British explorer Pen Hadow announced today he will make a scientific survey of the Arctic sea ice while attempting the first unsupported solo crossing of the Arctic Ocean.
The 1,000 mile coast-to-coast traverse of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Canada, via the North Pole, will take place in February next year.
Hadow, 50, who in 2003 became the first person to trek solo, without resupply, from Canada to the North Geographic Pole, will make the journey on foot with no resupplies or machines, dogs or kites.
During the 100 days of the trek, he will face some of the most extreme weather conditions on Earth, while managing encounters with hunting polar bears, and enduring repeated long distance swims between the ice floes.
"It's all about combining the spirits of adventure and science to get the important message out that the Arctic Ocean environment is rapidly changing, and the impacts will be coming to many of us, sooner rather than later," said the Old Harrovian said.
To achieve the feat, the explorer from Tavistock in Devon, will extract the most from the limited resources in his sledge and renewable energy from the sun to become the world's most resource-efficient person.
The expedition's scientific objective is to enable an updated assessment of the total volume of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.
This can inform models forecasting the timeframe for the sea ice's complete seasonal disappearance and Hadow will make up to 50,000 observations of the sea ice for analysis by scientists.
The only previous solo expedition by Borge Ousland, from Norway in 2001 involved resupplies by aircraft and he used a wind-kite.
Hadow claimed his attempt will be both unsupported and unassisted, which is a first.