The Catlin team has been on the ice for 10 days, and has traveled a total of 17 miles so far as the crow flies. At that rate, they will reach the North Pole in September, except that the ice gets too dangerous by early May and they will have to evacuate. Their current position is 85 47 N 78 22 W, after starting at 85 32 N 77 44 W on March 15. Their web site uses a cool Google earth plugin to map their tortuous route – seen below.
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/GoogleEarth.aspx
The Google Earth map below shows how far they have traveled in reference to the North Pole. Note that their starting point and current position are almost right on top of each other at that scale.
The team have been making lots of noise about how unusual the ice conditions are in the Arctic, based on the tiny fraction of the Arctic they have navigated.
“The conditions we’re experiencing are unlike anything I’ve seen in any of the nineteen expeditions I’ve previously been on,” says Martin Hartley. “There are great swathes of only recently refrozen open water peppered with small snow-covered islands of ice in the distance. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come for Arctic travel?”
The map below shows just how insignificant their coverage has been. Their starting and end points appear to be right on top of each other at Arctic scale.
The Arctic Ocean covers 5,427,000 square miles. Catlin 2010 has seen maybe ten square miles of it, meaning they have sampled less than 0.0002% of the ice. They also choose to travel on refrozen leads because they are flatter and smoother, so their sampling is not random. No serious scientist would attempt to draw any conclusions about the quality of the ice based on a cherry picked sample representing less than 0.0002% of the Arctic, but this is no ordinary scientific expedition.
Same story, different year. From 2009 : Can the Catlin Arctic Survey Team Cover 683 km in the Next 21 Days?
Catlin Team Averaging 1.7 Miles Per Day – Only 295 Miles Left to Go!
The Catlin team has been on the ice for 10 days, and has traveled a total of 17 miles so far as the crow flies. At that rate, they will reach the North Pole in September, except that the ice gets too dangerous by early May and they will have to evacuate. Their current position is 85 47 N 78 22 W, after starting at 85 32 N 77 44 W on March 15. Their web site uses a cool Google earth plugin to map their tortuous route – seen below.
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/GoogleEarth.aspx
The Google Earth map below shows how far they have traveled in reference to the North Pole. Note that their starting point and current position are almost right on top of each other at that scale.
The team have been making lots of noise about how unusual the ice conditions are in the Arctic, based on the tiny fraction of the Arctic they have navigated.
“The conditions we’re experiencing are unlike anything I’ve seen in any of the nineteen expeditions I’ve previously been on,” says Martin Hartley. “There are great swathes of only recently refrozen open water peppered with small snow-covered islands of ice in the distance. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come for Arctic travel?”
The map below shows just how insignificant their coverage has been. Their starting and end points appear to be right on top of each other at Arctic scale.
The Arctic Ocean covers 5,427,000 square miles. Catlin 2010 has seen maybe ten square miles of it, meaning they have sampled less than 0.00002% of the ice. They also choose to travel on refrozen leads because they are flatter and smoother, so their sampling is not random. No serious scientist would attempt to draw any conclusions about the quality of the ice based on a cherry picked sample representing less than 0.00002% of the Arctic, but this is no ordinary scientific expedition.
Same story, different year. From 2009 : Can the Catlin Arctic Survey Team Cover 683 km in the Next 21 Days?
Not again ! I thought we saw this episode of the three stooges last year.
Well who knows; maybe the polar bears will get lucky this year. Well maybe it’s illegal to feed polar bears; even if you are the tucker box.
Surely if you want to walk to the North Pole; wouldn’t it be better to go in winter time, when you can be more sure of a walkable route, so you don’t have to do much swimming.
Seems like these chumps waited till the JAXA ice graph headed south, beofre they set off; really good timing their chaps.
I note the depiction of the Arctic Ocean as open water rather than ice covered. You have to give the Catlin team credit. Every time you look at the map, you visualize the Arctic as ice free.
Ann says:”Too much acid can create problems for marine life” http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8528000/8528219.stm As far as I can make out, even the crazies at the ‘Science & Environment’ section of what passes for the BBC’s science section aren’t covering this pathetic expedition! The news item says, “No one would guess if they saw Ann Daniels going through passport control that she was an Arctic explorer.” No one would guess, because she isn’t!
