Arctic rower makes it to magnetic north pole

Jock Wishart and his crew (HANDOUT PHOTO)

BRADLEY BOUZANE
Postmedia News

The leader of a six-man European crew that recently rowed to the magnetic north pole says despite the beauty that surrounded them for the month-long history-making journey, the world needs to take notice of the concerning ice levels that made their accomplishment possible.

Jock Wishart and his crew set out from Resolute Bay on July 29 and rowed their specialized boat more than 700 kilometres to the 1996 magnetic north pole, arriving at their destination on Aug. 25.

The location of the magnetic north pole — to which a standard compass would point — shifts over time as the Earth’s magnetic field changes. The 1996 location of the magnetic pole, which is separate from the geographic North Pole, is on the Noice Peninsula near the southwest corner of Ellef Ringnes Island, northwest of Resolute.

What Wishart’s team saw along the way was breathtaking, but also cause for great concern.

“I would be amazed if the melt this year wasn’t greater than in 2007 when they had the largest melt,” the Scottish adventurer said.

Wishart first got the idea to complete a row to the magnetic north pole – a feat that had never been done before — after 2007’s record sea-ice melt.

In the three years following that, however, he said there was too much ice in the region and would doom their goal from the start.

But with the exception of the last three kilometres of their journey — when the crew had to pull the boat out of the water and drag it — they never encountered impassable ice.

Gilles Langis, a senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service, says if the adventurers were going to select a year to row to the magnetic north pole, this year was close to ideal.

Langis said the area around the magnetic north pole, in a typical year, would have 75 per cent ice coverage. In the month of August, however, just 40 per cent of the area was covered in ice.

The natural setting was also incredible, he said, and the clarity of the region stands out.

“There is no pollution,” he said, but there was a constant grinding sound from the sea ice.