Homelessness at the North Pole

North Pole Reached

2006-05-03T21:30:00.001+09:00

Blocked by huge ice bolders and broken ice

On April 19th, the expedition party made it to the North Pole (N90 00 000). We had been walking for ten days and covered approximately 75 miles. When we reached 90 degrees North, it was a bright, sunny day with temperatures around -20 C (the day before the temperature had been as low as -35C with windchill). See the gallery for photographs of the North Pole on April 19th. We then set up our tents and stayed the night but only after an appreciative consumption of frozen cigars and the finest Bushmills whiskey.

Kevin at the North Pole, N90° 00 000

The next morning we were picked up by helicopter and transferred to Ice Station Borneo for our onward flight to Spitzbergen. Several members had some minor frostbite and other bumps and bruises including cracked ribs but no serious injuries were reported.

Fundraising for Future Hope

2006-05-03T21:20:00.000+09:00

The reason for my undertaking this expedition was to raise badly needed funds for Future Hope, a charity based in Calcutta/Kolkata that helps homeless and otherwise deserving children. I had volunteered at the Future Hope school and home for three weeks in April of 2005 where I taught (very badly) and acted as a house parent in one of the homes for teenage boys.

At the moment, my fundraising total stands at approximately £36,000 (Yen 7,400,000); a definitive figure will be confirmed soon as I am still awaiting final donations. Sincere thanks to all those who donated so generously during the three months of fundraising (please see 'Thank You' in the sidebar).

The funds raised from my North Pole expedition will go towards the construction of further accommodation and school facilities in Calcutta. 100% of donations go to Future Hope. The charity did not fund or subsidise my trip in any way.

If you would like to donate to Future Hope, please contact Future Hope at www.futurehope.net or email me at kevin.morgan@herbertsmith.com and I’ll put you in contact with the right people at Future Hope.

Daily Routine on the Ice

2006-05-02T21:31:00.000+09:00

After several days on the ice, my routine became as follows:

7.15 am
Wake up. The temperature outside would usually be between -18 C and -25C. First task was to light the stove whilst trying to retain all body parts inside my sleeping bag. Ice will have formed on the inside of the tent (frozen condensation) so try to minimise movement to prevent ice falling everywhere. Once the stove is going, the temperature will rise to a comfortable level. I always found the light absolutely blinding in the morning having worn eye shades all night.

Our camp on the ice, one morning after a blizzard

8.00 am
Breakfast. Open the tent door to drag in some ice and compacted snow cut the night before to melt to produce water. On our more organised days, ice and snow would have been melted the night before and we simply had to boil it for tea and oatmeal. Re-heat the previous night’s leftover dinner. We usually ate quite a lot for breakfast, we tried to consume approximately six thousand calories per day to combat weight loss and maintain energy levels.

One ice block about to be turned into a cup of tea

8.30 am
Start to get dressed. Remove down top and trousers and put on Patagonia outer shell wear. Check that my boots had completely dried overnight. Any moisture left inside the boot whatsoever will freeze to ice making walking painful (for my last two days on the ice, I experienced significant pain in my left foot due to unthawed ice in my inner boot).

8.45 am
Take a pee behind a block of ice or snow drift. Start to take the tent down. This means removing snow blocks holding tent skirt down, unscrew ice screws holding guide lines down, remove skis and poles from tent loops, remove outer layer, clean ice and snow from inside of tent, disassemble tent poles (by far the worst job of the day. The poles would have frozen together and the only way to loosen them was to grip the joint with a bare hand, thereby melting the ice; slow, painful, annoying). Pack sledge: heavy objects on the bottom and in the centre so it would run more efficiently. Personal hygiene routine usually consisted of nothing more than brushing my teeth (in that respect, my daily routine on the ice did not vary from my normal routine). Cutting ice or snow to melt and then boil in order to wash was simply a waste of energy and time. There were rumours that some expedition members did not change their underwear for ten days on the ice. No comment.

Having shooed the porter away from the 90kg sledge, Kevin proceeds to pose for our benefit

9.30 am
Start walking. Victor Boyarsky would announce whether there was positive or negative drift overnight (the first day, we walked 7 km and drifted 4 km back from the pole as we slept). Most days, we had negative drift but this lessened as the trip went on. Victor would then check the initial route and direction and we would set off in a single file. It is not possible to walk due North or in a straight line for any period of time due to broken ice, open water (leads) and steep pressure ridges or thin ice, so we tended to curve and zig zag.

