Alan Arnette: you can find Alan’s blog here. From his site you can reach his Facebook page, blog, Twitter account, etc. Alan recently finished his Seven Summits climb to raise money for Alzheimers research, and using his site I was able to follow his way through the adventure.

Lonnie Dupre: Lonnie calls himself a “Polar Explorer” vice a climber. His website, which can be found here, is currently tracking his progress on a solo winter attempt on Mt. McKinley/Denali. He’s got a map up showing his progress, and links to his Twitter and Facebook accounts as well. His site also has plenty of information on his previous polar expeditions.

Jordan Romero: Jordan is now the youngest (at 15 years old) to have climbed the Seven Summits. His website, here, details that adventure, to include real-time positioning, a chat feature, his twitter feed, links to his Facebook account, etc. And of course, congratulations to Jordan for achieving his goal.

I have watched others through websites like SummitPost, but the above three are the ones whose sites I have found and that allow me to stay abreast of their progress. I think it’s a wonderful thing, that from the comfort and warmth of my own home I can stay up to date on their successes.

Do you know of other climbers/explorers with sites like the above?

Expedition:

Crossing The Ice

Mission:

South Pole Expedition

Explorers:

Cas and Jonesy – Two Avid Australian Adventurers

Location:

Antarctica

Expedition land distance: Estimated 2200km (return from the magnetic SP)

Expedition mode:

Journey on skis, sled-hauling.

Self-supported method:

All provisions essential for three months survival in one of the harshest environments on the planet.

Website:

http://www.casandJonesy.com.au

In the middle of the Arctic summer, In 1910 Roald Amundsen and his team (Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting) reach the geographic South Pole. In collective memory, his competitor Scott usually gets more recognition. Scott reached the pole a few weeks later, and died on his way back to the Antarctic coast. Amundsen’s expidition was later criticized for just getting to the pole and back, rather than doing extensive surveying, as Scott did. I find this an interesting way of looking at the world: focus and success appear to be worth less than fuzziness and failure.

Here are some images of Amundsen and his expedition:

This is the iconic photograph of Amundsen and his team looking at the Norwegian flag at the South Pole:

Amundsen’s ship the Fram:

One of Amundsen’s expedition team members, Oscar Wisting:

An English translation of Amundsens own account of the expedition:

TravelBoeckerAdventures.com

Visit us there for great information on African Safaris, Polar Expeditions, Small Ship Cruises and Adventure Travel ideas.

Location:Nybyen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard

Location:Nyben, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway

Cold Recall - Reflections of a Polar Explorer

Images from Roald Amundsen’s expeditions to the Canadian North and Arctic.

March 18 to September 16, 2011

Exhibition Seminars:

March 18: Morten Høglund, Chair of the Standing Committee of

Parliamentarians of the Arctic region: Common challenges in the north.

April 16: Doreen Riedel, daughter of polar explorer Henry Larsen:

Roald Amundsen’s influence on Henry Larsen.

May 28th: Else Berit Eikeland, Norwegian Ambassador to Canada:

The Norwegian northern strategy.

Life in the Arctic

TeeKay Gallery, Vancouver Maritime Museum

1905 Ogden Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V6J 1A3

Tuesday – Saturday: 10am – 5pm | Sunday: 12pm – 5pm

The aurora australis over the Dark Sector at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation)

Be sure to check out the Boston Globe Big Picture post on Scenes from Antarctica, where the above picture was taken from…

The BBC is currently producing a series about the polar regions called The Frozen Planet. The very interesting reports and pictures by Chris Watson can be read, viewed, and listened to here. And now, with Shackleton’s whiskey from his hut on Ross Island being thawed, why not revisit his tales from the South Pole?

Audio Playlist:

1. My South Polar Expedition by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (mp3, Project Gutenberg, 3:43)

2. A Journey South by Chris Watson (mp3, Touch Radio, 50:20)

Hut Interior (c) Chris Watson

*Penguins aren’t that bad, actually…

Arctic Wildlife

Field Experiment

Dead Domestic Plants II

Map of the Underworld

Deserted Coal Mine

Museum

Glacier

The Good Times I

Faded Map

From Finnish artist Ville Lenkkeri‘s book “The Place of No Roads”, in which he documented his trip to a deserted Russian coalmine in Svalbard (Spitsbergen). A few more pictures from the series can be found here.

It’s the size of the island, the incredible landscape, the people and animals, the northern lights, the winter darkness, and probably its remoteness that has appealed to me ever since I was a child (okay, maybe it also has to do with the fact that Peter Hoeg’s book Smilla [...] was my favourite read as a 13-year-old, and I can still quote from that).

Not too long ago I read this article in Vice Magazine about the high suicide rate among Greenlandic teenagers and discovered a young Danish photojournalist with Greenlandic roots, Camilla Stephan, who published a great looking book about her family in Greenland. I haven’t had the chance to get a copy of the book, but the photos on the website look incredible.

Speaking of incredible pictures, a couple of weeks ago, the fantastic NY Times photojournalism blog Lens posted a set of pictures from Greenland, mainly domestic scenes, by photographer Andrea Gjestvang. Enjoy the set in full screen!

This time-saving addition to our extensive selection of Antarctic cruises reduces the crossing from over 2 days to less than 2 hours!

You will spend the same amount of time exploring the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands – 5 days – you just get there more quickly.

Our 8-day Antarctica Fly & Cruise on the expedition vessel Ocean Nova departs December 13 and January 12, 2011,  ranging in price from US$8,990 to $13,990.

Contact chris@travelboecker.com for details.

I would like to offer all our original respondents several alternatives, in case they are not able to attend in person on the selected dates, so they can be involved and support mushing history activities. I think we all have an interest in promoting the broader mushing history program, the sled dog’s role in history and perspectives, and public interest in the subject, trusting that there will be other opportunities to be involved in different ways in the future, future conferences, ongoing discussions/communication, groups and projects.

Based on what I have seen at other conferences, here are some possibilities, you might have other suggestions:

• Send a poster.

• Send a kind of animated poster, that is a Powerpoint or similar slide show that can be shown without your narration or attendance.

• Send your program to be presented by someone else.

• Send literature, handouts or other material for free distribution.

• If you have products to be sold we can also arrange for that, perhaps subject to a fee.

To my knowledge, no such program has ever been held and there has never been such prominent recognition of mushing’s broad history and the critical role sled dogs have played historically in general, as well as in other established and specific historical areas of interest such as transportation, mail carriers, the Fur Trade, Gold Rush, native North American history and culture, exploration, Polar expeditions, sports and Olympic history. There are a few exceptions, of course, but no overarching mushing history conference bringing together diverse interests with the common sled dogs/mushing theme, including both history professionals and sled dog/mushing professionals.

Perhaps the words of science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, “First you fall in love with Antarctica, and then it breaks your heart” should be changed to “First you fall in love with Antarctica, and then it breaks your boat.”  The perils of Antarctic expeditions were underlined with the recent sinking of the Explorer.  Thankfully, all passengers and crew survived.  There’s no doubt that the wind-driven and swiftly moving ice of the Antarctic imperils any vessel there, but with today’s post-Titanic advances in mapping and sonar technologies, how–and why–does an Explorer-type incident occur?  After all, we can trace a mad cow to its birthplace on a farm anywhere in the world.  Is an iceberg any less significant?  Maybe it just comes down to the numbers involved, but polar research will be driving climate science and experimentation in the years ahead.  That should bring the safety of polar travel to the forefront.