Welcome to the first snowball blog - at the moment I am travelling from Heathrow airport in the UK armed to the teeth with expedition gear and skis. Facing various connecting flights and bus journeys my final destination will be a small town sitting on the side of Lake Superior in the US called Grand Marais. I've been informed that the temperature there at the moment is -25 and there's also reported to be 2 feet of fresh snow - Hooray!
I am going to be spending my time dog sledging with Paul Pregont who is a veteran of many polar expeditions. Over the years Paul has covered thousands of miles on ice with his husky dogs, guiding teams through some of the most remote places on the planet.
I will be getting to know Paul and his dog's a lot better over the next few days as we take the team over the frozen lakes and through the snow covered forests that line the Canadian boarder in preparation for snowballs Classic dog sledging expedition in 2009.
Grand Marais is also home to Eric Larsen. In 2006 Eric along with his expedition partner Lonnie Dupree became the first polar explorers to cross the Arctic Ocean to the geographic North Pole in the summer. I met Eric in a small Inuit outpost called Resolute bay in High arctic Canada as he was waiting for flight clearance for the expedition. At the time I had just come back from co-leading a team to the geomagnetic North Pole.
We became friends and quite quickly found out that we shared the same humour along with a passion for adventure. After a few more meetings he eventually asked me to be apart of the "Save the Poles" expedition that will take place in 2009 / 2010. This is will be a world record attempt to reach Mount Everest, the South Pole and the North Pole all with in one year. My part in this will be to join the team for the North Pole section.
So this flight to Grand Marias is also a meeting of the North Pole team which includes a Canadian search and rescue expert called Darcy!!!! I will be let you know how we get on over the next few weeks.
My idea over the following months is to keep you informed of developments regarding expeditions with snowball along with current Polar events. I was very proud just before Christmas when all of the snowball expedition guides, including Eric Larsen got together at our UK training area in Keswick in the Lake District. We had a full weekend of team building and activities as well as planning for 2009 / 2010 expeditions.
If you read the Guides section on this site you will see the qualifications and expedition experiences these guys have actually had. With this you can then understand why I have stated that we us some of the best mountain and polar guides in the world. However, they all share that extra quality that I was looking for - they all bought me a beer - just Joking! There quality is in there personalities and how they are with other people.
You can posses all the qualifications in the world but you also need to know how to get on with people. For me an expedition is only as good as the guide that's with you. I am pleased to have such a well rounded professional team. There only weakness is they can't stand still for a photograph, as the picture shows!!!
I now have just less than 2 hours before I land in Toronto airport. My connecting flight will take me to a lesser known location of Thunder Bay before I embark on the final leg of the journey to 2 feet of fresh snow, minus temperatures and a tent! - Life is good!
Mark Wood - Snowball expedition leader.
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