Blizzards, bitter cold, hunger, exhaustion in a dog sled...That's not everyone's idea of a good time. But for more than one month in 2005 it was reality for British explorer Tom Avery.
"It's my passion...I love seeing Mother Nature at her most raw and experiencing things people have seen before me," Avery, 33, told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday.
Born in London, England, Avery was raised on tales of great explorers like Captain Robert Falcon Scott, who led two expeditions o the Antarctic in the early 20th century.
Inspired by his hero, Avery grew up to gain worldwide notoriety in 2002 for his record-breaking journey to the South Pole.
His 2005 trek to the North Pole was no less impressive.
In his new book, "To the End of the Earth: Our Epic Journey to the North Pole and the Legend of Peary and Henson," Avery recounts his harrowing attempt to recreate and beat a record set 100 years ago by the controversial American explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson.
In 1909 this daring duo led an expedition that took just 37 days to reach the North Pole - a time far faster than any expedition had managed since.
Maligned for decades by their critics, Avery and a team of American, British and Canadian colleagues set out to solve the Peary-Henson mystery and learn if they were truthful heroes or cheats.
"Monday (April 6) marks the centenary of their alleged conquest of the North Pole in April of 1909," Avery said.
"It's been a controversy for years. They got to the North Pole in such a quick time - 37 days. People asked 'How on earth could they have done it with all that equipment?' Our team came up with the idea that we could recreate their journey and find out."
In 2005 Avery set out from Peary's original Base Camp at Cape Columbia on Ellesmere Island, using the same equipment available to Peary and Henson in 1909. These 21st-century explorers also travelled in similar style, using wooden sleds led by Inuit dog teams.
"Some of the old gear is still better than modern equipment," says Avery. "I have yet to find mittens that can keep me warm in minus 40-degree temperatures. But we had this amazing lady up in Nunavut who made us sealskin mittens just like the ones Peary and Henson used. They actually kept us warm."
Avery's North Pole trek breaks a record
Much like their predecessors, Mother Nature treated Avery's team to a whole host of brutal, life-threatening weather conditions.
"Human beings are not designed to be up in the Arctic Ocean," say Avery, who fell through the ice on some stages of the expedition. "The place is a living, breathing thing. The ice is moving around with the ocean currents. You've got these enormous ridges 50 feet in height that you have to cross...The ice splits apart and you've got water to deal with as well."
Against all the odds, however, Avery's expedition covered the 413 nautical miles to the Geographic North Pole in 36 days, 22 hours and 11 minutes, some four hours faster than Peary and Henson.
These contemporary explorers also discovered original relics and tools from the 1909 mission along the way.
"I had always wondered what it must be like at the North Pole, but I had never even toyed with the idea of one day mounting my own expedition up there," Avery writes in his book.
A treacherous landscape that defeated such legendary figures as Reinhold Messner and Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Avery says, "People might wonder why it matters who the first person was to reach the North Pole. I believe it's one of the most momentous achievements in the history of the human race. We've inhabited the Earth for two hundred thousand years...Yet we only managed to conquer our planet's true summit during the last century, and I believe the people who first reached that northernmost place should be celebrated for eternity."
Avery added: "I just hope that our trip has gone in some way to restoring the credibility of Peary and Henson and that people will look at them now in a much kinder light."
