On the 17 February, after two years of preparation, two training visits to the High Arctic, and two days of traveling the Royal Marines North Pole team arrived in Resolute Bay. Now at the most northerly community in the Canadian Northwest Territories the Royal Marines were ready to go unsupported to the geographical North Pole. An elusive goal to British explorers since the advent of British polar travel and to date unachieved by a British expedition from Canada.

The walkers would be Sergeant Sean Chapple, the expedition leader and Corporal Alan Chambers, with myself managing base camp and communications.

Ahead of us lay two weeks of preparation, acclimatizing to the arctic environment and working with the media prior to Sean and Alan being launched from Ward Hunt Island, the traditional starting point of polar expeditions from the Canadian side.

The expedition would involve the walkers relaying two sledges each.  Each man pulling 150lbs in each sledge. Over a distance of 465 miles for a duration of eighty days and with ambient air temperatures as low as –60 deg C. With the North Pole being in center of the Arctic Ocean the pair would be traveling over sea ice. The influence of currents below and the winds above cause the whole region to move steadily south. As the ice buckles and fractures it causes ridges to form.

The initial 40 miles would involve finding a route through these pressure ridges, often as high as a three story building and all during the dark Arctic winter with its lack of sunlight.

Smoother ice would follow. However, with the sun rising higher in the sky and the hours of day light extending daily by half an hour, the ice would separate creating open water and causing the ice party to transform their sledges into boats using their shovels to paddle.

Throughout the duration of the expedition the Base Camp Operation’s room was established at the High Arctic Inn in the Hamlet of Resolute Bay. For many years this has been the traditional base location for expeditions. Its pictorial history of mans passion and endurance for Arctic travel is scattered throughout the hotel.

As a signaler my primary role was to relay information from the ice party to Headquarters Royal Marines on the developments of the expedition, using an emergency locating transmitter (ELT), HF radio, Internet and telephone/fax. Robertsbridge Community College in East Sussex was keeping a close eye on the expedition with their Keeping Track Project and Internet Webster. The web site was being followed by schools throughout the UK and even a few overseas. The college was later to visit Resolute Bay guided by the Polar North team, being the first school party from the UK to visit the High Arctic and the Magnetic North Pole. A visit was also scheduled to Beechy Island and the graves of a Royal and four Seamen from the ill-fated Franklin expedition during the mid nineteen hundreds in search of the North West Passage.

My secondary role was the “bullets and beans” of the expedition, ensuring all the administration went according to plan leaving the ice party with only one thing on their mind - to get to the North Pole unsupported. Everything was now in place and we waited anxiously for a weather window for the drop off to enable the pair be flown in.

Eventually after a false alarm on the 27 February a break in a four day blizzard occurred. We eventually departed Resolute Bay in a Twin Otter aircraft on the 1 March, bound for Ward Hunt Island.

After four hours of flying we had to refuel and stop overnight at Eureka on Ellesmere Island.  Eureka, being a scattering of buildings is a weather station and scientific laboratory and is manned throughout the year by Canadian scientist and a few other weather hardened personnel.  The following day we continued our journey and successfully made the drop off.  After a quick photo shoot we headed back to Resolute Bay as the ice party started their conquest in to Arctic wasteland.

The following day I received the first location by ELT and all was going smoothly.

Everything was going well until I was unable to establish HF voice comms to the ice party; however, both myself and the ice party put that down to the atmospheric conditions which commonly causes communications blackouts. I was still receiving their ELT position on the required days and times but still no voice comms. After a couple of missed HF schedules I realized that the ice party had problems with their HF comms.  HF was working well from Resolute Bay as I was able to communicate to a supporting radio station in Mintlaw in Scotland without any problems.

Regular ELT positions were plotted onto my chart as I followed there slow progress North. Although they were only covering ½ to 1 mile per day they were slightly ahead of the planned schedule. I would learn later that to cover 1 mile of ice they would haul for up to eight hours per day.  Yet still no voice link could be maintained.

Finally on the 28 March, I received a non–emergency activation of the ice party’s ELT meaning that they would require a flight, but it was not a life threatening incident.  The following day we took off bound for the location of the ELT in the hope of finding the ice party.

After several hours of flying we located the ice party.  With the sheer brilliance of the whiteness of the frozen ice it was like finding a needle in a haystack. However, the ELT proved reliable and the ice party was only a mile west of the ELT location. After the ice party spent hours flattening the ice to make a runway for the aircraft, we were unable to land as the pilot, with twenty years of Arctic flying, deemed the “ice too rough”.

At this time I was able to speak to the ice party using VHF.  Sean informed us that they required picking up due to equipment failure and a major fuel leak. Unfortunately due to the lack of HF comms we didn't know they needed equipment and fuel replacements so were unable to conduct an airdrop. Their quest for the Pole was to be abandoned. We then delivered the unfortunate news that we were unable to land and that they would be required to walk back over the ice that they had already covered to be picked up from their start point at Ward Hunt Island. Fresh rations were thrown from the aircraft as we returned swiftly to Ward Hunt Island to refuel.

Finally, the ice party was picked up from Ward Hunt Island. In good physical shape but feeling cheated by their equipment they returned to Resolute Bay.

A Canadian who had lived in the arctic for 15 years and has seen many expeditions set out for the pole mentioned that, “Going unsupported is a major gamble. You need nature on your side and a lot of luck.  Nobody who attempts the pole unsupported and does not succeed is a failure, they just didn’t make it that particular time. They were one of the best prepared I have seen here in a long time. Better luck next time."

Back in Resolute Bay we set about the tedious task of debriefs and de-servicing all the equipment ready for our early departure back to the UK. Sean remained in Resolute Bay to guide the Robertsbridge students, visiting the magnetic North Pole and holding a memorial service and laying of a Corps wreath on Beechy Island at the grave of Private Braine Royal Marines.

Along with the Royal Marines, three other expeditions set off in search of the North Pole unsupported. None of them made it. 

After years of hard work and training, this year we were unsuccessful in our quest to reach the North Pole.  As many Royal Marines know, our ambition and pride may be unquestionable but if our equipment that we rely so heavily upon fails, the consequences can be disastrous or even life threatening. How much longer can it be before a Briton is at the North Pole Unsupported by animal or machine?  I am sure the Arctic has not seen the last of the Royal Marines.