If all goes according to plan, this fourth year medical student will be the youngest person ever to be part of a team trekking to the North Pole. Deborah Cohen finds out why anyone in their right mind would want to do this
Imagine it: days of pitch darkness followed suddenly by days of startling light. Temperatures dropping to100°C with wind chill factor and only ice and water as far as the eye can see. The minute you stop moving the cold sets in, and it's incredibly difficult to warm yourself up. Because your destination keeps on moving, if you go to sleep you could end up 5 km further away from where you want to be. And the only way you know you're there is when your high tech compass, a global positioning system (GPS), shows a reading of 89° 59 mins 59 secs 09 msecs longitude.
It's cold up north - david in his polar gear
On the way to your destination, obstacles continually line your path--hungry wildlife, chasms of freezing water thinly disguised by ice, and the very real risk of hypothermia. Because of the conditions, you eat an unpleasant high protein, high fat, dried food diet that may give you diarrhoea. But there are no toilets or loo roll--only snow. What's more, the effect of your journey takes its toll on your body after you leave the Arctic. Despite the calorie laden diet, you look like a skeleton, the muscles on your body having been used as energy supplies, and recovery takes a long time.
It's probably not a travel destination that would appeal to most. But David Burckett-St Laurent, a medical student at Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine, will join the ranks of famous explorers, Sir Wally Herbert (1968) and Sir Ranulph Fiennes (1971), when he walks the gruelling 770 km journey from Ward Hunt Island in Arctic Canada to the geographic North Pole. Sir Wally Herbert may have been the first to get there on record, but what makes 22 year old David stand out from the rest is his age. If his 65 day expedition in February 2003 is successful he will be the youngest person ever to reach the North Pole from the Canadian coast.
David's team making their way to camp
Not only does David want to reach the pole, he hopes to raise funds and awareness for the children's medical research charity Children Nationwide because "it creates opportunities for healthy people of all ages, to have fun while raising money to help seriously ill children." He aims to create a network of schools and students that will fundraise for Children Nationwide in return for presentations on the project and polar survival skills. A website will be launched with the final aim of creating opportunities for young people to create their own expeditions.
The idea of going to the North Pole came about when David met Pen Hadow, "a true explorer," while training around the island of Herm, just off the coast of Guernsey in the English Channel. He expressed an interest in the North Pole; Pen invited him onto a polar expedition selection course; a period of aptitude testing ensued and David is now attempting to reach the North Pole.
But what was it that attracted him to the North Pole rather than traversing the Himalayas or walking the Great Wall of China?
"You can get dragged up Everest by a sherpa. In fact you can get dragged around just about anywhere. But the North Pole is different; it isn't a place for people who don't have a strong mindset. It's a place that has ground a lot of people down. Basically, I feel it's something I just have to do," he explains. "I'm interested to see what will happen to me when I get out there. I want to see how far I can push myself."
Map of David's journey
He also believes that the North Pole is the complete opposite of London--one of the busiest cities in the world. "It's quiet. Every noise is accentuated, and so is every smell. You can't smell a thing apart from perhaps your self. However, the polar bear can smell 3-4 parts per million so will cheerfully check you out from 10 km! In fact, polar bears are quite a danger," he says. "A lot of the environment is in your head. Because it's so stark and white, you become a lot more aware of everything around you. Your senses are heightened."
Ignoring the signs - David will walk through polar bear territory
But simply travelling to the North Pole is not an option, a lot of planning, fundraising (he's looking for sponsorship), and training have to be done first. David has to build up his body weight and strength by exercising for three hours each day, so he is strong enough to pull an 80 kg sledge containing his equipment. And he has just returned from a polar training exercise on Spitsbergen, an island in Norway's arctic archipelago, Svalbard.
David says his friends and family weren't surprised by his desire to head off into the wilderness. At school he took up cross country running "for escapism," and he is a member of the Snowbirds, an adventure racing team, which participates in two day canoeing, cycling, and running events. "My friends said: 'If anyone's going to go to the North Pole, it'll be David,'" he explains.
David says he's carrying out his dreams now as he feels that soon he will be embroiled in the life of a doctor, which has little time for such adventure. But he is making the most of his time as a student and already has his next event in mind in the shape of the seven day Marathon Des Sables (Marathon of Sand). It is alleged to be the toughest footrace on earth, and competitors run 225 km over the Moroccan Sahara desert while carrying all their food and gear.
While he follows his dreams, David says that medicine will always come first. But despite all the challenges he has set for himself, it's not quite enough, and he wishes that he had been born in a different era. "I'm very jealous of people who have had the opportunity to do these expeditions first--people like Shackleton and Scott, who were explorers when exploring really had its day. People who had the courage to go over the crest of a hill or to the edge of the earth to find what was beyond."
