Yesterday – in the comfort of Ottawa — I was reading an article in the New Yorker about a Swede named S. A. Andrée who, in 1897, tried to take a hydrogen filled balloon over the North Pole. He didn’t make it. But his diaries and some photos he took were found many years later.

Today in Alert I met Tom Smitheringale, an “adventurer” from Australia, who tried to cross-country ski to the North Pole pulling a sled with supplies. He didn’t make it there because he crashed through the ice and was soaked in freezing water. After ten minutes he was able to pull himself out. He sent an emergency rescue signal and, by absolute luck, there were helicopters and rescue planes here in Alert practicing search and resuce as part of an annual Candadian exercise called Operation Nunalivut 2010. They were able to get to him before he died. According to medical personnel here, if they hadn’t gotten to him in a few more hours he wouldn’t have made it.

Why anyone would try to cross-country ski to the North Pole is totally beyond me. And why, when asked if he would ever do anything like that again he said he would try again next year, is incomprehensible. But, I must say, it was memorable to meet him.

The strangest things happen up here at the 82nd parallel.

DJ