Arctic team saved from starvation

Rations re-supplied in last-minute dash to the camp

When rations hit about one sixth of what you need to keep going, things are tough. When you’re stuck in a tent in the arctic, it gets worse.

News just in from the Catlin Arctic Survey reports that Pen Hadow and his two fellow travellers were down to their last rations before being resupplied in a last-minute dash to the camp by a specially-fitted plane. Repeated attempts to drop food to the expedition had met with bad weather and failure, resulting in the team subsisting on just 90g of food per day.

The three-man team is so far from the nearest airfield that a re-fuelling stop is necessary for any plane hoping to reach them. For 11 straight days, visibility in the Arctic was so poor that each time the hop was attempted, the plane had to come straight back. Meanwhile, the Catlin Arctic Survey team were forced to halt their experimental drilling work, measuring the thickness of the sea ice.

The rescue drop could only take place once special fuel tanks were fitted to the plane, meaning they could make the run in one go. Now the team are looking at one more problem – the expedition looks like being wound up a week early. Worries about the thickness of the ice as the summer melt approaches have caused the expedition to wind up before the end of May. Ironically, it’s just such changes to the ice that the expedition are hoping to record faithfully, to find out what is happening to the climate in the frozen North.

Find out more about the Catlin Survey here: www.catlinarcticsurvey.com