And he’s off! Polar adventurer Ed Suttie has finally started on his epic 230km trek to the North Pole following a series of delays.
Ed’s mission was held up after the ice runway cracked at Barneo Ice Camp, where the team were due to fly into before starting their trek, and initial attempts to create two replacement sites failed.
The Russians who run the camp had to fly in a new suitable piece of ice from Russia and drop it from a plane onto the ice to build a third runway 27km away from the previous sites.
The team eventually flew out to Barneo in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Ed said prior to his departure: “We are wildly excited and nervous and will soon be on the high Arctic sea ice. Thank you all for you good wishes and support during the long wait in Longyearbyen. The time has come. I have had the most incredible eight months thanks in a huge part to the people I’ve met on this most incredible of journeys. Time for talk is over it’s time for doing. The North Pole is calling…”
For the last week the North Pole team has been based at Svalbard, in the Arctic Ocean, working on the final preparations for the mission,
Ed, 49, of Verulam Road, is completing his mission in aid of Cancer Research, Rennie Grove Hospice Care, Earthworks and the UK Heritage Trust.
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