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The Expedition
Londoner bids to become first woman to trek solo to the North Pole
One of the last great expeditionary records – first woman solo to the Geographic North Pole
GLOBAL EXPLORER, and conservationist Christina Franco today announces she will return to the North Pole in February 2010 to attempt to complete the first successful female solo to the North Pole, in a unique expedition supported by AXA Travel Insurance.
Following an aborted attempt, due to equipment failure, in 2009, Christina, 43, will ski, trek and swim solo to the Geographic North Pole or ‘True North’, an extraordinary feat of endurance in which she will brave blizzards, polar bears and broken ice in the harshest environment on Earth.
No woman has ever successfully made a solo journey to the Geographic North Pole. Christina, who lives in Notting Hill, west London, has just 60 days to complete her quest. She starts the 775km (481 mile) journey from Cape Discovery in northern Canada in late February this year.
“The first thing I get asked is why I want to go to the North Pole,” she said. “The second is why I want to go on my own. There is never a good reason when explaining a passion. The North Pole has been just that, a passion. Ever since hearing the first stories of men who slipped into frozen sleeping bags at night exhausted after a long day of hauling, I wanted to go there, I wanted the privilege of travelling in one of the greatest wildernesses imaginable; challenging my body and mind to do so against the odds.”
During the first 20 days Christina will encounter treacherous towers of ice, some as high as a two-storey building. These are created when giant frozen sea plates collide. The proximity to the coast and the natural shelter these structures provide make this an ideal environment for polar bears and Christina will have to be particularly vigilant during this stage of her journey. She will carry a pistol in a shoulder holster inside her jacket next to her digital camera and MP3 player.
“Christina is taking on something very big and I admire her hugely for it,” said polar explorer Robert Swan, who in 1989 became the first person to walk to both the South and North Poles. “The first two weeks will be her biggest test with the worse terrain, bitter cold and darkness – it’s grim. One mistake during this period could mean the end of the expedition. The next three weeks Christina will get into her stride with rising temperatures and increasing light. She will then have to battle with the moving ice but by then she will be in with a good chance of making history.”
Once the ice rubble clears, the terrain will flatten presenting a new threat of open water. Christina will carry a dry suit that fits over all her clothes and her sled floats to allow her to slip into the water and swim across to the other side. However, this will make her vulnerable to the icy-cold water as well as making her look like a seal to polar bears so she will only take this risk if there is no route round the water.
Every night she will put up a tent and melt water to rehydrate freeze-dried food. She will have technology that will enable record her audio diary to update website followers at www.christinafranco.com. Once her GPS guides her to the North Pole, she will be collected in April from Russian Ice Station, Camp Borneo, a temporary camp one degree from the Pole, and flown home through Norway.
Few men have reached the Geographic North Pole solo and no women though several have attempted it. In 2008 British adventurer Hannah McKeand was rescued by a Canadian Forces helicopter after tumbling off an ice ridge into a crevasse and injuring her leg, back and shoulder, while in 2007, polar explorer Rosie Stancer was forced to abandon her attempt just 89 miles from the Pole after pilots said the window of opportunity for landing a plane was closing.
The first woman to trek solo to the Magnetic North Pole was New Zealander Helen Thayer in 1988. The Magnetic North Pole is the position at which compasses point; it is not stationary but constantly moving through the Canadian Arctic. The Geographic North Pole or ‘True North’ is the absolute, fixed cap of the globe, the northernmost point on Earth from which all directions point south.
Christina is preparing for her latest challenge with a punishing fitness regiment as well as a diet that aims to pile on over 15kg.
“The idea of ‘having’ to put on over 10kg may seem like a dream but it’s not as easy as you may think when also working out up to 8 hours a day,” she said. “Vanity also rears its evil head and even knowing that every ounce will serve as a valuable fuel source when out on the ice, and be easier to carry than food in my sled…it is sometimes hard to put in so many hours training yet see the benefits of it hidden under an ample layer of padding.”
Christina will be raising funds for three charities: the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), Save The Rhino and The Wilderness Leadership School. The MND Association is particularly close to her heart as her father died of the disease.
She said: “My father taught me passion and perseverance. I watched him get up at 0500 every morning to train for one of his many marathons before putting in a 12-hour day at the office. In 2005 he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and his body slowly let him down. Earlier that year I won the Polar Race to the Magnetic North Pole. He was so proud of me and although I cringed every time he mentioned it to another stranger we met, secretly I was the happiest child alive. A friend told me recently that if his daughter used her inheritance to go to the North Pole he would turn in his grave. I feel I could not honour my father in a better way and hope to make him even prouder.”