Priceless.
Catlin have turned off the email section at the expedition website (crafty, eh?). But wait, you can email Catlin here! catlininfo@catlin.com Let them know what you think, I’m sure they’re keen to learn.
The Catlin team is already further North than the Pole that the Top Gear team went to!
Deja Vu?
I thought you’d mis-linked a page from the archives (of disasters…)
Some folks subscribe to Playboy just to read the articles.
I am sure some follow this scientific excursion just for its broad reaching scientific impact.
The WWF and this band of troubadors are meant for each other.The IPCC must be fidgiting and waiting for the scoop on this daring excursion.
They have enough data by now to make a computerized model so to avoid going up there and collect the same money without risking their lives.
In the worst case thay just need to plainly lie, and, if needed some help they can ask for help from the many global warmers’ post normal science colleagues, currently in the IPCC payroll.
They ONLY need to cover 32.5 kilometers a day for the next three weeks to get to the North Pole on time.
Considering they are averaging just under three kilometers a day they just need to go ten times faster and they got it.
Considering most of the trip and information are a fantasy, why not?
Don’t you all wish you had competition as stupid as these guys? The map looks like “Where the Woozle wasn’t” for A.A. Milne fans.
Severian (07:56:35) :
Well, so far color me unimpressed with their progress. I mean, a year or so ago the wonderful lunatics from Top Gear in the UK decided to have one of their infamous races with Clarkson and Mays driving up in a specially prepped Toyota Land Cruiser and Hammond going by dog sled with an arctic explorer. The Toyota won handily, though it was obviously not easy for anyone of them, the broken up ice boulders and ridges made passage in a straight line impossible, often they would go a whole day and only advance a few dozen meters. But they made better progress than this, and made it to the pole (as determined by GPS).
Actually they didn’t even make it to the pole, their target was the 1996 position of the Magnetic Pole 78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W, the magnetic pole has been moving northwards at ~40miles/year since then so they were a long way from the pole. The current position is 85.0N 132.6W.
George E. Smith (10:06:28) :
Last year they left earlier and almost froze to death.
(I asked this on the preceding Catlin thread, but I’ll ask here because I do really want to know without increasing hits on the Catlin site).
I thought this expedition was out to prove WAGTD from ocean acidification.
If so, then how do they titrate their sea water samples at -45C?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Is their compass playing up, their route looks rather torturous. Perhaps they should use their GPS for navigating as well
Catlin expedition sponsored by the Catlin insurance group. Is that correct? Not so sure I would buy insurance from these people.
Wait, I thought there was a bug in WordPress that caused random posts from the past to reappear.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
http://despair.com/selfesteem.html
Why are they doing this again?
Not enough punishment last year?
One: As pictured, the men have not grown out full beards, which is practically a requirement for all serious male polar explorers, thus it certainly looks like they are not having that bad of a time so far. I’m probably being too critical, as I am overlooking how the importance of looking good for the camera trumps a mere aid to survival. And yes, serious female polar explorers can join in the fun as well.
Two: Where are all those starving polar bears when you need them? Umm, strictly so they can take nice pictures of them, yeah that’s it.
It isn’t about the destination; it’s the PNS you get to do along the way, the funding, plus future lecture circuits, book deals, etc.
It’s a Zen Warmist thing.
http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/polar-bear.jpg
Here is the real purpose of the Catlin survey- really hush hush:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RigS2WJUPGs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
http://tstein4.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/spies_like_us.jpg
Houston-
We have a problem-
Quazi ‘scientists’ attempting an expedition in the wrong season-
Obviously a publicity stunt-
Obviously a waste of money-
Obviously these folks need to review Darwin, as they do not know you need to do this in Mid-Winter… not in spring!
WUWT- needs peer review power over these clowns – there are REAL problems to address and, when I last checked, the world has rather limited resources.
File it under good luck, but stop wasting resources.
D Caldwell (09:37:03) :
In the UK it’s “all mouth and trousers”
Note to the Catlin crew: “Meddle not in the affairs of Polar Bears for you are
crunchy and good with catchup.”-unk.
Truly, they are asking for it. Trouble is- someone may have to bail them out again…
Catlin 2009 was discredited. The fact these clowns are at it again is a simple PR operation. Just as is the cover of the Economist…