There were no radio broadcasts or Guinness World Record titles to be had when our team snowshoed 100 km across the Akshayuk Pass in the Arctic region of Baffin Island. We were a party of 17 women, 6 military veterans and 11 civilian business leaders.
from continent to continent under extreme conditions over the Arctic Ocean.
We started our trek a few days before April 6th, 2019 – the same day 50 years earlier, in 1969, when Dr. Ken Hedges radioed:
Dr. Hedges’ four men team included Wally Herbert, Allan Gill, and Fritz Koerner who braved temperatures of -54C, predatory bears and great periods of darkness on moving blocks of ice that put them and their dogsled teams in constant survivor-mode before as they crossed over the Polar Cap.
“I have the honor to inform Your Majesty that today, at 07.00 GMT, the British Trans-Arctic Expedition, reached the North Pole, 470 days after setting off from Point Barrow, Alaska.” The broadcast to the Queen signaled his team’s successful surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean by dogsled over the top of the North Pole. The Sunday Times and patron, HRH Prince Philip, sponsored the 3,800-mile trek that crossed 11 times zones and moved these men
When the men returned to London, their feat was hailed as “one of the greatest triumphs of human skill and endurance.” Dr. Hedges is the only surviving member of the fourman team. He lives a quiet life in northern Ontario, Canada. Before our team embarked on our life-chang-
Dr. Hedges team protecting the dogsled teams from polar bears. 38 WS Magazine / Issue 01 / July 2019
