National Geographic Adventure Magazine November, 2007

Out of a possible score of 100, Polar Explorers ranks 94 (placing it 19 out of 160+ outfitters in the "Overall" category). Rated by category, PolarExplorers achieves the following scores (each category has a scale of 1-100):

• Client Experience -100
• Education - 95
• Spirit of Adventure - 95
• Sustainability - 90
• Quality of Service - 90

"Nearly every PolarExplorers trip hits the North or South Pole--and one expedition even goes to both. Clients learn about Polar history, ecology, and conservation methods, and receive fitness-training advice before they head out. One option is to participate in the "Polar Shakedown" trip in Ely, Minnesota, to get schooled in how to cook and load a dogsled in the extreme cold. PolarExplorers pays homage to its forefathers with nightly campfire readings of the writings of Robert Peary, Fergus Fleming, and Will Steger...."

National Geographic Adventure's Methodology
"With assistance from the Adventure Council, Adventures in Travel Expo, the Adventure Travel Trade Association, and other travel and tourism organizations, we reached out to hundreds of tour companies around the world. The outfitters were asked to complete a comprehensive 28-question survey and were scored from 1 to 100 in each of the following categories:

Education and Interpretation: This score reflects how effectively a company provides educational and interpretative information to trip participants about the geology, history, wildlife, cultures, etc., for the places in which it operates.
Sustainability: How a company runs its trips often means the difference between tourism that safeguards a region’s cultural and natural heritage and tourism that serves as a threat to the chosen destination. This score indicates how engaged the company is with sustainable tourism practices.
Quality of Service: This score represents the level of customer service that a company offers, from the nature of interactions with each client to the quality of gear provided for sport-specific trips and general amenities.
Spirit of Adventure: From trying new food to visiting exotic locations, there are many ways for today’s active traveler to experience adventure. This score reflects how effectively a company brings the “spirit of adventure” to each trip itinerary.
Client References: Researchers contacted client references for every company and generated a fifth score, also between 1 and 100, based on their feedback.

Each outfitter’s overall score represents the average of these five scores.

A team of Adventure editors, travel writers, and experts vetted those with overall scores of 80 and above and, from this pool of candidates, chose the “Best Outfitters on Earth,” 55 of which were profiled in the November 2007 issue of National Geographic Adventure. The rest are listed online.

The Sunday News-Register December 25, 2005

On Top of the World

"...The planet Earth actually has two North Poles - a geographic North Pole and a magnetic North Pole. The geographic pole, according to About.com, is the northermost point on the Earth's surface, located at 90 degrees north latitude. All lines of longitude converge at the pole. The North and South Poles are connected by the planet's axix, the line at which the Earth rotates.

Located about 450 miles north of Greenland in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, the geographic North Pole has six months of daylight and six months of darkness. Sea ice usually covers the pole, but water has been sighted there recently. Robert Peary and his partner, Matthew Henson, are credited with being the first people to reach the North Pole in 1909, along with four Inuit, indigenous arctic people. An American nuclear submarine crossed the pole in 1958, and today dozens of planes fly over the pole as they travel between continents.

The magnetic North Pole differs from the geographic North Pole in that it is in motion and has even switched places with the magnetic South Pole at least a few times during the Earth's history, according to Wikpedia.

Published reports indicate that the magnetic North Pole is in Canada now, but remains in motion and could be in Siberia in 50 years if it maintains its current course and speed. The magnetic pole is the place to which magnetic compasses point from nearly any place on Earth. The Earth's magnetic field is produced by the movement of molten iron beneath the surface of the planet.

A company known as The Northwest Passage with offices in Wilmette, IL offers expeditions to the geographic pole, traveling by ski and/or dogsled. The excursions leave from Longyearbyen, Norway, and require participants to pitch in and help with setting up camp, cooking, tracking and more. Following a champagne celebration upon reaching the North Pole, a flight returns expeditioners to Norway, where they can take a hot shower, have dinner and spend the night in a lodge.

A ski trip covering one degree of latitude could be scheduled for the alternative dates of April 16-27 in 2006 at a cost of $17,000. Company officials recommend that participants have a high level of both skill and physical fitness before embarking on such an expedition. Information provided by the company states that SAS is the only commercial airline flying in and out of Longyearbyen, and connections are made through Oslo.

The trip takes a total of 13 days, including a day of preparation and a flight by chartered aircraft to a Russian research camp, from which the ski trip will begin. For seven days, participants will travel by ski and sled, four to ten hours a day. Campsites will be set up along the way. Upon arrival at the pole, each person in the party will be able to make a brief telephone call to any place in the world.

The company also offers a one degree dogsled and ski trip, between April 16-28 this spring for $22,500. A two degree trip, beginning as early as April 11, costs $27,500.

Trips to the North Pole by air also are available at costs from $9,500 to $13,500. Participants will depart the same Russian research camp, Borneo, aboard a helicopter. The craft will land at the pole for a celebration similar to those of ski and dog sled excursions.

