Adventure at the Catlin Ice Base

Adventure at the Catlin Ice Base

According to popular lore, during one of Captain Robert F. Scott's famed expeditions to the Antarctic in 1912, his weather man - a genius known to give amazingly precise predictions - walked out of camp one night and got caught in a sudden storm.

He trudged endlessly on until morning when, desperate and tired, he managed to catch site of the base. 

As the storm passed, his footprints revealed that he had been going around in circles only 30m from the rest of Scott's men. 

There are many other examples of explorers who never made it back, their bodies later found to have been within a stone's throw of their travel companions. 

These were the types of tales Catlin's Ice Base staff shared with us on our first days in the high Canadian arctic.

"The thing about polar regions is that you can't take anything for granted," says Paul Ramsden, the Ice Base Manager. 

"Everything here is so cold and so extreme."

Rarely before has a team of scientists ventured this far north onto floating sea ice in the dead of winter to conduct scientific experiments.  

And the possibility that things could go horribly wrong is the reason Catlin's expedition leaders in London have raised an estimated $3mn to fund the project, which is looking into how the ocean's are getting more acidic with growing carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere.

Scientific coup

The researcher's base camp is a rather "plush" set-up, with separate work, food and sleep tents.  

It is very "unique considering it is privately-funded," observes Ramsden, who himself is a veteran of organising trips into the extreme wilds. 

He has been to Antarctica five times, consulted on a James Bond movie filmed in Iceland, and is the recipient of the Piolet d'or, the most coveted award in mountain climbing. 

Ramsden compares the base to those organised by the British government-funded Antarctic Survey. 

Catlin, the main sponsor of this expedition, is a British-founded insurance company. On it's website it says directors decided to support the project because they recognise "that climate change and other environmental changes are creating a new set of risks for the insurance industry and its policyholders".

Whatever the motivations, the expedition is being seen as a coup for science, and one that may open the doors to more opportunities for researchers to link up with corporations.

One of the most unique elements of the project, has been Catlin's decision to team up scientists with adventurers. 

The support staff, like Ice base manager Ramsden, all come with impressive credentials - although they would more likely consider themselves a motley crew of rogues, that have somehow managed to avoid the nine-to-five lifestyle and made a career out of adventuring.

In our two weeks with them, we got to know this crew quite well. 

Ice Base manager

Ramsden is perhaps the most understated member of the Catlin team ... but don't let his quietness fool you. 

Over dinner he has awed other camp members with his experiences climbing ice to the summit of some of the world's most ferocious mountains - from sleeping hanging off a rock face exposed to -20 degree celsius temperatures, to the more notorious examples of trying to get himself out of an Argentinian jail after tornado winds tore away his tent, taking away all his possessions, including his passport.  

An example of his dedication to the extremes - he and fellow ice climbers devoted five years to climbing in the Settesdale valley in Norway, about a five-hour drive southwest of Oslo. Iin that time they scaled more than 130 ice walls, that had never been tried before  

Whether you are travelling through Tibet, the bamboo forests of China's Sichuan province, or the ice-covered mountain ranges of Norway, chances are you will find Ramsden making his way up one of the untested peaks. 

Guide or camp-mother?

John Huston, the expedition guide, can perhaps be best described as the doting "camp-mother" of the base, always asking whether we're cold, and pointing out parts of our faces that may be on the verge of getting frostbitten. 

He always managed to "guide", as that was his job, in a very easy-going manner. Not to mention the nights over dinner that he would leave many of us in stitches due to his humour and odd-ball jokes.

We wonder whether he honed that humour during his long journey to the North Pole last year. He certainly had enough time; he and a friend became the first Americans to ski to the top of the world unassisted. Only 15 other teams in history have ever accomplished such a feat.

They did it in just 55 days. The adventurer from Chicago, recalls how he and his partner had to swim at times through frigid waters and also battle through massive fields of broken ice while each pulling two sledges weighing three hundred pounds.   

The loud and boisterous Huston has also been part of expeditions to Greenland, and other polar regions;  one of his most memorable: re-enacting a race to the South Pole between Norway's Roald Amundsen and Britain's Robert F. Scott.  

His team won by days. As to why he continues to push the limits in these remote and harsh environments, Huston has this to say: "The arctic and polar regions are some of the few places left on earth that human society has not been able to impose it's will upon. One of big lessons I've had are lessons of humility; that humanity and one person can never try to conquer nature, and those who do always end up on the wrong end."

The communicator

Alastair Humphreys, the Ice Base communications manager, began his first-ever arctic trip by constantly running between tents, determined to stay in shape while managing all things involving communications for the ice base.

Few doubt he will succeed.

Humphreys spent four-and-a-half years cycling around the world - through the remote Siberian tundra, the steep mountain passes of Patagonia, and the congested highways of Los Angeles. He spent most of the journey sleeping in a tent outdoors, and recounts such stories as how Ma'sai tribal warriors would try and race him on the rough African roads. He partly funded his trip by speaking of his adventure to children at schools along the way. 

He has since written a book about his journey, and holds motivational lectures. Now, a proud father of a young son, named Tom, he's since scaled back his exploits, and is taking on what he calls "micro-adventures" - shorter, but "still challenging" expeditions that last a few weeks.

For the Catlin Arctic Survey, he has been busy bringing the exploits of Catlin researchers and its staff to life through photos and video.

Inuit Guide

Besides being able to "fix" just about anything, Russell Atagootak, our Inuit guide, has a contagious laugh that endeared him quickly to those on the base. His self-taught gymnastic abilities, along with his igloo and inukshuk building skills were also points of appreciation.

Having grown up in the northern Canadian town of Resolute Bay, Atagootak is very much at home in the Arctic. It is why he is an integral part of the Catlin team: An Inuit, he brings with him an understanding of how to survive in these harsh conditions, and how to avoid some of the dangers - including an encounter with a polar bear.   

Still as adventurers and scientists respond to the call of the north, Atagootak dreams of the south. Once the Catlin expedition packs up at the end of April, he is planning a trip across Canada, through some of the "warmer" places and ones with a much less barren landscape. 

"I love trees," he says, "they're so beautiful and so different from what I know."  

Cooking in the cold

If you end up in a mess tent on an expedition to either the North or South poles, it is likely, you will bump into Malin Hoiseth, the Ice Base chef. She is a master at making sumptuous meals out of basic ingredients and in the most rudimentary of cooking conditions.  

The familiar sound of her spoon banging against a pot, sends explorers running to her tent for belly-warming food.  

Hoiseth began as a chef in a hotel in Norway, located above the "tree-line" in the Arctic Circle, but five years ago, she decided to try her culinary skills out on an expedition to the Antarctic. 

"It's amazing getting to do and be somewhere you love. While I spend most of my days in a camp, when I get outdoors … and see places like Antarctica, I'm reminded of how small we are." 

Malin has been to the Antarctic five times, but the Catlin Arctic Survey is her first expedition to the far north.