Setting off in a single file

We had breaks every few hours for tea, water and some snacks. We never stopped for more than twenty minutes to avoid getting cold. When I could be bothered, I stopped to take a few photographs (which usually came out all white), tried rudimentary solar navigation when I could see the sun (in the Arctic the sun will be due North at midnight local time, each hour after that the sun will have moved clockwise fifteen degrees) and try to work out what was going on with the ice (old multi year ice is sometimes aqua blue, slightly younger ice will be green and then grey and black. Once the ice starts to push the salt out to the surface (making circular salt “flowers”), the ice is approximately 10 cm thick, enough for one person to cross safely (just).

Circular Salt "Flowers"

The most fun part for me was crossing broken ice or leads. The tips of your skis would be on one slab of ice, the backs of your skis would be on another and underneath your feet would be the Arctic ocean, the drop being anything from 1 to 4 feet. Pulling the sledge after you makes the operation interesting as if it slips through the ice or gets lodged, it will pull you after it. If you're very unlucky, this involves you and the sledge being pulled into the water. No fun when the water temperature is below freezing (sea water sometimes will not freeze until almost -2 C due to the salt content) and the air temperature is -30C. It's not easy to swim in skis and attached to a 90kg sledge whilst trying to avoid being pulled under the ice pack. Nothing this dramatic happened to our expedition which came as great disappointment to me.

Mr Twinkle-toes at the Arctic - Kevin crossing some broken ice VERY inelegantly

Each day we would cross ice pans as flat as ice rinks, hardened snow, soft powder snow, ice rubble, ice slabs (sometimes several metres thick), thin grey ice, open water (which would usually be inky black) and steep pressure ridges (caused when two huge ice slabs collide and they are forced into a peak). For the first few days, we had fog and white out conditions (caused by the slightly higher temperatures). The higher humidity meant that one felt the cold more as it was more penetrating. We also experienced strong winds; on the first night’s camp, the winds were approximately forty miles per hour. As the trip progressed, we encountered colder temperatures but clearer weather and radiant, bright blue skies. Throughout, the weather conditions changed rapidly and without warning. In ten days, I did not see any animal life or vegetation. The only smell I was aware of was when cooking; the cold tends to suppress all smells.

Our path blocked by ice boulders and broken ice

On two occasions, we saw polar fox tracks. The polar fox tracks polar bears and lives off the remains of carcasses the bears leave behind. The fox tracks were a sign that there was a polar bear close by. Usually, bears are not found that far north but apparently they are now traveling further due to the melting ice cap and also in search of food.

"When I grow up, I want to do a Polar Watch," says Kevin Morgan at age 32

6.30pm
We usually stopped walking for the day around 6.30 or 7.00 pm. The first task was to get the tent erected. This usually took myself and Jens (my tent mate) about forty minutes by the time a site was selected, the poles inserted, ice screws screwed, snow blocks cut and lines secured. Then we would cut ice or snow and start to boil water, unpack our sledges, take our boots off and get into our tent clothing before we could relax. At this point, I would usually have some hot chocolate (once the water was melted and heated) with sugar and extra chocolate or oatmeal with dried fruit (and funnily enough, extra chocolate).

7.30pm
Dinner. Firstly, attempt to clean the saucepan and frying pan from the night before, not easy armed only with a leatherman tool and cold water in -20C. Hygiene was not all it could have been but I wasn’t bothered and neither was Jens. Apparently it's too cold to have any significant bacteria.

9.00pm
MAYBE wander round to the other tents or have a look at the scenery. To be honest, it was a real pain getting in and out of the tent, getting dressed, putting boots on etc so I tended to stay in the tent, apart from the necessary toilet break. I would then attempt to scribble in my diary (when the ink in the pen hadn’t frozen), talk rubbish German to Jens (all conversations revolved around fantasising about beer and insulting each other’s national football teams), eat one or two pieces of pic N mix I had brought with me, organise my clothing and equipment for the next day and then read a few pages of the book I'd brought with me, The Old Man and the Sea.

11.30pm
Put on an eye mask to get to sleep and make sure every part of my body is inside the sleeping bag. I had no trouble sleeping and slept on average eight hours every night.

Return to Spitzbergen:
The first thing I did when I got back to Spitzbergen (and civilisation) was have a cold beer. The second thing I did when I got back to Spitzbergen was have a cold beer etc, etc. It's fair to say the expedition party indulged on our return. Aqua Vit, an absolutely terrible Norwegian shot, was consumed by the bucketful. The Russians, as expected, excelled at this but the Germans, Dutch and Irish held their own.

