/ 24 March 2006

SA explorer at North Pole after polar night journey

South African explorer Mike Horn and his Norwegian colleague Borge Ousland have reached the North Pole after a 60-day crossing that is said to be the first-ever accomplished during the polar night, their website announced on Friday.

The explorers said they had reached the North Pole at 4pm GMT on Thursday after a 1 000km trek from the northernmost point of Russia, unassisted by dogs or machines.

”It’s great to finally be standing on the North Pole. This mystical place is all that it is made out to be. It’s incredible out here,” Horn said on the website.

”Borge and I have walked far and the conditions have been extremely tough — but we’ve made it. I can’t tell you how happy we are feeling,” the 39-year-old, who lives in Switzerland, added.

Horn and Borge hauled their 160kg sledges for up to 12 hours a day in extreme Arctic temperatures and in 24 hours of complete darkness for most of the expedition. They also swam between floes in special suits.

They left Cape Artichesky on the island of Komsomolets in January and had been aiming to arrive by March 21, when the sun started to rise over the Arctic for the first time after the polar winter.

The crossing was timed at 60 days and five hours.

The duo are suffering from frostbite and will camp out at the North Pole for a few days until a Russian helicopter flies them out to Barneo Base, a floating airstrip about 100km away.

Ousland was the first person to make unassisted solo crossings of the Arctic and Antarctic.

Horn had accomplished a solo 20 000km circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle, and a similar trip around the hotter climes of the equator. — Sapa-AFP