Having successfully completed extreme cold weather training in Norway in February the Royal Navy and Royal Marines  Polar Quest Expedition Team are ready in all respects to go to the opposite extremes of this Earth!

The team heading to the North Pole departs on 29 March while the South Pole team will act as rear-link detachment and communications support in the UK before they in turn commence their equally arduous but more challenging 65 day Antarctic trek in November. Both expeditions are being led by experienced Team Leader Captain Sean Chapple Royal Marines (Call-sign “Ice Man”) who said on his return from Norway:

“ The team are in high spirits and keen to begin their mission, we had a fantastic time getting the routines and safety procedures well drilled in a variety of conditions from blizzards to bright sunshine. We were pushed hard and the South Pole team was averaging 27km a day so we all know what it will take to ski hauling a 200lb sledge. It was a useful and essential training week and my thanks go out particularly to the Mountain Leader Training Company of the Royal Marines for a great week’s training support. “

Although their goals are literally poles apart, the Polar Quest Teams could not be closer in their objectives and team spirit.  In Norway, the teams worked side by side in temperatures averaging around –9C. Temperatures in the High Arctic are currently averaging –23C but may well improve by the end of the month.  The week was spent hauling the sledges long distances and testing equipment, focusing each day on skills such as navigation, ice breaking drills, establishing routines for packing, cooking and prevention of cold weather injuries. The risks associated with polar trekking are high and could include such hazards as polar bear attack or more commonly, falling though breaking ice into the sea and associated cold weather injuries. The Polar Quest team were drilled and briefed specifically on techniques for getting out of holes in the ice under the supervision of the Royal Marines Mountain Leader Training Company. 

One of the youngest members of the North Pole team is an 18 year old Sea Cadet and an ‘A’ level student.  Ben McDonald leapt at this once in a lifetime opportunity offered to the Sea Cadets to join the expedition and had to pass a rigorous selection weekend based at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines in Lympstone.  Ben will be joining the Royal Marines on completion of his studies.

The Polar Quest team have linked up with Exmouth Community College in Devon who have set up an Interactive Website “Polar Watch.”  Any school in the country can access the site through www.Polarquest.co.uk and share in the expedition team’s progress while undertaking lesson plans and learning more about Polar regions. Eight lucky students and two teachers have a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to fly out to Resolute Bay in the Arctic region in April, living with a traditional Inuit community for two weeks, learning about Arctic survival, polar research, ice trekking, building igloos snowmobiling and polar bear spotting. They will then fly to the magnetic North Pole to rendezvous with the Polar Quest Team around the 24 April. The school children will be keeping web based journals and sending live images of themselves back to the UK for other Polar watch members to share.

See Expedition Polar Quest News for latest stories.