Northern News Services
Resolute Bay (May 25/01) - A Japanese adventurer attempting a six-year journey from the North Pole to Japan has been found dead near his sled.
Hyoichi Kohno, 43, was attempting to travel 15,000 kilometres, from the North Pole to Japan, when he went missing. He was last heard from May 16 and was believed to have fallen through the ice about 1,100 kilometres north of Resolute. A private search and one by a Canadian Forces Twin Otter located a ski pole and a sled believed to belong to Kohno last weekend.
On May 23 an airplane chartered by the Kohno expedition managed to land about two kilometres from the sled, located about 85 kilometres off the coast of Ellesmere Island.
Two pilots, the expedition co-ordinator at Resolute Bay, an RCMP officer, a member of the Resolute Bay Rangers and another volunteer walked to the site and found Kohno's body in the ice under the sled.
"It is clear that he had fallen in the water as suspected," said a press release from the RCMP. "He was secured to the sled by way of a rope attached to the body." The body was taken to Resolute Bay and the Nunavut coroner has been called in.
Kohno left the North Pole in early March.
After travelling across Nunavut, Yukon and Alaska, he planned to cross the Bering Sea by kayak. He would then walk through Russia and to his hometown of Matsuyama, some 680 kilometres southwest of Tokyo.
