The Red Bulletin June 2020 (US)

98
Adventurer and photographer, 52, SUI.
Leads exclusive expeditions for small
groups to challenging destinations,
including the North Pole.
Thomas
Ulrich
Living on
thin ice
Marooned on an ice floe for four
days, the adventurer learned that
there’s strength in staying calm.
The man fighting through icy seas in a bright
orange waterproof suit in the picture below is
Thomas Ulrich. He’s an old hand when it comes to
adventures in the Arctic, and he’s understood that
strength only comes from staying calm. That’s
exactly why he’s still alive now. The story, which
shapes him to this day, takes us back to 2006, when
Ulrich wanted to make a solo trip across the Arctic
from Russia to Canada. He set off and found
himself for a week at the Arctic Cape—a forbidding
place. “I lost patience. An error.” Plus, the ice that
year was thin, in some places just 6 inches thick.
Within just a few miles, the expedition had turned
into a disaster. A storm pushed the ice sheet up
against the land and it broke. “A crack appeared a
meter away from my tent, and then on the other
side there was another, and then a third and a
fourth,” Ulrich recalls. He was marooned on the
Top: Saying goodbye to his companion Christine Kopp
at Cape Arktitscheski in the Arctic Ocean. From there,
it was another 615 miles to the North Pole. Above: The
tent where Ulrich held out for four days before being
rescued. In this picture, the ice is still intact. It later
broke up into small floes.
floe for four days. At first he panicked, but then the
sea, bobbing up and down, provided an almost
meditative calm. He had a revelation. “Life may not
be secure, but change doesn’t have to mean
catastrophe.” By the time a helicopter came to
rescue him, he had learned—literally—how to
walk on thin ice. “I now know how to stay calm in a
crisis. Upheaval hasn’t made me panic since then.”
THOMAS ULRICH, ULI WIESMEIER WOLFGANG WIESER
94 THE RED BULLETIN