{"id":25821,"date":"2020-01-31T19:47:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25821"},"modified":"2020-01-31T19:47:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:47:30","slug":"outward-bound-canadas-magnetic-north-pole-expedition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/outward-bound-canadas-magnetic-north-pole-expedition\/","title":{"rendered":"Outward Bound Canada\u2019s Magnetic North Pole Expedition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Angus Murray<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine getting on a plane in Toronto\nand flying 3,500 kilometres north over two days. You would still be in Canada,\nat the farthest reaches of the country, in Resolute Bay, Nunavut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what I did last May. While most\nfolks were welcoming spring, I headed due north to Nunavut to lead a gruelling\n100-km ski expedition to the Magnetic North Pole. This was a nine-day\nadventure, during which temperatures, intensified by brutal wind chill,\nplummeted to -30 C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I admit this was one of the toughest\nexpeditions I have guided. Having to endure the unrelenting cold and navigate\nin such challenging conditions required physical endurance and mental\nfortitude. I couldn\u2019t help but admire the early polar explorers and realize how\nstrong they must have been mentally and physically to endure similar conditions\nwithout the gear and equipment we have today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with eight others, I took part in\nOutward Bound Canada\u2019s 50th-anniversary expedition from April 26 to May 4,\n2019. I coordinated the trek that also served as a fundraiser for the\norganization that aims to cultivate resilience, leadership, and compassion to\nyouth and adults through inspiring and challenging journeys of self-discovery\nin the natural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Magnetic North Pole is where the\nplanet\u2019s magnetic field points vertically downwards. Its exact location is\nalways slowly moving; the spot we reached is the location of the Magnetic North\nPole the last time it was near land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being so close to the Magnetic Pole made\nmy compass useless and navigating using maps and a GPS proved challenging at\ntimes, especially during whiteout conditions. Fortunately, my co-guide, Scott\nKress, and I were able to find the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team skied six to eight one-hour\nblocks each day, covering about 15 kilometres a day while pulling 50-pound\nsleds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wore multiple layers of specialized\nclothing to ward off frostbite and consumed at least 5,000 calories a day \u2014 250\nto 500 calories per hour \u2014 to compensate for the intense exercise combined with\nthe cold. Most of the food was freeze-dried: oatmeal, granola, maple syrup, and\nhot chocolate with butter for breakfast. For dinner, we enjoyed dishes such as\nbeef stew, chicken and rice, and macaroni and cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favourite hourly snack was a chunk of\ncheese, a hunk of Kielbasa sausage, and a piece of Laura Secord chocolate,\nwhich I ate all at the same time because of the cold!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We could not stay still for more than\nten minutes during breaks or our clothing and limbs would begin to freeze. As I\ntold the group, half-jokingly, \u201cIf you sweat, you die,\u201d because frozen moisture\ncan contaminate all insulating layers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most considerable risks of\nthe expedition was a polar bear encounter. To mitigate this danger, both Mr.\nKress and I carried firearms that shot flare and banger projectiles to scare\noff any bears. But most importantly, we were accompanied by an Inuit sled dog\nnamed Puppy from Resolute Bay that would not only warn us of any bears but also\nhelp to chase them away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is uncertain how many people have\nventured to the Magnetic North Pole. The first recorded European to visit the\narea was Gunnar Isachsen in 1901, and the most recent organized trip before\nours was in 2014. It is unlikely there will be any more expeditions as the\ncharter company that flies to the area from Resolute is reluctant to travel to\nsuch a remote area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is safe to say that few people have\nseen this place with their own eyes. Before moving to Aurora, I lived and\nworked in the Canadian Arctic for five years, and it has got to be one of the\nmost beautiful places I have had the opportunity to visit. In the vastness of\nthe far north, with the clear blue skies, the views were stunning. We don\u2019t\nalways appreciate the beauty that nature can offer, especially in the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My next adventure will be climbing Mt.\nAconcagua in Argentina, the highest mountain in South America and the final mountain\nI must climb to become a \u201cSeven Summiteer,\u201d someone who has climbed the highest\npeaks on each on the Earth\u2019s seven continents. I plan to do this in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angus Murray is the coordinator of\noutdoor education at St. Andrew\u2019s College and enjoys sharing the beauty and\nchallenge of winter travel to students at the school. The avid skier, climber,\nand intrepid traveller has worked in the field of outdoor education for 30\nyears.<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Angus Murray Imagine getting on a plane in Toronto and flying 3,500 kilometres north over two days. You would still be in Canada, at the farthest reaches of the country, in Resolute Bay, Nunavut. This is what I did last May. While most folks were welcoming spring, I headed due north to Nunavut to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2020-01-30-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6It","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 06:08:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}