Dog Sledging:
I went dog sledging in the Arctic with Greenland dogs and in Spitzbergen with Canadian huskies. Both experiences are probably the highlights of my trip. There is no better feeling than travelling at speed through a sea of ice and snow with bright sunshine beaming down. No roads, no traffic jams, no red lights. Well, it was fun until one of the Greenland dogs lost its footing and we both ended up falling through the ice and into the Arctic ocean. The dog was fine immediately, my feet are still thawing. The dogs generally ignored my attempts at Inuit (Eskimoe) instructions so I went wherever they took me. This was fine as they could sense danger and the proper way much better than I could.

The Greenland dogs can look a little like wolves and are quite big and strong, the Canadian huskies are smaller but faster. The only way to travel in the Arctic; walking is for fools, particularly when pulling a 90kg sledge.

Kevin on the Arctic Mobile, behind the commanding guide

Equipment & Clothing

2006-05-02T21:30:00.000+09:00

Equipment:

Rifle and ammunition
Flare gun
Sledge; first sledge when full weighed approximately 50kg (I took extra food), the second sledge weighed approximately 90 kg (it very nearly killed me). Sledges are made from carbon fibre, hardened plastic and Kevlar amongst other materials
Tent (custom made cold weather two man tent)
Russian army issue spade for cutting snow blocks to weigh the tent down and melt for water
Cross country skis with a flexi binding and poles
Coleman two ring stove
GPS navigator
Iridium Satellite Phone
Spare stove
Spare tent poles
Miscellaneous spares

Kevin looking particularly fetching in his rabbit fur hat

Clothing:

Sorel Boots, rated to –40C
4 non-locking carabiners for pulling the sledge
10 m normal alpine nylon rope
20 – 30 litre back pack, harness for the sledge
Patagonia expedition weight underwear: 1 pair
Light weight underwear: 2 pairs
Pile jacket and trousers: 300 fleece
Patagonia down jacket: expedition weight with hood
Patagonia windproof shell top & trousers
Pile gloves: 2 pairs, expedition weight
Pile mitts and Gore-Tex overmitts: 1 pair
Wool or pile socks: 3 pairs heavy weight, thicker than hiking socks
Patagonia Silk sock liners: 3 pairs
Rabbit fur hat with ear flaps
Patagonia pile hat

Diet

2006-05-02T21:29:00.000+09:00

Daily Menu

The aim was to consume around 6000 calories per day given the exertion in pulling the sledges and just attempting to keep warm. Over ten days, I lost about 6 kilograms.

Breakfast:

Hot oatmeal with water, powdered milk and sugar

Left-overs from the previous evening’s dinner (usually pasta or rice with meat), full portion

Tea

Lunch:
No cooking during the day as it would cause excessive delay in setting up the tents to cook. Snacked throughout the day on dried fruit (mango and apricot mainly), chocolate, nuts, cheese, tea and water.

Dinner:

Hot chocolate (with extra chocolate melted in)

Water (older ice, aqua blue in colour, made for better tasting water given its lower salt content; new ice or snow lying on top of new ice was usually too salty to be consumed with any enjoyment)

Oatmeal with dried fruit and melted chocolate

Soup with noodles

Pasta or rice with a selection of sausage, bacon and beef (all frozen from being in the sledge).

Given its calorie content, significant amounts of butter was consumed, usually about 100g in each meal. My favourite meal was as follows, cooked by the German master chef Jens Zimmermann:

8 slices of bacon
4 large pork sausages
6 thick slices of beef
Penne Pasta (full packet – enough for four full servings)
100g butter
Several large slices of olive oil (frozen)
Salt and Pepper
The meat sauce was poured over the pasta

Jens the master chef; Bremen's finest keeping Kevin well fed

All meals prepared using a the superb and always dependable Coleman stove, a battered Russian army frying pan and saucepan, a leatherman multi-tool and a piece of plywood.

Expedition Guides

2006-05-02T21:28:00.000+09:00

VICAAR provided the guides and logistical support for the expedition. Victor Boyarsky, Victor Serov and Vadim Vasilyev were the capable guides on the expedition. All men are highly experienced and Victor Boyarsky has excelled in the polar regions in particular. He crossed the Antarctic on foot (seven months travel time), crossed the Arctic on foot (from Russian to Canada – three months) and travelled the length of Greenland on foot.

