Polar Attraction

An alumnus leaves his alma mater's mark at the North Pole during a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

[This article originally appeared in Alumni News on May 13, 2011]

While most North Americans were reveling in spring's gradually warming temperatures, Bob Keenan, '84 MD, instead headed for the deep freeze of the north-way north. In April, Keenan embarked on the trip of a lifetime to the North Pole.

"Years ago, I was accepted into the PhD program in the U of A's biology department, and they were doing a lot of research in Arctic regions that I thought was really exciting. So, that's where I was headed before I got sidetracked into medicine," recalls Bob, now a thoracic surgeon in Pittsburgh.

"This was the most epic and one of the most magical trips that I've ever taken."

Keenan's lingering curiosity about Arctic climes eventually drove him to seek tourist opportunities to explore the region, which led him to Polar Explorers, an adventure tour company based in Chicago, offering pre-expedition training as well as a guided journey north. At the end of January, Bob participated in a five day "Shakedown" training session in northern Minnesota, a sort of extreme winter camping trip that prepared him for the frigid temperatures and intense physical exertion he would encounter on his trek to the North Pole.

Bob and his Polar Explorer group encounter an lead of icy water around which they must navigate on their trek to the Pole.

After months of training and preparation, on April 14, Keenan and five other intrepid travellers from Ireland, Russia, Australia and the United Arab Emirates finally met their three travel guides (well above the Arctic Circle) in the Norwegian city of Longyearbyen. There, the team loaded each of their sleds with 40 kg of survival gear and food for the expedition before being flown to Borneo, a Russian-operated ice station at approximately the 89th parallel.

With temperatures forecasted to fall between -15 C and -40 C, Keenan and his cohorts bundled in multiple layers for their ski trek, each dragging their sled behind them for up to 10 hours per day, taking breaks every two hours to rest and eat.

The group made good time skiing over flat pans of ice, though, at times, they encountered pressure ridges ranging from one to five metres in height, which forced them to remove their skis to scramble over the icy rubble. At one point the group encountered a massive, open "lead" of icy water, around which they had to navigate safe passage.

Though Bob's group was lucky to have sunshine and little wind for the majority of the trek, they did encounter adverse conditions just as they made the final push to the Pole. "The last day was clouded over with flat light making the going tougher," says Bob. "But the temperature was cold enough with low enough wind that we encountered relatively few open water leads, so we were able to minimize the east-west zigzag and make a fairly straight run to the Pole."

Bob's GPS reads exactly 90 degrees as he stands at his final destination.

On April 22, after five-and-a-half days of skiing, the group was elated to finally reach the North Pole. Though the exact GPS reading of 90 degrees was elusive due to the drift of the pack ice, Bob was able to proudly plant his alma mater's flag on the Pole.

Though his return to the warmth and comforts of home was delayed due to a blizzard that kept the team trapped at the Pole for two extra days, Bob is still buzzing with the adrenaline of his adventure. "It's exciting to do something completely foreign to what I've experienced," Bob says. "It's really unique to go to a place that, despite 21st century technology, only a small fraction of the world's population has been to. This was the most epic and one of the most magical trips that I've ever taken."