Traveling from Pole to Pole for Climate Change

Two young British explorers, Rob Hooper and James Gauntlett, have just completed a 26,000-mile, 395-day, man- and wind-powered journey from the Magnetic North Pole to the Magnetic South Pole to raise awareness for climate change and its devastating effects. Hooper and Gauntlett used dog sleds, bicycles, and sailboats to travel the impressive distance from Greenland to Australia.

From The Adventure Blog…

Along the course of their journey, Rob and James had to, at varying times, employ the use of sledges, bicycles, and sailboats. They used sledges in the polar regions, traded them in for bikes when traveling through warmer climes, and then transitioned to the ship when out on the open water. Their journey brought them plenty of challenges, as Adventure notes, they faced “a fall through the ice, king-sized storms, and a capsized boat” along the way.

Their final stop on day 396 was in Sydney, Australia where the duo and their crew was welcomed by a barrage of media and proud fans. To give you a better idea about their trip and its meaning, the 180 Degrees Pole to Pole expedition website was created. Here you can read accounts of the adventure via Rob and James’ blog. It’s a great site – well worth checking out.

If you read the account of the expedition at The Poles website, you can get a quick overview of the hardships they encountered. Melting ice in Greenland forced the duo to swim when they should have used the sled and caused Rob to fall through the ice at one point, landing him in the hospital with hypothermia and a concussion. They encountered an iceberg the size of Tasmania that had just broken off Antarctica’s Weddell Sea and an intense blizzard capsized the boat at one point. These setbacks, while difficult, seemed to prove the point of the trip – that our planet is heating up and our climate is changing… dramatically in places.

Congrats to Rob, James, and crew. Well done.