North Pole teams airlifted to Resolute

After three months on the ice, the last two teams heading from the North Pole to Canada were taken off rapidly melting ice on June 9.

Paul Landry’s team, which included his daughter Sarah McNair-Landry of Iqaluit, and their dogs were evacuated along with trekkers Bettina Aller and Jean-Gabriel Leynaud, and airlifted back to Resolute Bay.

Both teams were forced to abort after large amounts of open water made it impossible for them to continue their Arctic crossings. They were about two degrees away of completing their expeditions from Russia to Canada, via the North Pole.

“Don’t look out,” Landry reportedly said as the plane was going to take off. “If we spot good ice ahead, we will all regret to have been lifted.”

According to Aller’s home team, all they saw from the plane was poor ice and large open leads. “They could have stayed, but it would have been only to face death,” supporters at home stated.

Still on the go in the opposite direction towards the North Pole are Lonnie Dupré and Eric Larsen for the “One World” team. The two are also reporting soft ice and warmer temperatures. But their sledges are prepared to work as canoes, permitting them to paddle across open water.

The two men have been reporting warm weather and generally bad ice conditions, many open leads and soft ice sections.