Beschreibung:

THE SOLO NORTH POLE COLLECTION ALL PROCEEDS TO SUPPORT THE OCEAN CONSERVATION WORK OF PEN HADOW'S 90NORTH UNIT The Solo North Pole Collection includes everything I wore, or carried in my sledge, to the North Geographic Pole! All these items were mission-critical operationally which in some cases included psychologically. Such a journey 'at the bleeding edge of possibility' in such an extreme environment, required that almost every item of equipment had to be modified from the standard product, or otherwise custom-made, to be fit for purpose. The criteria included functionality, reliability, durability, repairability, and minimum weight. Rarely has such a collection of items been so essential to sustaining the life of a person, in self-isolation for so long, who pushed back the boundary of what is known to be humanly possible. While this solo expedition was a high-profile world-first, it is also likely to be a world-last as it is unlikely to be repeated due to the changes in the Arctic Ocean's sea-ice cover caused by climate change (all supporting aircraft operations have been withdrawn from the region for safety reasons). And so my Solo North Pole Collection may also come to symbolise the end-of-the-line for such pioneering feats on the Arctic Ocean sea ice. When, at last, after 64 days alone, I stood at 90º North at 0954GMT on 19 May 2003, with everywhere, everything and everyone to my south, the overwhelming sense I felt was one of utter, utter relief. That it was over. That I had actually done it. That the last 15 years of unrelenting focus, including attempts in 1994 and 1998, to push beyond what was known to be possible had finally been rewarded. The cost, though high, including several near-death situations on the sea ice, could now be more easily justified - to my family and friends, to my loyal project partners and to myself. Standing there, with no plans for the future having been conceivable until I had completed this self-defining mission, I suddenly found myself open to myriad possibilities. That 'utter relief' was, within hours overtaken by gathering waves of excitement for the unconstrained future that lay ahead … The achievement of completing the first solo journey from Canada to the North Pole (i.e. involving no resupplies by third parties) became the front page lead story for The Times and many other newspapers, magazines and online news sites around the world - though I had no idea of this as I waited alone in my tent, effectively cut-off from the world, save for the twice daily 15-second phone calls to the pilots to report my weather and sea-ice conditions. I was in a very weird and unexpected state of limbo, desperate to share my feelings and story, but with less than 10% battery power remaining on my sat-phone and no way of knowing how many days I would need to wait for my pick-up plane, I could not risk making such non-essential calls. While global media coverage spiraled to unprecedented levels for such a polar endeavour, in its wake letters followed from HM The Queen, HRH Prince Charles, the Prime Minister and many others from around the world; and months later the British Library included that same front page of The Times in its Top 100 British Newspaper Front Pages of the Last 100 Years … and an appearance with Sue Lawley on the BBC's iconic Desert Island Discs became the cherry on the icing of the cake! Several insights emerged during my journey including: the critical significance of being able to manage the surprisingly wide array of emotional responses that inevitably arise; and the importance of knowing how to counter-act the insidious effects of hypothermia in order to avoid making mistakes of any scale and ensure northward progress was maximized in every 75-minute sledging session. But the most shocking and valuable insight was the extent to which I'd had to swim across the open water and through the thin ice between the ice floes to reach the Pole. Of the cumulative total of 850 hours I spent