I have just returned from one my shortest but most memorable North Pole ski treks. On April 11 I flew with Lyndy Burdet and Heinz Fischer from Vermont, USA and Chris Furhoph from Germany to Ice Station Borneo. Lyndy (76) and Heinz (79) are one of the most energetic and experienced couples I have met and are still going strong despite their tender ages. Pilots, balloonists, sailors, scuba divers, skiers and hikers, they have spent their lives being active in the outdoors. Chris joined our team at the last moment after his guide fell ill and I agreed to take him. This was his first time on skis and he took to them like a duck to water. His patience was also much appreciated. After a night in the warmth and comfort of Borneo we flew to within 7.5km of the North Pole. With the temperature at -27C, blue sky and no wind we were blessed with the most perfect of conditions. After the chopper departed we began immediately, each towing sleds, and quickly slotted into a freshly frozen lead heading north. We followed this highway for much of the route forward, marvelling at the fresh pressure ridges lining our channel. Heinz is an avid navigator and quickly alerted me to some tardy navigation, my route deviating to the west as I avoided difficult ground and stuck to our lead. GPS in hand, his regular fixing of waypoints showed our arcing route. Lyndy, who has had two hip replacements and has glaucoma, showed her style on skis and skill in both staying warm and venting the heat generated by her slight body. Her years of adventuring honed her for this demanding day. Heinz took us in the last few hundred metres to the top of the world. We camped at the pole, enjoying the warmth of good food and company. The following day we were picked up at 2pm, ferried back to Borneo and onward to Longyearbyen.

Heinz and Lyndy are a highly inspiring couple who can teach all of us that age is no barrier to living out our dreams.

The Icetrek North Pole Extreme Ski team is back in Longyearbyen after a memorable expedition. A helicopter picked us up at 1pm and flew us to the North Pole, where we located exactly 90 degrees using our GPS before taking some photos and soaking up what we had achieved. It is somewhat ironic that we began our expedition 25km from the pole, walked solidly for 5 days covering an average of 12km per day, to arrive at a point 31km from our destination. The speedy southerly drift took away any chance of reaching the pole under our own steam, yet we experienced the north polar ice and weather in a way that few ‘last degree’ expeditions do. The early start in the season was perhaps too early and the conditions more suited to experienced teams already a few weeks on the trail from Siberia or Canada. For our novice polar travellers, Ben and Sandrine, to not only survive the expedition with no frost injuries, but to enjoy it so much, is testament to both their resilience and the care that their guides, Matt and I, took to ensure their safety. We all worked very hard.

Ben will now make sense of his experience and incorporate this into his work as Climate Change Services Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Melbourne Australia. The presentation he gave here in Longyearbyen at the Radisson was very informative and his knowledge of the causes of climate change, the consequences if we do nothing and strategies to reduce carbon emissions comes from a deep passion for both the beauty of wilderness and the power and ability of the market to make a difference.

Sandrine will return to Mongolia to continue her humanitarian work as a physical therapist. She has learned practical lessons from her time on the ice, such as empathy for her charges who have lost the use of limbs or fingers. A similar feeling is experienced when the -35C cold saps the use of digits, resulting in helplessness. She is a lover of wilderness and uncluttered life, two elements close to polar travel, and, as is common amongst Arctic travelers, is now contemplating an expedition to Antarctica. She will be a great asset to any team, a unique live wire.

Matt will now return to Australia to continue his work as a motivational speaker and concoct plans for future expeditions. Although he aborted his intention to ski solo from the North Pole to Borneo, a wise decision considering the conditions, his enthusiasm for polar wilderness travel hasn’t dampened as he also talks of plans for Antarctica and the South Pole.

After guiding one more North Pole trip this season, I will be taking some time off! In the past 5 months I have spent over 60 nights in a tent on ice, skied some 1400km to both poles, across the mountains and fiords of Spitsbergen, to the slopes of Hokkaido, Japan, endured temperatures down to -35C and introduced eight people to the joys of polar travel. My home and family, and winter in Hobart, Australia, awaits.