Famous explorer Boyarsky with hapless expedition member

Future Hope the Charity

2006-05-02T21:27:00.000+09:00

Future Hope provides emotional support, education and shelter to the street children of Calcutta, including those who have suffered parental abandonment, illnesses such as leprosy, sexual and physical abuse, and criminal exploitation.

Founded by Tim Grandage in 1988, the charity currently has one school and five homes in Calcutta, India, for boys and girls aged 5 to 19 with more than 200 children in its care. Tim continues to work full time for the charity.

Given the huge demand, Future Hope is now trying to expand its facilities.

Future Hope is a registered charity in England, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and India. Future Hope India, registered under The Indian Trusts Act 1882, Registration No. 14019P. Future Hope UK, Registered Charity No. 1001769.

Future Hope Wins HSBC Indo-British Award:
Future Hope and co-winner Vikram Seth were presented with their award by Sir John Bond, the chairman of HSBC, last November in New Delhi. Future Hope was given the award for giving a life of dignity and opportunity to the street children of Calcutta. The award came with a donation of 500,000 rupees which will be used to upgrade the school to meet Central Board of Secondary Education standards.

Future Hope Pupils

2006-05-02T21:26:00.000+09:00

Kevin at the mercy of much tougher kids

Future Hope pupils are enjoying academic, athletic, professional, artistic and personal success. A few of these individuals are set out below.

Academically and Professionally:
Sujoy and Kamal became the first Future Hope university graduates when they graduated in B.Com from the University of Calcutta. Dildar and Augustine are now studying for a degree at the International Institute of Hotel Management in Calcutta. Nizam and Amar are in their second year of a Bachelor of Commerce degree at St. Xavier’s in Calcutta and are working part time for HSBC.

Kabir has passed his A-Levels in England and has been accepted at Northampton University to do a Human Geography and Sports Management degree. Dheeraj is in his second year at East London University studying for a degree in Architecture. He recently did a placement with international architects, BDP, in London. Tapas is currently on placement with the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva as part of his degree in International Hospitality and Tourist Management, London South Bank University. Another former Future Hope boy is studying for a degree in Art at Saint Martins School of Art, London. Anwar is now a chef on an American cruise liner operating out of Miami. He returned to Calcutta recently to buy a small flat for his father, a homeless rickshaw puller, and family. He also found time to arrange his marriage whilst home.

Rugby:
Future Hope pupils are the Calcutta senior adult rugby champions and former All India seven a side schools rugby champions. Seven Future Hope boys represented India at the Asian Rugby Union under-19 Tournament held in Lahore in December. India won all their games, including that against Pakistan, and won the second division.

Football:
Future Hope’s football team recently won the St. James five a side tournament. Five Future Hope boys have been selected to join the India Youth Training Programme run by the Indian Football Association. Three boys from the programme will be chosen to go and train with Manchester United in Manchester (reward or a punishment?).

The all conquering Future Hope football team having just beaten St. Xaviers 1-0 in a Calcutta Schools tournament, Apr '05. Seen here in their kindly donated Gaelic Gear kit.

Cricket:
Arun Lal, the former India cricketer, has recently selected six Future Hope boys to join his Academy of Cricket Excellence.

Girls Sport:
Kuntala Ghosh Dastidar, previously a coach to the India women’s football team, is coaching the Future Hope girls in hockey, athletics, football and netball. For some of the girls, this is the first time they have had the opportunity to play organised sport.

Sweetie models the Carryduff Gaelic Football jersey

Gaelic Football:
Irish company Gaelic Gear recently donated gaelic football equipment to Future Hope. The children had their first football and hurling coaching sessions in March of last year and displayed some impressive skills immediately. Representatives from the Cork and Tyrone country boards, who observed the sessions, noted that the children were probably better than comparable age groups in Cork and Tyrone and definitely had higher standards of English. One of these observations comes as a surprise, the other doesn’t.

Art:
HSBC has commissioned Future Hope artists to provide artwork for their new Calcutta processing centre.

Where Your Money Goes

2006-05-02T21:25:00.000+09:00

Development of New Facilities:
Future Hope has recently been able to purchase 10 acres of land near Calcutta airport for development. It intends to develop this to provide a half way house for children who have recently left the streets. This will allow a transition period before the children commit to the discipline of daily schooling and life in a home. A sports academy will also be developed for street children to enable them to focus their efforts on something positive and constructive whilst learning important life skills.

