Maps and navigation
If you stand at the North Pole, all points are south of you and east and west has no meaning! A tricky dog to get to, it’s located not over land but in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. It is about 450 miles north of Greenland and the ocean has a depth of over 13,000 feet. It is the most humid place on earth, even wetter than the Amazonian rain forest. The ocean is normally under several feet of sea ice, though due to climatic change, recently open water has actually been spotted at the Pole. Scientists estimate that within 15 to 20 years (maybe a little longer) it will be impossible to walk there; instead you will be able to take a luxury cruise!
Unlike the South Pole, where there is a large scientific base and the Americans have handily planted a pole to mark the spot, the only way of knowing that we have arrived at the North Pole is via instrumentation. Historically a compass would suffice, but being a team that likes toys we shall use a GPS receiver. When it reads 90.00 we will be there. That is unless John Cleeve Symmes’s theory is correct - in which case we will fall into a large countersunk hole through a series of gateways to seven further worlds. Symmes was a geographer in the early nineteenth century who had a quite a following, preaching to packed halls in the US.
So when the GPS reads 90.00 we will be there - but we won’t be there for long. Being located on a frozen ocean the ice packs are constantly moving, thanks to the strong transpolar drift current and the Beaufort Gyre. The ice can move up to 12 miles in one night, though a more common drift is 1.5 to 2.5 miles every 12 hours. What could be more depressing than knowing that whilst you are asleep you are moving further and further from your goal and those hard earned miles of the previous day are being eroded by the moment?
Right: A map of the geographic north pole
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