the explorers journal the climate change issue - The Explorers Club

explorer Lonnie Dupre, 46, and
a team of Inuit companions
and explorers will begin an
epic dogsled journey through
the High Arctic, traveling in the
footsteps of Robert E. Peary,
who with Matthew A. Henson
and a team of Inuit, became the
first men to reach the North Pole
on April 6, 1909. Although the
claim was disputed by skeptics,
it was upheld in 1989 by the
Navigation Foundation (www.
navigationfoundation.org).
According to Dupre, a resident
of Grand Marais, MN, the
five-month project will begin in
January 2009 with a month and
a half of training dogs, preparing
equipment, and living with
the polar Inuit of the Qaanaaq
district of northwest Greenland.
Then, on February 17, the day
the sun comes back at the end
of four months of polar night,
a team of six explorers, three
sleds, and 36 dogs will depart
on the 2,400-kilometer journey.
While the team is not venturing
to the North Pole, they plan to
document all of Peary’s historic
huts, camps, depots, and cairns
in Canada and Greenland.
Dupre will also develop a “Not
Cool” campaign to explain how
climate change is affecting Inuit
culture and how pollution is
threatening wildlife. For more
information contact: Lonnie
Dupre at lonnie@boreal.org, or
visit www.lonniedupre.com.
How North is North?
12
A once and future land
In July, the Euro-American North
Greenland Expedition 2007
flew to the northernmost coast
of Greenland, then headed
out on the sea ice to establish
EXPLORATION NEWS
whether there is a more northerly
point of permanent land
than Kaffeklubben Island, the
currently established northern
point. Oodaaq Island was
discovered some 1360 meters
north of Kaffeklubben in 1978,
but it has since vanished into
the ocean.
Team member Jeff Shea of
Point Richmond, CA, told us,
“We stood on an ‘island’ north
of Kaffeklubben. I put it in quotes
because it appeared to be sitting
on top of the sea ice, but we’re
not sure if it was connected to
land. This is representative of
these impermanent features off
the north coast of Greenland
near Kaffeklubben. This feature
was shown in a 2005 satellite
image appearing in much the
same shape as it is in now.
“It looks like an island, but
time will tell if it’s determined
to be the northernmost,” Shea
says. “For now, we dubbed it
Stray Dog West.”
Nepal seeks peak
fee cut
Everest more economical?
Ang Tshering Sherpa, president
of the Nepal Mountaineering
Association, is campaigning to
reduce peak fees in his country
in order to attract more climbers.
The Nepalese government
has formed a Royalty Revision
Committee, and Ang Tshering’s
hope is that fees will be reduced
across the board, according to
the American Alpine Club News.
In general, Nepal’s peak fees are
higher than those of comparable
mountains in Pakistan, India,
and even China. According to
Reuters, Nepal is already considering
a 50 percent cut in its
peak fees for Everest’s relatively
unpopular fall season.
With the end of the decadeold
Maoist insurgency last year,
tourism has rebounded in Nepal
(up 36 percent in the first seven
months of 2007 compared to
2006) but it is still far below
historical levels. Ang Tshering
asks that climbers and guides
e-mail their comments on reducing
peak fees to office@nepal
mountaineering.org and to
the Ministry of Tourism at
tourism@mail.com.np.
The Not So
B l u e D a n u b e
Pollution threatens a European wonder
Eighteen environmental scientists
spent seven weeks traveling
down the 2,375-kilometer
Danube to “give the river a health
checkup,” according to Philip
Weller, executive secretary of
the International Commission
for the Protection of the
Danube River, which organized
the study. Known as the Joint
Danube Survey 2, the trip began
on August 14 in Regensburg,
Germany, and ended in late
September in in Romania and
the Ukraine. Weller said the
goal was to gather information
to improve Danube-related
policies of the countries along
the river, home to more than 80
million people. For more on this
project, see www.icpdr.org/jds.