By Jennifer Compston-Strough

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Chicago Tribune Sunday May, 8 2005

Vacation with Icy Reception
The trip to the North Pole has gripped mankind since 1818

Annie Aggens stood at the top of the world marveling at the frozen horizon of white stretching for millions of acres. A step in any direction took her south. For a moment, until the ice of the Arctic Ocean shifted, she was positioned at the North Pole.

The brief visit to the northernmost spot on the planet culminated a frigid two-week April journey from Chicago. Aggens and six fellow travelers crossed open leads that could plunge them into 12,000 feet of icy water, negotiated rubble blocks of ice on skis and courted frostbite from a deadly wind that threatened to freeze exposed flesh.

The effort expended added to the satisfaction of reaching 90 degrees north. "When we got there," says Aggens, 34, of Wilmette, "it was really sweet."

The idea, the mystique, the romance of the North Pole, has gripped mankind's psyche in earnest at least since 1818 when the British sought a Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

During her pause at the Pole, Aggens, a student of Arctic history who trained by dragging tires tied around her waist through city streets, let her mind drift to past explorers who opened the path north. Ships were trapped in cement-like ice and expeditions endured harsh winters while crews perished from scurvy. All the while hardy leaders dreamed of fame, glory and riches, of scientific and geographic revelations and of history writing their names in capital letters.

Aggens thought of Elisha Kent Kane, Charles Francis Hall, Fridtjof Nansen, Frederick Cook, Matthew Henson and Robert Peary, and the controversy of 1909, when the argument over who reached the North Pole first erupted.

Against that dramatic backdrop, it seems somewhat curious that citizen adventurers of the 21st Century, guided by firms such as the aptly named Northwest Passage of Wilmette, now take vacations at the Pole. From the North Shore to the North Pole.

Neither governmentally nor militarily selected as in days gone by, clients willing to spend $15,000-plus and committed to pushing their bodies 78 miles northward in minus-35-degree cold, qualify. This is a holiday for those who would rather recline on the white snow of the far north instead of the white sands of the tropics.

Still, many find it surreal the Pole is visited routinely.

"A lot of people look at you for a while," Aggens says. "`Surely she doesn't mean the North Pole.'"

`What's there?'

The North Pole is a moving target in the Arctic Ocean. Unlike the South Pole, it is not on land. It does not stay still, either, and frequently those who camp near the Pole awake to find they have floated miles backward.

"The average adult question is, `What hotel is there?'" says Rick Sweitzer, the operator of Northwest Passage who has led groups to the North Pole 12 times since 1993.

Also commonly asked: "What's there when you get there?" Except for flags tour operators raise, it's snow and ice as far as the eye can see.

Sweitzer led the first commercial trip to the North Pole when other adventure travel companies thought the notion was outlandish.

"We asked people to write wills," Sweitzer says. "It cost about $20,000 to get them to trust us with their lives."

Aided by expert musher Paul Schurke of Ely, Minn., Sweitzer mapped out a plan recreating Peary's last two degrees of latitude gain, or about 130 miles. Departing from Resolute Bay in Northern Canada by dog team, the leaders guided 11 civilians to the Pole. It fulfilled a dream of Sweitzer's and nobody died. The group partied with vodka and beer.

"We had a remarkable adventure," says Sweitzer, now 50. "It was one of the finer moments of my life, without a doubt. And I knew I was in business."

He was, but the game has changed. Over the last decade, the starting point has moved from Resolute to Siberia to Norway. The price soared to more than $27,000, then dropped to $15,500 as the location changed. "Champagne flights," taking those who merely wish to stand at the Pole without fighting the elements, were added and cost $13,500.

Iridium phones are carried for rescue protection. The method of approach now is skiing. There are many competing guides of many nationalities jumping off from a communal tent site at 89 degrees north called Borneo Base Camp.

This all reflects the age of the adventurer who wants more from a vacation than a tan.

Bill Burd, 61, a Chicago coin dealer, went north in 2003 because the Arctic fascinated him. He spent six days skiing 60 miles in minus-20 weather and was unfazed. "You start acclimating to the weather," Burd says. "You actually start sweating." His reaction upon arrival at the Pole? "Wow, I'm really here," Burd says.

Burt Meyer, 79, a retired toy inventor from Downers Grove, lost 15 pounds in 15 days in 1995 despite eating 6,000 calories daily.

In his family, he was "kind of a hero," Meyer says. Acquaintances weren't impressed. "They said, `You're an idiot and you're back and we're glad to see you.' No one else ever went on my recommendation," he says.

Those who go, Sweitzer says of the approximately 80 clients he has guided to the Pole on the ice and about 80 more via champagne flights, are "big adventure type-A's and polar aficionados. There's quite a bug."

April is the safe season. Any stay beyond May 1 risks more spring breakup than is wise.

For those with a polar passion, the ignorance of the many is baffling. Aggens, Sweitzer and Burd all said the average Joe thinks the North Pole is in Alaska. A century ago that geographic blind spot would be less common in the general populace. The nation's biggest news was the quest for the Pole and the competing expeditions of Cook and Peary.

