Ultrarunner Tim Williamson was due to set off on a record-breaking trek across the Arctic ice, leaving from Canada’s Resolute Bay for a walk, without skis, of 2,200 miles lasting between 100 and 120 days. But after receiving advice from an independent geographical society and several seasoned Arctic expedition campaigners, he has postponed his trip. [ more... ]

Inge Wegge and Jørn Ranum of Norway went north of the Arctic Circle to pass 9 months surfing, snowboarding, and living in a cabin they built of driftwood, stone, and trash that had washed up into their secluded little bay. They made a film of the experience. I’m not sure they spent the entire nine months in their cabin, but if they did then they must have had a lot of good luck regarding fully charged camera batteries being among the trash they found for their cabin. Regardless, I can’t handle four days in a row without sunshine; it’s amazing these guys passed the winter so far north of the sun. The film looks wild.

via Good Frames Won’t Save Bad Paintings

A team of four Americans is attempting a row across the Arctic Ocean. A few years ago it would have been a treacherous hike rather than a boat ride. Rapidly retreating ice has made their attempt to cross from Canada to Russia possible. Some are calling the feat “one of the world’s last great firsts,” and it’s probably true if you can get over how idiotic that sounds. The crew says their ride is also to “help researchers better understand what’s going on up there,” which would be great if we didn’t have satellites and research ships much safer with the rowboat. Regardless, it sounds like a hell of an adventure. Hopefully they’re not too tired to update their blog once in a while.

I’m a firm believer that the more people know about the beauty of the planet’s wild places the more they’ll work to protect them. I also know that not everyone (including myself) can afford a trip to the Arctic or Antarctica. We learn about them from scientific reports and news articles on climate change. But what we really need is something that bends our minds and tugs at our heartstrings. And it seems that stories about polar bear swimming 426 miles between melting ice floes and Manhattan-sized chunks of Antarctica breaking off aren’t doing it for us. That’s why I’m really looking forward to the release of Frozen Planet, a BBC show that’s in a Planet-Earth-style nature doc on the poles. Also, next year we’ll see To The Arctic in IMAX, from OneWorldOneOcean.org. Hey, Ken Burn’s National Parks doc got people to go to the parks; hopefully this gets people more interested in saving the planet’s polar regions.

Brother-and-sister adventure duo Eric and Sarah McNair-Landry were dropped at the end of the Trans Canada Highway where they’ll begin their 1,864-mile kite-ski journey across the Northwest Passage. They began a few days ago, but winds have been light and they’ve mostly been cross-country skiing and hauling their heavy sleds. Though I suspect they’ll be [ more... ]

Remember last week when I made fun of a team of Canadian archeologists for going on the hunt for a ship that went missing in 1845? Well, they found it – in just a week-and-a-half. The forest service should hire these guys to find lost hikers. The ship was actually spotted using sonar back in [ more... ]