Maria Canton
Northern News Services

Resolute Bay (Mar 20/00) - What do five young, super-fit explorers want with five pizzas? Fat.

While spending seven days in the capital waiting for their flight to Resolute Bay, two teams, one Swedish and one Icelandic, who are now both en route to the North Pole, concentrated on eating fat -- and lots of it.

Thus begins another season for explorers and adventurers from around the world who start their quest to reach the North Pole from Nunavut.

"We've been planning this trip for about two years," said Haraldur Orn Olafsson of Iceland.

"We started to think about the possibilities of going to the North Pole after reaching the South Pole in December of 1997."

Besides the physical and psychological preparation needed to make a polar trek, teams have to spend time selecting the appropriate equipment as well as raising enough money.

Per Nordstrom, of the three-person Swedish team, said the pressure to complete preparations was more intensive for them because they only had half a year to plan the expedition.

"Everything started to fall into place the closer we got to leaving," he said.

Nordstrom says he and his partners plan to take 51 days to reach the Pole from Ward Hunt Island, which is off the north coast of Ellesmere Island. They will be pulling 95 kilograms on a sled and 23 kilograms each in packs on their backs.

"We will travel less in the beginning because our sleds will be heavy with food, we'll probably manage 10-11 kilometres a day and that will increase day by day," said Nordstrom.

Food is the main factor that determines the length of time that explorers can spend on a journey to the North Pole. If they run out of food, they will have to radio for pick-up before reaching their destination.

"We will use every hour of every day efficiently, every bit of time is planned," he said.

"When we stop for the day, one of us will set up the camp, another will start cooking and another will prepare the sleds -- time is very vital."

The route selected is roughly an 800-kilometre line straight to the Pole, however, they can expect to travel an extra 200 kilometres in order to make their way around the various ice formations that create obstacles.

Both teams are travelling unsupported, meaning they are fully responsible for any problems they encounter along the way.

Their biggest concern is equipment failure. There is also the danger of falling into the water, the ice breaking up and encountering polar bears.

Presently, two men from Iqaluit are trying to reach the North Pole by dog team.