Who's on first?

Nearly 100 years later, no one is positive either Cook or Peary made it.

It is telling that only a few weeks ago a team of adventurers completed a 37-day, 475-mile mush to the Pole five hours faster than Peary to demonstrate it was possible he did it as he said in 1909.

It is telling that only a few weeks ago a new book called "True North" by Bruce Henderson was released, offering a case that Cook might have made it first in 1908. Cook, Henderson wrote, was victimized by a smear campaign.

When Sweitzer heard Henderson's premise he said, "Oh my God." That's because Cook's claim was largely discredited 96 years ago and he has acquired few fresh disciples. Cook's credibility is weakened more because his declaration of climbing 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley first was shredded and years later he was imprisoned for stock fraud.

In his seminal work, "The Arctic Grail," the late Canadian historian Pierre Berton called Cook "a con man" and "the prince of losers" in Arctic exploration. Yet Cook made remarkable forays into the Arctic and Antarctic and is supported by The Frederick A. Cook Society, a non-profit organization aided by descendants. The society believes history has treated Cook unfairly.

Peary's first-to-the-Pole claim initially was applauded as the genuine article, although recent examination of his diaries raised issues.

"I'm a Peary believer," Sweitzer says. "I have always believed it. I believe it on faith."

Bert Peary Stafford, a great-grandson of Peary's, is a 56-year-old history teacher in Portland, Ore. Stafford says he thinks improved scientific sophistication ultimately will prove Peary's assertion.

Stafford says he has been aware of the family fame "since I was conscious. We had relics around the house. We had a polar bear rug. I still have the admiral's sextant."

The Peary name carried weight in Resolute when Stafford and his brother, Gregory Peary Stafford, showed up in 1997 on a Sweitzer-led North Pole dogsled trip. "I was treated like Robert Redford," Stafford says.

Every April 6, the anniversary of Peary's recorded date at the North Pole, Stafford lectures his five classes on his renowned relation. In Stafford's telling, Peary makes it first.

Following in the footsteps

The wind was constantly in their faces, cutting like a too-sharp razor. The temperature plummeted to minus-35 and the windchill to minus-50.

"If you took your mitts off for 30 seconds, your fingers got chilled immediately," says Keith Heger, 29, an outdoor winter recreation instructor from Morton Grove. "It was cold. It was relentless. You're in your tent and it's still cold."

Sweitzer, Aggens, Heger, and four others skied together. Sweitzer, whose fingers annually are frostbitten in the north, called it the coldest North Pole trip he has taken. Even more surprising was the number of leads, or open-water gaps in the ice. Some were 6 to 10 feet wide. They were like fences guarding the Pole, Aggens says. "There was a lot more open water than I thought there would be," says Kevin DeVries, 37, of Pinckney, Mich., who runs a communications firm.

Only 1 1/4 miles from the Pole, the team came upon a lead 100 feet wide. It was 4:30 p.m. and, hoping the water would freeze overnight, the skiers camped. The lead froze by morning. But the ice drifted south and an expected hour sprint turned into five hours of hard slogging.

Heger packed a Santa Claus outfit--hat, red pullover and white beard--to unveil at the Pole, but the cold intimidated him. "It didn't get pulled out of the bag," he says.

DeVries says he could see how Peary or Cook might miss the Pole because a high tech GPS told the Northwest Passage team it was on the right spot only for seconds. "It's elusive," DeVries says.

Aggens knew where she was. Stinging hands and numbness in her face provided a North Pole welcome.

"The [explorers] had it tough," she says. "But we didn't have it so easy either. We had to work for it."

Peary and Cook returned to civilization seeking recognition for eternity. Aggens returned to Chicago with her own Arctic Grail fulfilled and a different reward in mind. "I'm going surfing in Florida," she says.

-Written by Lew Freedman

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The New York Times - February 6, 2005

Q & A
ON TOP OF THE WORLD

I would like to take a trip to the North Pole. Are there agencies that organize these trips? - Joseph M. Hassett, NY, NY

The North Pole and its vast tracts of pack ice and polar wildlife have been a lure for adventure travelers since Adm. Robert E. Peary made his way there almost a century ago. Not many travelers expect to make the trip in their lifetime, but a variety of options are available - none cheap, though cheaper than some years ago - including travel by icebreaker or helicopter or, for the intrepid, on foot, on skis or by dogsled.

One company offering treks to the geographic North Pole at the 90th parallel is The Northwest Passage, in Wilmette, IL, which pioneered such trips in 1993. Rick Seitzer, Northwest Passage's founder, has been more than a dozen times; group size for the trips has ranged from 6 to 16, with ages from 16 to 69. This year, The Northwest Passage is offering a Polar Ski trek (next year it will be part dogsled) from remote Longyearbyen, on the island of Spitzbergen, Norway, with up to eight hours of skiing a day from Borneo base camp, at 89 degrees north latitude; on reaching the Pole, travelers celebrate with champagne and photos and call home, then are picked up by helicopter. The trip is set for April 9 to 21; $15,500 a person, which includes some clothing and equipment. A Polar Shakedown trip ($2,500; April 5-9), a training session, is all but obligatory, and makes the trip much more enjoyable, says Mr. Sweitzer. If such a trek sounds too rigorous, you can take a Champagne Flight by helicopter from the Borneo base camp, $11,500 to $14,000 (three to five days), departing April 9 and 18. Information (800) 732-7328; www.northpole-expeditions.com.