Much of the funds Kevin has raised will go towards the building of a half way house that seeks to ease the transition from street life to a more structured environment

Future Hope Village:
Future Hope has opened its first residential village 30 miles outside Calcutta. The village is the first step to independence for older children who have jobs but nowhere to live. They are entirely responsible for their own lives but retain the support of Future Hope. Each child pays a nominal rent to Future Hope, a part of which goes towards saving for their own home in later life.

At this time five former Future Hope pupils have moved into the village. Sanjay, who is a development officer with the Bengal Rugby Union and coaches the sport widely around India and overseas. Kamal, who has just graduated with a B.Com from the University of Calcutta. He is working for Seagull bookshop whilst studying for his MA. Tamal, who is working in the film industry whilst also completing his degree. Jeeban, who has just completed his class 12 and has a job in a corporate gym. Sukra, who has recently returned from successfully completing his A-Levels in England and is about to start work with an accountancy firm.

He now has a future

Fundraising Events

2006-05-02T21:08:00.000+09:00

Fundraising took place over three months and consisted of two auctions, a horse race event, a speed dating night, a football tournament, a head shaving and many personal donations.

Please see "Photo Gallery" in sidebar for more pictures.

Kev the Ref takes foul play very seriously on Speed Dating Night

BFC Vagabonds, winners of the the inaugural Future Hope Football Challenge

Joe Dolan 'live' in Tokyo on Auction & Race Night

The North Pole

2006-05-02T21:06:00.000+09:00

The North Pole is the point where the earth’s core meets the surface, the most northerly point on the planet. This is not to be confused with Magnetic North which is currently somewhere over the Canadian Arctic (approximately 900 km from Geographic North). For this reason a standard compass in the arctic will not point to true North and is useless for navigation unless you know the magnetic declination (the degree difference between Geographic North and magnetic North which can be more than 90 degrees).

When the expedition party stood at the North Pole, the only direction we could move was south. We could pick any time zone on the planet and one of two dates (as all the lines of longitude converge at that point) and every other person on the planet was south of us.

The North Pole changes every day with the moving ice so there are no markers or anything man-made marking the spot (in contrast to the South Pole). This is part of the challenge, there are no signposts, you have to find the North Pole and it changes constantly depending on the wind and ocean currents. The ice at the pole is approximately 3 metres thick; there is no land there whatsoever. The sea beneath the 3 metres of ice at the North Pole is over 4km deep. The North Pole experiences six months of daylight and six months of darkness each year. The North Pole lies in neutral territory without national jurisdiction.

The first conquest of the North Pole is somewhat controversial. However, Wally Herbert made the first confirmed surface conquest of the North Pole in April 1968.

Thanks & Acknowledgement

2006-05-02T21:05:00.000+09:00

Hundreds of people have been generous with their time and money in helping to raise funds as part of the trip to the North Pole. Unfortunately, I cannot mention them all here but I would like to single out the following individuals and companies for their outstanding contribution:

Bill Werlin at Patagonia Japan
Eire Systems
Lee Crockett at Coleman Japan
Everyone on the staff at Yokohama Country & Athletic Club
The soccer and rugby teams at YCAC
Steve Taw
The players of Kanto Celts FC, the best Irish team in Japan
St Mary’s International School
The partners and employees of Herbert Smith
Paddy Foley’s Irish Pub, especially the manager Neil
Mick Cunningham at www.e-people.com
Damion Way at Legal Futures and Way Simmons
BTG for the training programme
Bluemetrix
Dick Crowther
Gareth O’Brien
Singapore Wombats Australian Rules Football Team (Asian Champions)
Singapore Gaelic Lions
Japan GAA and its chairman Ruairi
Shanghai GAA and Noelie
Matt at Fez Bar in Singapore
Goannas Australian Rules Football Team
Evonne Chung
Brian Morris Jr at the Glenavon Hotel, Cookstown
Fujimamas
Dermot O’Hanlon
Joe Dwyer
Aarti Agarwal
Helen Fridell
Eugene “Jinky” Beattie
Colin at Molly Malones in Singapore
The famous Gaelic football commentator Micháel O’Muircheartaigh
The famous rugby international Joe Roff and his wife Sarah
The really famous photographer Susan Bakshi
Richard Burns
IFG Asia
Joe Wright
Nadya Wolferstan
Marie McConville
Des Mooney
The Morgans
Alan Brewer
Damien McAlorum
The Grand Hyatt Hotel, Tokyo
And every other single person who gave money, time or goods

Apologies to all those I threatened, coerced, blackmailed or otherwise forced to help or donate in the name of charity.

Sincere apologies to anyone left out.