The Race Against Time polar expedition team sponsored by a Midland entrepreneur is celebrating after arriving at the North Pole following a tough 13 days on ice.
Headed up by Coventry explorer Mark Wood, the jubilant North Pole 16 trio has reported “massive smiles” on its faces after completing a “relentlessly hard going” 120 nautical miles over unexpected “difficult terrain” for the Antarctica region.
Although all three admit to nursing aching muscles and bones after skiing around eight hours a day, and up to 11 nautical miles, they are delighted to have been able to achieve what will soon become an impossible journey for other explorers.
Aimed at exposing the true extent of climate change in the Arctic Ocean, Wood, and his two serving soldier teammates, Paul Vicary and Mark Langridge, have reported encountering “strange”, “bizarre” and “warmer than usual” Arctic conditions.
As well as reporting facing a “barrage of ice blocks”, “ice boulder fields” and “massive, unrelenting, ice rubble” it also had to ditch ski to scale “an amphitheatre of ice walls” which it described as both physically and mentally draining.
And just 15 miles off the North Pole it came across a “massive expanse of water” which is stated was “bizarrely close to the North Pole”, coupled with “strangely” warm temperatures of around -10.
The expedition’s main sponsor Mark Tweddle, who runs Shropshire fruit import and export company Jupiter Marketing, has been in regular contact with the team.
The 38-year-old, of Kings Bromley, Lichfield, said today: “I am delighted to confirm that I have had a call from Mark Wood to say that, after 13 hard days and nights, his British three man team has finally reached the North Pole.
“All are in good health, although very tired.
“The purpose of this expedition was to highlight the importance of the impact that climate change is having on our planet, and no-one could have imaged the complexities the team would encounter in achieving this goal.
“The three are all experienced polar explorers, even travelling with the late Lt Col Henry Worsley to the South Pole, and they’ve all reported encountering very unusual conditions for the Arctic, which they have gone so far as to describe as strange and bizarre.”
The father-of-two went on to reveal: “The team’s next step is to create a documentary that will help to educate others on the hostilities of this dangerous and ever changing part of our planet that only few will ever have the opportunity to explore.
“If our planet continues to change at such an alarming rate expeditions, such as North Pole 16, will soon become a thing of the past – sadly this is highly likely to happen in our lifetime.”
The team spent some time at the Pole before being picked up and flown to Barneo Ice Station and later onto Svalbard to recover.
Wood and his teammates are due to fly back to the UK later this week.
For more on the incredible expedition follow: twitter.com/Jupiter_Mark1,