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The Christian Science Monitor - February 17, 2004

Christopher Sweitzer has been to the North Pole twice. The first time hardly counts, though, since he was only 18 months old. As a fifth-grader last April, he returned with his dad, Rick, whose adventure travel business has been offering North Pole trips since 1993.

On his latest journey, a 5 1/2 day trip, he arranged to call his classmates at Highcrest Middle School in Wilmette, IL on a satellite phone. "The connection was pretty good," says Chris, an outdoorsy 12-year-old who likes to play soccer and baseball when not skiing.

Their trip was far shorter than the one Robert Peary and Matthew Henson took in 1909 (see story on facing page.) Chris traveled mostly by air.

He and his dad flew to Spitzbergen, an island north of Norway. From there they took a Russian charter flight (in a special plane designed to land on ice) to a basecamp on the frozen Artic Ocean, 60 miles from the Pole. A helicopter took them to within five miles of the Pole. They cross-country skies the rest of the way. It took three hours.

The skiing was a lot tougher than Chris was used to. He often had to get over tall pressure ridges of ice. Another surprise was where they stayed. "I never thought about having a base there, with big tents," he says.

Tents are used at the oddly namced Camp Borneo (the island of Borneo is very hot and humid). The camp is temporary. The Russians who run it set it up for several weeks, usually in April. The camp requires a large, flat stretch of solid ice at least three feet thick, so planes can land.

The tent Chris and his dad stayed in was about 20 feet long, 10 to 15 feet high, and heated. "It was pretty nice," he says, surely more comfortable than outside, where the temperature was about minus 10 degrees F. (and minus 25 at the Pole).

When Chris called his classmates, they wanted to know what animals he'd seen. On the entire trip, Chris saw only one seal. He didn't see any Polar Bears, which was probably just as well, since they have been known to attack humans.

Chris worked so hard skiing the last miles to the Pole that his perspiration froze on his face, Because it's so cold, rest stops are short and infrequent. On the trips he leads, Rick Sweitzer says the group stops about once an hour just long enough to give you a little nourishment. "Every time you stop," Rick says, "it takes 15 minutes to warm up when you start again."

When the Sweitzers' GPS unit told them they had arrived at the "Pole," (there's no actual marker), they found they had company. A group of runners was competing in an extreme marathon, running (well, mostly walking) around a one-kilometer loop. There was a five-hour limit, and only a few contestants finished the race.

Chris watched - from inside the heated helicopter that shuttled him and his dad back to base camp. - by R.A.

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Daily Herald- December 17, 2003

Arctic Advice
To learn how to keep warm during a Chicago winter, we went to a man who's broken a sweat at the North Pole.You step outside and the biting cold attacks you. The wind charges, sending daggers into your skin. The calendar says winter begins December 21, but your toes have been numb for a month. Every winter, you freeze, curse, and freeze some more. Before you head to Arizona, listen up: You can beat the cold, providing you know how. Rick Sweitzer of Wilmette has spent years perfecting the art of staying warm. For Sweitzer, and explorer who's led expeditions to the North Pole since 1993, it's not just about comfort, it's about survival. The same principals that help him endure Arctic winds and bone-chilling temperatures can keep you toasty when you're shoveling your car out from under a 6 foot snow drift.

Think in layers: You'll need three layers of clothing from head to toe, Sweitzer advises, Start with the wicking layer. Everyone sweats (and with three layers of clothing on, you will, too), but perspiration ot other wetness can leave you feeling cold. Choose fabrics that wick moisture away from your skin, such as silk or polypropylene long underwear, glove liners, sockliners and balaclava (a face and head liner). Next, pile on an insulating layer. Try a wool sweater or a polyester fleece top and pants, plus socks, mittens and hat. For the third layer, the wind and water shell layer, you'll need a warm parka and nylon shell pants. It's all about the fabrics: Consider the pros and cons of the various fabrics on the market. A down parka buys you more warmth than a synthetic. However, if tou're caught in a heavy rain and get soaked, down loses its insulating abiolity, while synthetics retain theirs. For Chicago conditions, down with a nylon shell should work. Whatever you do avoid wearing cotton next to the skin, says Sweitzer, who can't shake the image of the adventurer whose cotton underwear froze solid after he fell through the ice on a 1993 Arctic Expedition. "Cotton is extremely undesirable," Sweitzer says.

