The B.I.G North Pole Expedition

Felicity Aston's latest expedition has had a few issues and changes because of issues with the proposed landing site for the start of a trip to the North Pole.

The original plan is here:

It is the intention of the expedition team to fly from Longyearbyen, capital of Svalbard (which is governed by Norway) early in April 2023 to Barneo, a floating base camp located on the Arctic Ocean sea ice. From Barneo, they will be flown by helicopter to a latitude of 89N where they will begin their ski journey of approximately 110km to the Geographic North Pole at 90N – the top of the world – in less than 10 days.

The Barneo ice base was not able to be set up due to warming oceans and a lack of sea ice of appropriate thickness. The team had to swap locations and objectives quite quickly.

They are now heading for the Drangajökull glacier, the northernmost in Iceland. It is very much threatened with disappearance.

Download a recent research paper from this link (PDF download).

The original expedition website is here if you want to read more about the original plans.

The exhibition has now changed its plans and has headed to the Drangajökull glacier in the NW of Iceland. There is an excellent tracking map here which shows the location of the team, and here's the new objectives:

The expedition team will be heading out to Drangajökull, the northernmost glacier in Iceland to further research started in 2022. Combining data from Iceland and Svalbard with the data we intend to collect from the Canadian Arctic next year, the B.I.G. North Pole project will be able to deliver a pan-Arctic insight that is far more ambitious in its scope than we would ever have dared plan from the outset.

Follow the team on Instagram.