The first few days already set the tone for the expedition. The crossing of the Barrow Strait -an area known for its thin, unstable ice - tested the team's morale. What seemed like a sure solution, transportation by snowmobile sleds, fizzled out when local drivers changed their plans at the last minute. Progress southward seemed impossible.
It was then that the team made one of the most delicate decisions of the entire journey: chartering a plane to get around the most dangerous stretch. "We risked aborting the whole project if we didn't find a solution. So we decided to invest in a charter flight to be able to continue," says one of the expedition members.
A DeHavilland Twin Otterprepared to land on the sea ice, appeared as an almost science fiction craft in the middle of the arctic desolation. Together with its young pilots, the craft became the bridge that kept the target alive. It landed with precision in an icy bay south of the strait, Back Bay, a remote, unmarked corner where the ski trip would finally begin. "We pulled the sleds - each weighing more than 120 kilos - up into the cabin. Flying over the frozen sea was surreal. That's when you realize the magnitude of where you are."
That flight not only saved the expedition: it also represented the most brutal contrast between the speed of technology and the self-imposed slowness of progress on skis and without an engine.From that moment on, progress once again depended solely on our skis, physical effort and orientation skills in one of the most extreme environments on the planet.
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