Even when it's cold out, your feet sweat. A cotton sock will retain perspiration or other moisture. making you feel colder. A silk, Capilene, polypropylene or wool sock will wick moisture away. Try a wool sock over a silk sock liner. An explorer's secre tricks: Sweitzer says little things can help. In the Arctic, he wears a parka with drawstrings at the waist and hem to seal out the cold. He takes a tip from the Inuit and wears a fur-trimmed hood which blocks wind and wetness. If it works for the Inuit, it can warm up your walk home from the train tonight. - By Pam DeFiglio

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August 11, 1996

To The End of the Earth

Burt Meyer and Jim Gieske have a lot in common. Both belong to an elite group of travelers who have journeyed to the North Pole. But they didn't reach the top of the world in the same way.

In April 1995, Meyer, 70, a retired toy designed from Downer's Grove, IL, subsisted on a spartan diet as he traveled 11 miles a day for 15 days behind a dogsled in biting, sub zero temperatures.

And if the daily discomfort wasn't enough, there was always the danger of falling through ice, succumbing to frostbite or attracting polar bears.

But Gieske, 58, a retired surgeon from Easton, MD, expended little energy on a 15 day cruise that departed from Murmansk, Russia, in August 1995. Warm and snug on a Russian nuclear powered ice breaker, Yamal, he ate like a monarch and slept like a baby.

Meyer paid $25,000 for his torturous ride. Airfaire from Illinois to Resolute Bay in Canada's Northwest Territorites, where the trip originated, was extra. Geiske faired a lot better; he agreed to be Yamal's medical director, so his trip was a freebie, and he saved about $18,000 for the cruise as well as the cost of his flight to Murmansk.

Yet, both men joined the ranks of adventurers and explorers who can boast they visited the North Pole. Unlike the South Pole, which is land mass covered by ice, the North Pole is nothing more than moving ice, a longitudinal marking on a map.

But that has never stopped explorers from trying to get there. And with the tries came dissapointment, tradgedy and conflict. For example: in 1879, an attempt to reach the North Pole by US Navy Lt. George Washington DeLong, ended in starvation.

Then, in April 1909, a jubilant Robert Peary, thought he had reached it overland and exclaimed: "The Pole at last! The prize of three centuries, my dream and ambition for 23 years. Mine at last. I cannot bring myself to realize it." Some others couldn't bring themselves to realize it, either, and eventually it was determined that he had never reached the actual North Pole.

Then there was the American polar explorer Adm. Richard E. Byrd, who, in 1926, was thought to be the first person to fly over the North Pole. Today, critics discredit the deed, contending that Byrd altered the data and was actually 150 miles short of his goal.

Let the debate rage over who was first to reach the North Pole - Meyer insists he holds the distinction of being the oldest person to trek there.

And Geneve Hein, 17, of Oakbrook, IL, says she's the youngest. Hein, then 16, accompanied Meyer and 12 others on last year's dogsledding trip to the Pole, an expedition by The Northwest Passage, a Wilmette, IL based adventure travel company.

Records aside, just saying you've been to the North Pole is an accomplishment in its own right. For openers, it's cold, very cold. And it's far. But the killer problem in getting there is the expense.

The folks who set off for the coldest spot on earth are typically well-heeled adventurers who have been just about everywhere else. After experienceing the North Pole, there aren't too many travel thrills left, say Pole conquers. To use Meyers words, "It is the ultimate travel experience" and is gaurenteed to turn heads at coctail parties.

Even if you have the time and money, there aren't too many ways to get to the North Pole. There's the brave-the-wilds route offered by The Northwest Passage; the cruise-approach sponsored by Quark expeditions, based in Darien, Conn.; or you can hook up with one of several companies that will fly you to the Pole. The Northwest Passage has an 8-day air tour, which leaves from Resolute Bay and includes stops at islands along the way. It costs $9,480.

The first two options are drawing the most takers. Quark has signed up passengers for it's nuclear-powered cruise to the North Pole this month; and The Northwest Passage is taking applications for two dogsledding expeditions in April 1997. One is coed, the other is the first all-women's dogsledding expedition.

If you have an aversion to discomfort and no desire for physical overexertion, a comfy ice breaker should be just right for you.

However, Meyer and Hein insist The Northwest Passage's expedition is not half as bad as it sounds. "They are a class act," says Meyer.

Founder Rick Sweitzer of Wilmette, IL, 42, a former Peace Corps volunteer, has devoted his life to wilderness travel. Besides the North Pole trek, The Northwest Passage offers a smorgasbord of adventure travel trips, including dogsledding in Canada's Northwest Territories, cycling and rafting in New Zealand, and whitewater rafting in Cost Rica.

Putting romatic notions aside, Sweitzer says dogsledding to the North Pole is not for the average traveler. "You don't have to be a professional adventurer, but it is clearly not for everyone," he says.

The Northwest Passage's expedition requires physical prowess, athletic ability (you had better bve a decent skier), team work and a good attitude, which means no complaining or temper tantrums when you are half way there. Once the Arctic is reached, there is no turning back.

So, to weed out weaklings and stragglers, The Northwest Passage stages a shakdown trip in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, a week long simulation of the North Pole trip. It gives takers a preview of what to expect and, most important, to see if they can cut it.