A moderation of the wind overnight brought welcome relief and we "luxuriated" in the balmy - 28 degrees C.  Ben and Sandrine are now totally adept at managing their faces and extremities and breaks are a lot more comfortable.  The surface was covered in sastrugi from 2 days of drifting snow but all up the skiing has been very manageable.  However, with the drift still at 300 m per hour to the south we are still going backwards.  After lunch we met a huge, partly frozen lead and watched for a while as its layer of grease ice washed up on the downwind shore.  Fresh pressure ridges from the recent winds and new moon dominated the icescape, aquamarine blocks of rubble piled up like demolished concrete.  A seal popped out of the water to watch our strange, coloured troop.  We followed the monster lead west until it turned south, and decided to camp, so ending our trip further from the North Pole than when we began.  From here we will be picked up by helicopter and flown 35 km to the pole before returning to Borneo and then Longyearbyen.  We are somewhat disappointed but also excited to have experienced the arctic at its most brutal.

North Pole travel is a bag of contrasts and ironies.  For 4 days we drift south like seaweed on an ocean, but today, when we have no time to complete the trek the drift is almost zero.  The wind has dropped now that we have learned difficult lessons on how to protect ourselves from it.  The cold of - 35 is contrasted by the luxury of the tent.  By day Sandrine is a polar astronaut, hidden by layers and ice, eyes sparkling through her mask, by night she is freed again, a woman.  We walked 7 hours again and now find ourselves 36 km from our destination, despite having walked almost 3 times the intended distance.  A heaving pressure ridge, narrow leads and flat pans marked the day, together with joking laughing and singing.  Despite the difficult walking we are a happy bunch.

A brutal day.  -30degrees with a 20 knot NW headwind, not the kind of conditions conducive to polar travel.  Ben and Sandrine endured one of the most difficult days of their lives as we slogged out 7 and a half hours that gave us a net gain of less than 2 km.  To add to the fray we crossed a 100m wide lead that flexed and shifted beneath us.  Our 3 breaks were gruelling, our numb fingers tossing morsels of food between chattering teeth.  We camped at 5.30pm behind a sheltering ridge only to be buried in drift snow by morning, Sandrine entombed as snow collapsed her side of the tent.  Despite our best efforts the 1.2 km per hour southerly drift has deposited us 36 km from the pole.  One step forward, two steps back.

The arctic treadmill is in full swing.  Despite walking for almost 6 hours on a good surface with almost no deviations, this morning we are further from the pole than when we started.  This morning we have 27km to go.  The drift is almost 1km per hour to the south.  To top it off we had -35 degrees yesterday with a chilly breeze from the west, but the light is spectacular from a beautiful orange sun that casts our long shadows across the ice.  Life on the ice is simple - walk, eat, sleep - but it is tough and we work hard to move forward and stay warm.  Ten rashers of bacon each in the morning with coffee and porridge seems to help.

After a 5 day delay due to ice runway construction problems we finally flew to Ice Station Borneo, arriving at 11 am.  The ice drift was at 500m per hour or 12 km per day to the South.  With the drift and the delay we made the decision to shorten our expedition and were dropped off by helicopter 25 km from the North pole.  With the southerly drift we need to average 17km per day to reach the pole by the morning of the 6th April, a real challenge.  We skied 6 km in beautiful early spring light but lost 5 km to drift overnight.  We are currently 24 km from the North pole.  A great team we have, more on them later.

The team is assembled here in Longyearbyen and ready to ski. Due to a delay in the establishment of the ice runway at Ice Station Borneo we've had plenty of time to modify and personalise our equipment. Food is all but ready, just adding some personal tastes, and we've just come back from another training ski. Our initial practice ski was near the Longyearbyen airport, where some steep slopes provide a good playground for ski skills such as edging and herringboning. Today we skied further afield, testing our headwear skiing into a stiff wind. Evenings have been well spent dining and wining at the various restaurants, and we also celebrated Sandrine's 30th birthday. She's a big girl now! We're currently scheduled to fly north on April 1 but fingers crossed for an earlier departure.