transferred to smaller dome tents that had survived the assault. Nobody was injured, though some of the team were seriously freaked out by the experience.
At the end of a truly epic journey, covering 160km (100 miles) in five days, they headed back down into Frobisher Bay at the edge of the frozen ocean. The team were at last in polar bear territory, and were looking forward hugely to seeing the majestic creatures at last. But once again the unpredictable Arctic struck. For three days they were storm-bound in unseasonably bad weather as blizzards reduced visibility to almost zero. The leaders were forced to abandon the polar bear phase completely to keep the expedition on schedule, a salutary lesson in the day-to-day difficulties faced by animal researchers.
The young adventurers take some rare time out.
The fourth day spent camped on the sea ice saw perfect blue skies once more, and the adventurers were treated to an awesome journey by snowplane onto the Grinnell Glacier. Just a handful of researchers had ever visited the glacier – more people have walked on the Moon. If it had been cold at sea level, this was a whole new level of bone-chilling misery. They were almost 1,000m (3,000ft) up and with constant strong winds the temperature plummeted to –40°C (–40°F).
Energy reserves were at a low after two weeks of living on the frozen land, making the survey work almost unbearably tough. News that another storm was on the way, delaying their departure off the glacier, was the last thing they wanted to hear. They could do nothing but sit it out in their tents, which is pretty routine for glaciologists who plan for extended periods waiting for a window in the weather. The young adventurers had a relatively short wait of just two days, but when the snowplane finally made it through to whisk them back to civilisation it was a sight they would never forget.
The Twin Otter snowplane lands on its skis on the sea ice.
EXPEDITION LOCATION
The three-week Serious Arctic expedition took place on Baffin Island in the far north of Canada. The team flew in to Iqaluit, the capital of the territory of Nunavut. Newly created in 1999 as a largely self-governed home for the indigenous Inuit people, Nunavut is one of the least populated areas on Earth. Just 30,000 people live in an area the size of Western Europe.
GLACIER FORMATION
Glaciers are gigantic masses of ice, formed in areas of heavy snowfall. As the snow builds up, the weight pressing down turns layers of snow beneath into ice. Eventually, the mass of ice starts moving slowly down mountains or valleys under its own huge weight. So powerful are glaciers that they have helped to shape our landscape, carving out great valleys in mountain ranges. At lower altitude the ice begins to melt, and over a long period of time the glacier reaches a constant size, as the ice being formed at the top is balanced by the amount lost at the bottom.
This makes glaciers perfect ‘barometers’ for climate change, as a shrinking or expanding glacier is a pretty sure sign the local climate is warming or cooling.
THE SERIOUS ARCTIC GLACIER RESEARCH PROJECT
The Serious Arctic team worked with glaciologists from the Geological Survey of Canada on the first-ever detailed study of the Grinnell Glacier, about 110km (70 miles) from Iqaluit down Frobisher Bay. The adventurers planted aluminium poles as benchmarks so the scientists could return in the future to check if the glacier is expanding or shrinking. The team also helped take core samples of ice to monitor recent snowfalls and levels of pollution.
Initial results point to the same dramatic shrinking found nearer the North Pole, suggesting global warming is as great even in this southerly part of the Arctic. If confirmed, it’s more bad news for the future of the polar bear.
WHICH IS WORSE, to be too hot or too cold?
When you’re utterly frozen at –40°C (–40°F), a toasty jungle at plus 40°C (104°F) seems hugely appealing. But endure the reality of trekking in 90 per cent humidity with your clothes so full of sweat that you could wring them out, and suddenly you find yourself longing for that clean, cool Arctic air.
One Serious Arctic survival expert said he prefers the cold as he can always put on more clothes and jump around to get warm, whereas there’s little he can do to cool down if he gets too hot in the jungle. Logically it’s hard to argue with that, but many people seem able to acclimatise to the heat sooner or later, while they find it hard ever to relax completely in the cold.
The Arctic is home to a surprisingly wide range of animals, each ingeniously adapted to life in this hostile landscape. Some bugs and beasties can even tolerate being frozen solid, and the short summer brings out a wide variety of insects including mosquitoes.
POLAR BEAR
Found only in the Arctic, the majestic polar bear has become a symbol of the region – and of the effects of climate change. The endangered animal is an excellent swimmer, its relatively small head helping streamline it through the water.
Polar bears eat mainly seals and other marine mammals, and their hunting ground is at the edge of the frozen sea, or on smaller ice floes. While they sometimes stalk their prey on the sea ice, the cunning creatures will often wait patiently for a seal to pop its head up through an air hole in the ice, springing into action to drag it out of the water with its powerful paws.
Humans are their only predator, with hunting for sport and skins reducing numbers dramatically in the last century. Scientists estimate only around twenty-five thousand remain, and while hunting is now strictly controlled, the endangered bears face a new and critical threat from global warming. With the sea ice shrinking and melting earlier each year, polar bears are finding it ever harder to catch enough food to survive.
© Matthias Breiter/Minden Pictures/FLPA
With two layers of fur and a thick layer of blubber the polar bear is adapted perfectly to the frozen Arctic, losing almost no heat from its body.
ARCTIC FOX
This beautiful creature has the warmest fur of any mammal, and is the only fox to change