That whopping $25,500 price tag (it has inched up another $500 for next year's North Pole trip) includes boots, skis, rations, sleeping bags, team jackets and airfare, accounting for 70% of the cost.

"Prior to the shakedown trip, people don't have a clue what to expect," sayss Sweitzer. "Once they see videos and preview what they can expect, they see it as not as intimidating as they thought. They also gain confindence in our experience."

Even with the shakedown trip, videos and pep talks, the real thing is still light years away from a stay in a five star hotel.

Meyer says he did it because he's always had an appetite for off beat travel adventures. He's already been to Africa, and, a couple of years ago, he biked 3,500 miles by himself from San Francisco to Charleston, SC, in 41 days. "It was no big deal," Meyer says. "It was a tough trip, but I just took it one pedal push at a time."

Despite his age, Meyer insists he had no problem keeping up with the rest of the group on the dogsled trek. "It wasn't easy," he confesses, "but you get used to it pretty quick."

Most days went like this: wake up, fix breakfast (oatmeal), break down camp, get the 20 dogs and 800 pounds of equipment ready, ski until lunch (beef jerky, nuts, chocolate, cheese). Then, ski until dinner (stew with rice or spaghetti). Eat, sleep, get up and start over. The goal was to do at least 10 miles a day - no easy feat traveling on ice at 5 degrees below zero, which Meyer swears is warm for the North Pole.

"The hardest thing was getting moving in the morning," he says. "Crawling out of a warm sleeping bag at 7 AM was the toughest part. There was a lot to do. It took about two hours before we got going."

There wern't any major mishaps: Meyer pooh-poohed a temporary case of frostbite he got when his gloves got wet.

But there were those barren fields of blue ice crashing together, forming pressure ridges up to 30 feet high, which had to be negotiated. "You have to either get around them or across them," Meyer says. "You can shoot an entire day dealing with the pressure ridges."

"Day" and "Night" became meaningless terms for the trekkers because the North Pole has 24 hours of sunlight. Nevertheless, no one in the group had trouble sleeping after their long days.

There were also some minor problems caused by moving ice. If it was drifting south - the wrong direction - the trekkers lost ground as they slept.

And while the trip was all about reaching the treacherous North Pole, Meyer and Hein said reaching it was no big deal.

Says Meyer, "It was almost a ficticous goal. The Pole is nothing. It's just another chunk of ice. You're only standing at the North Pole for a few minutes and then it moves. The whole thing is the trip, not the goal. It is not like climbing Mount Everest or traveling to the South Pole, where you go to a place. There is no place at the North Pole."

There aren't any signs to announce that you've arrived. Only a handheld Global Positioning System, a high tech devise about the size of a desk calculator that takes satellite readings and is accurate up to 140 yards, tells you that you are there.

Hardships and all, Hein and Meyer swear the trip was worth the trouble. "It changed my life," says Hein. "When I think back at what we accomplished, everday hassles seem insignificant," she says. "Getting to the Pole represents a major mileston in my life."

Beyond a feeling of accomplishment, Meyer says the trip taught him a lot about group dynamics. "There are no grandstanding heros when you are on an expedition like this," he says. "Even though you have to be self sufficient, each person must learn how to succeed as part of a team. Besides the personal triumph there is also a wonderful feeling knowing you did it as a team."

Hein said that she would go to the Pole again if she could find a sponsor. Her parents footed the bill the first time; next time, she's on her own.

Meyer says he'd pass on another trip. It's not because he's not up to it, it's that "life is short and there are other travel adventures to taste," he says. - By Bob Weinstein

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Palisadian Post

Palisadian-Post April 17, 2003

Veterinarian skis through cold & wind to South Pole

With just two days left on his journey to the South Pole, Scott Anderson got frostbite.

The temperature was minus 40 degrees, and the wind was coming directly at his face at 30 miles per hour, creating a wind-chill approaching minus 100 degrees. Just as in the previous 5 days of pulling a 100-pound sled towards the South Pole, Anderson had spent most of the day slogging on cross-country skis toward his destination with a guide and another traveler.

However, today the little bit of explosed flesh around his mouth had not been able to fight off the cold. His lower lip and left cheek froze. Fortunately, face frostbite is generally more benign than frostbite on toes and fingers.The frozen area soon formed a scab and within 10 days had healed completely. In addition, while his face was mending, he got to take a look at the place he had worked so hard to reach.

"After a week of hard physical labor, to see the South Pole and flags, it was an indescribable feeling - a sensation not to be repeated," said Anderson, a veterinarian and 8-year Palisadian. "It was a combination of amazement that I was really actually there, pleasure at having done it...and relief that we were finally there and had a day to relax."

Actually, beacuse of bad weather, Anderson's group had four and a half days to hang out at the South Pole before their plane ride home. Anderson spent much of that time walking around the pole and reading, but he also placed the Norwegian flag at the historic spot. The South Pole generally shifts about to feet each year, he said, so he calculated the location where the pole would have been when Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach it on December 14, 1911.

