Of all the people who have tried to reach the North Pole, only about 200 have ever succeeded. Few make it past the first two weeks. Reinhold Messner, the world's foremost alpinist, once noted "Everest is very dangerous, but crossing the North Pole, which I attempted to do… is ten times more [...]

dangerous." Shifting ice covers a frigid ocean which is 14,000 deep and essentially unexplored. More is known about the surface of the moon than what is under this sheet of ice at the top of the world.