Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Resolute (May 03/01) - Paul Guyot won't soon forget his most recent birthday.

He spent that day, April 16, on the doorstep of the Magnetic North Pole with a select few Canadian Rangers as part of a 60th anniversary sovereignty patrol.

Paul Guyot makes camp in a double-walled canvas tent at Cape Isachsen, 200 kilometres south of the Rangers' destination, which was the Magnetic North Pole. - Kevin Wilson/NNSL photo

"It was just unbelievable," he said. "It was great to be part of a historical trip."

Technically, the Rangers didn't quite make it to the Pole.

They were obstructed by open water that stretched 32 kilometres in length by four kilometres in width. But they weren't dismayed.

While in the vicinity of the Magnetic North Pole, halfway up Ellesmere Island, the Rangers contacted Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Defence Minister Art Eggleton.

After spending about three hours on site, they began to head back to Resolute.

From the air, the convoy of 35 snowmobiles and komatiks was a sight in itself, stretching nearly a kilometre in length, according to Guyot.

Riding a Polaris 340 touring snowmobile, he logged 10 to 13 hours of travel per day alongside his fellow Rangers.

There were two food and fuel resupply sites and at night the excursionists slept in double-walled canvas tents to fend off the frigid weather.

"It was freezing. It was cold, cold, cold," Guyot said, adding that his thermometer only registered to -30 C so it was rendered useless.

"I couldn't believe how this weather is here. You stop your machine for five minutes and then you have to restart it using the choke. The wind cools off metal so quick."

Everything takes a little more effort in such a wintry environment, but Guyot said there were few complaints.

"My view of the Inuit people, one word sums it all up and it's tough," he said.

Even upon their return to Resolute two days ahead of schedule -- a return trip of 1,550 kilometres -- the Rangers' spirits were still soaring, according to Rangers' spokesperson Sgt. Peter Moon.

"They became school kids leaping off their machines, cheering, patting each other on the back, hugs," he said.

Then they immediately tended to the matter of personal grooming.

"They fought to get the bathtubs and the showers," Moon laughed.

"Some of them I can't recognize today, except you know who was on the patrol because they've all got frostbitten noses and cheeks and windburn."

Due back in Fort Simpson this week, Guyot is planning to return with Arctic ice that he chiselled and packed in styrofoam in a plastic bag.

There may also be a surprise in store for his son, Stephan, who asked his dad to check and see if Santa Claus had any leftover presents for him at the North Pole.