Like Amundsen, Anderson's wife, Lisa, is Norwegian and also a "big admirer" of the late explorer. She gave her adventuring husband a large Norwegian flag to leave at the pole. Planting the flag caused him to think about how much harder the original expedition had been than his trip. To be the first to reach the South Pole, Amundsen lived for about one and a half years in Antarctica and traveled about 700 miles by dogsled to get there.

In addition, "he and his group had no possible way to get out of there other than by their own strength and skill," Anderson said. "It was a moving feeling to think about that."

This January, Anderson flew most of the way to the pole and skied the final 69 miles. While he was waiting for the plane ride home, another group arrived. This crew was part of a diabetes fundraising expedition, which traversed 730 miles in 61 days, following the path of Robert F. Scott, the ill-fated British explorer who arrived at the pole one month after Amundsen and then perished on the trip home. In the modern journey, Will Cross became the first person with diabetes to travel to the South Pole.

Today when people reach the pole, they find a scientific base, the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which Anderson could see from about 9 miles away because the terrain is so flat. Otherwise, for the remaining miles he traveled, all he saw was snow-covered flatness, although the land does vary slightly in height. Sastrugi, gentle ridges ranging from 1 to 3 feet high, are a part of the wind blown terrain., and Anderson said that although the short ridges don't "sound like much, when you're pulling a sled and it's the end of the day, the ridges are tiring and can tip your sled over."

A typical day of his journey meant rising at 7 a.m. to boil water for morning oatmeal and hot chocolate as well as for a thermos-full of lunchtime soup. By 9:30 a.m. his group was skiing. throught the day, they would never pause for much more than five minutes, because the weather was too cold for standing still. When they stopped at about 6:15 p.m. each night, they would make a scheduled radio check-in call and begin making camp. The three men would build a snow wall on the windward side of their tent and then cook dinner inside before falling asleep at about 9:30 p.m.

The inside of the tent was warm, and the three generally took off their coats and wore shirt-sleeves inside. Rick Sweitzer, the trip's guide from The Northwest Passage company, had been to the North Pole about 10 times before, but never to the South Pole, while Nikos Magitsis, also a first-timer, became the first Greek to reach the North Pole, so he is a minor celebrity in his country. Anderson plans to make his own North Pole trip in the next few years.

Anderson noted that morning and night looked the same in Antarctica, because in the summer season the sun shines 24 hours a day. The penguins and marine life of the coast are not present on the barren interior of Antarctica, and he saw neither plants nor animals during the entire journey.

The weather was uniformly cold. On cloudy days, the temperature dropped as low as minus 40 degrees, but even on warmer days, the temperature never rose above minus 20 degrees, he said. Anderson kept his fingers warm with three layers of gloves and sometimes up to four hand warmers per hand.

Such care is vital. A guide from another pole-traveling group removed his gloves for less than five minutes to help someone, and suffered frostbite on three fingertips. Unlike Anderson's mild case, the guide was in danger of losing his fingertips when anderson flew home. Such frostbite problems had made Anderson acutely aware of keeping his hands warm, and prior mountain climbing trips to places like Tibet had helped him acquire the right clothing and training for the various strenous aspects of the trip.

Although Antarctica is covered with snow, it rarely snows more than 2 to 3 inches a year there, he said. However, because the weather is so cold, the snow never melts. Thus, the winds can create extreme whiteouts simply by tossing the snow off the ground and into the air.

The wind is one of the reasons air travel can be so difficult there. Anderson spent extra days at the pole and had to forego a second planned journey to climb Mt. Vinson, Antarctica's highest peak, because the windy weather delayed the various legs of his journey. If he had attempted to climb Mt. Vinson, weather delays might have then prevented his timely return to his veterinary work at California Animal Hospital and to his wife and their childern, Paul, 4, and Erik, 1. One previous group was stuck at the Patriot Hills Base in Antarctica for six weeks because of consistent wind whiteouts.

Anderson may never have the opportunity to return to Antarctica and climb Mt. Vinson, but that was the one regrettable note in an otherwise unforgettable journey.

"My first glimpse of the pole marker as we were approaching on our skis will stay with me forever," he said. "It's a place I'm unlikely to be again. Even if by some strange chance, I find myself there again, to see it for the first time, and to have made it there myself on skis, it's a feeling I don't think I will ever duplicate."

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Men's Journal- April 2004

The 100 Best Trips on the Planet
Want ot be on top of Everest with these guys? How about wreck diving in the pacific, whitewater rafting in Patagonia, or skiing to the South Pole? We chose the world's 50 best outfitters, and then asked them about their coolest, newest most thrilling trips. Here's your ticket to the experience of a lifetime.

The Northwest Passage - This small, family run company offers an eclectic mix that reflects the personal passions of its owner, Rick Sweitzer. They're best known for skiing trips to the North and South Poles, but they'll also take you inn-to-inn cycling in Ireland or paddle you around their backyard, the Great Lakes region. Classic trip - kayaking the remote south coast of Crete, past ancient Greek ruins, sheer cliffs, and old fishing villages. - By David Noland

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Time Magazine - October 1999

Learn a New Skill - For your next vacation, think about taking a trip that will provide you with a lasting souvenir - knowledge and expertise.

