whales isn't about animal rights, but about preservation. The international moratorium on marine mammal killing isn't about animal rights, but preserving species that are endangered or that humanity does not want to see become endangered again..