Arctic Getaway. Ever since Admiral Peary made his third and finally successful journey to the North Pole 90 years ago, there have been dreamers who saw themselves skiing to the top of the Earth. Very few have done so, of course, because it's hard going - and because only in the past decade have travel companies offered would-be Arctic explorers the kind of expedition they could manage. The company that pioneered such trips, The Northwest Passage, is planning its fifth trek to the geographic North Pole starting in early February with a six-day training session on Baffin Island. In April a party of 8-15 will fly charter aircraft from Resolute Bay, Nunavut to within 150 miles of the Pole. Then, under a 24 hr. Polar sun, in often subzero temperatures, the group will follow Peary's route from 88 degrees to ninety degrees North, climbing over walls of ice, crossing expanses of open water on ice blocks bound by rope, skiing through clouds of drifting snow. Burton Meyer of Downers Grove, IL, a retired toy designer, first crossed the North Pole with The Northwest Passage at 69. Among his companions: a 16 year old schoolgirl, one of only three women ever to reach the Pole on foot. Meyer remembers everything about his trip, the second of 12 he's made with the company: "We traveled 13 miles a day with 2 dog teams, breaking camp in the morning and setting it up at the end of the day, struggling through blizzards, trying to find a way across the open water." He was thrilled by the Arctic,"one of the most unusual places in the world - the beautiful blue colors of the ice, the sparkle of the sun." Travelers of any age are welcome but must be in very good physical shape and willing to spend $25,000, the cost of the trip. Northwest Passage also offers less expensive ways to realize a Polar dream, including a $6,000 ski and dogsled trek across Ellesmere, Canada's northernmost island. Adventurers travel through an expanse of mountains, fjords and giant icebergs, observing polar bears, musk oxen, caribou and the island's celebrated Arctic wolves. Not for the fainthearted. - By Megan Rutherford

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Men's Health - October 1998

I'm in a bar with a friend. It's not late, but getting there. Sort of like the definition of midlife. We'd intended to have one beer and head home. that was hours ago. We have moved on to shots. Shots fires, shots taken, the hole's in one's life. He's been telling me about this grand adventure he once planned: a solo voyage down the western seaboard from Seattle to Acapulco. He grew up by the water. He loves the sea. He's an accomplished sailor. But it hasn't happened..."Things just happened. The job, mostly." His voice trails off, and he downs his drink... Want to know what you have to do? Think like an adolescent. That's right, think like a kid -exactly what everybody tells you not to do. Remember when you were 17? Did anything seem impossible? Most guys that age think they have the world by the balls, and in a strange way, they do. Not in terms of money or power or posessions, but in terms of devil-may-care confidence and imagination. What follows is my list of ten adventures to take before you die...These are dream trips. Adventures that will force you to rise to your potential. Adventures that will leave a tatoo on your soul.

Imagine 24 hours of continuous sunlight but a temperature of -20 degrees Fahrenheit. Imagine turning 360 degrees and seeing nothing but brilliant ice and snow. Imagine riding the runners of a sled, mushing a team of eight huskies through a ghostly land of frozen silence. This is the Arctic, perhaps the most surreal place on Earth. At its heart is the mythic North Pole, the top of the world. Want to go? Unless you're an Inuit or an Iditarod vetran, the best way is to travel with The Northwest Passage, an Arctic outfitter. "The challenge and adventure are unchanged from what Peary and Cook did a century ago," says executive director and guide Rick Sweitzer. "We start at 88 degrees North latitude and ski and sled for 150 miles." Sweitzer says they navigate mostly by the sun, checking accuracy with a satellite GPS. The NorthwestPassage provides everything from sleds to sleeping bags, boots to expedition clothing. You sleep in tents, igloos, or out in the open; you share mushing and cooking responsibilities, and treat each other's sunburn, sore muscles and madness. Candidtates for the expedition must first complete a week-long shakedown trip. - By Mark Jenkins.

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American Girl Magazine

The Ends of the Earth

Lysee M. has stood on the top of the world - and on the bottom! The 14-year-old girl went with her dad to visit the South Pole and the North Pole in the span of about three months. From her home in Texas, Lysee traveled to Chile on the way to Antarctica before setting out for the Pole itself.

When Lysee finally stepped off the plane at the Pole, she was stunned. The South Pole is "very, very pretty," she says. Even though it is also very, very cold. "It looks like there's glitter all over the place."

It took 32 hours to fly to the South Pole and back from the base camp. Lysee's group spent only a few hours at the remote, frozen Pole itself, but she was away from home for about two weeks.

On her trip, Lysee met scientists and other visitors from all over the world. She made a snowman, and she played a lot of Scrabble. She even got to take controls of an airplane during a flight!

Lysee and her dad loved the South Pole, but they wanted another adventure. So a few months later, they made a trip to the North Pole. That made Lysee the youngest girl ever to reach both Poles.

The trips were "really like a life adventure for me," she says.

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