The grand delusion

We need to stop telling ourselves lies about the risks of mountain sports

By Will Gadd
 
Photo by Will Gadd

The author says this is not a view to die for

I recently attended a rare event: a memorial for someone who didn’t die in the mountains. This particular high-achieving friend died of alcoholism, but was his addiction really so different than my own devotion to mountain sports? He knew alcohol would kill him, but chose to drink. And I am increasingly certain that if anyone spends enough time in the mountains, he or she will die there.

I often hear friends make statistically insane comments such as, “You can die on the way to the mountains just as easily as you can die in the mountains.” That statement, for the record, is a stinking pile of self-delusional excrement that does not smell any less foul with repeated exposure. The ignorance behind those words makes me seethe internally—because I once believed exactly the same thing.

I do a lot of presentations about mountain sports, and sometimes share a list of dead friends to remind myself and the audience that the hidden price for the stunning photographs is all-too-regularly life itself. There are 27 names on my list. Not one of those friends died while driving to the mountains. Not one died on a commercial airline flight. To equate the risks of mountain sports to everyday activities like driving or even the chance of death from cancer is completely idiotic. Every friend on my list drove to the mountains a lot, and some even wrecked vehicles and spent time in the hospital from those crashes. But they died doing mountain sports.

As the list grows longer, I have a harder and harder time understanding why I take the risks I do out there. Yes, I’m careful; yes, I use good gear; yes, I run away a lot in the face of peril—but there are always elevated dangers in sports such as climbing, whitewater kayaking and paragliding. Each friend’s death has been a crack in my mental foundation of “managed risk.” And then, two months ago, that foundation was shattered with the sound of someone’s spine breaking. I had launched my glider off Mount Lady MacDonald, north of Canmore, and was 500 feet above my friend Stewart when he plummeted into the rocks shortly after takeoff.

I almost puked in the air as I watched and heard him hit. I didn’t think anyone could survive the impact he took, and the spinning fall down the scree that followed. Thanks to prompt first aid from some great people who happened to be hiking in the area, and to a helicopter rescue team from Canmore, Stewart was in a good hospital only two hours after his accident. He remains there, with hopefully temporary spinal damage. I was thrilled when I heard that he had survived—unlike the dead, he would have the opportunity to say what he needed to his friends and family. He might even recover fully.

Just one week before Stewart crashed, I had the best flight of my life, straight over the iconic granite spires of the Bugaboos in southeastern B.C. Pure joy is how I’d describe that flight. But I haven’t flown since Stewart’s accident in August; the thought honestly makes me nauseous. Why?

Strangely, Stewart’s survival has affected me far more than if he had died. The difference with Stewart is that I can look into his eyes and see the damage. I can talk with Stewart and see the pain he is fighting through. While I admire the hell out of his courage and commitment to fight for every millimetre of progress, I also imagine not being able to hold my own children. Stewart’s wounds don’t fade into memory the way a fatality does—it’s hard to “get over” something that’s still staring you in the face. Some of Stewart’s comments are beautiful even as they are heart-rending: “If I could just get one hand back it would make all the difference.”

Some of my own anger probably comes from an ever-greater sense of mortality. I desperately love the fullness of life, and I desperately love mountain sports. I look at Stewart learning to eat again (he does have one arm back!) and feel true happiness that he is able to, but then I look at my glider in its bag and have to look away. I love sharing the mountains with people, but wonder how many of them will end up on my list. My world view is falling apart, and it’s about as comfortable as getting scalded in the shower: I want to jump away, but there’s nowhere to go.

No single day in the mountains is worth dying for, so it must be the sum of the days that is worth that risk. I tell myself that, but these days I have more empathy for the religious who have lost their faith. They, too, are often angry. The psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross said there are five stages of grief. If so, I’m only on stage two, anger, and a hell of a long way from the final stage of acceptance. How will I ever “accept” this level of carnage, year after year?

This article was originally published on December 5, 2011

http://explore-mag.com/2831/adventure/the-grand-delusion

This cool infographic relates some fascinating info on the relatively unexplored oceans at http://www.mastersdegree.net/

If you’re pursuing a Masters degree in a science-related field, chances are you’ve become aware of how much our world needs its oceans. The Earth is literally covered in water: It makes up over 70% of our surface, and without it our planet would be inhospitable. When it comes to our Earth’s oceans, the vast majority of their expanse remains unchartered and unexplored. In fact, we have more comprehensive maps of the moon’s surface than of the bottom of our ocean floors. While the ocean floor seems distant and irrelevant at times, the fact of the matter is that our ocean floors are home to a whole host of mysteries. not to mention thousands of volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates. By learning about the bottom of the ocean, scientists may one day be able to understand and adequately prepare for earthquakes and tsunamis that are caused by movement along the oceanic floor. Though we do possess the technology to dive into our world’s greatest depths, no one has done so for over 50 years—until recently. James Cameron, notorious director of “Titanic” and general underwater aficionado, recently traveled to the deepest spot in the world: The Mariana Trench, deep at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. James Cameron’s innovation is being applauded widely, but more importantly, it’s opened up more doors for the ocean to be explored in the years to come. If you’re preparing to enter into a scientific field, your Masters degree might one day be used to understand and interpret what is being discovered in the depths of our waters. Or, who knows? You could be the next great innovator to make a James Cameron-esque dive.


Website: http://www.mastersdegree.net/explore-the-ocean/

$2.2 Mil. Expedition Seeks Earhart Wreckage

A $2.2 million expedition is hoping to finally solve one of America's most enduring mysteries: What exactly happened to famed aviator Amelia Earhart when she went missing over the South Pacific 75 years ago? (July 2)

2012 Seaward Pacific Expedition Underway - Solo from California to Hawaii

http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/2012-seaward-pacific-expedition.html




A few weeks back I posted a story about Wave Vidmar, the ocean kayaker who was preparing to paddle 3100 nautical miles (5741km) solo from California to Hawaii. At the time, Wave was putting the final touches on his preparation for the start of his journey, which included picking up his custom custom built Seaward Kayak in Vancouver.


Yesterday Vidmar officially launched the expedition, setting out from Horseshoe Cove in Sausalito, not far from the Golden Gate Bridge. He'll now spend the next 45-56 days out on the open ocean, completely solo, as he makes his way across the Pacific to Hawaii.


As far as I can tell there is no live tracking of Wave's progress. There is an official website for the expedition, which can be found here, but it has little in the way of information. Seaward Kayaks is posting updating on their Facebook Page however, so that may be the best place to follow along with the adventure.


It should also be noted, and this was pointed out in the comments section the last time I wrote about Wave and his journey, this isn't the first time someone has attempted this crossing. Back in 1987 Ed Gillet made a similar paddle, successfully completing his California to Hawaii crossing in 64 days. That was 25 years ago this year and Wave is celebrating that anniversary as part of his paddle as well.


Good luck to Wave and be sure to watch for updates.


Website - http://www.pacifickayaker.com/

Follow the San Diego Coastal Expedition

Through the UC Ship Funds program, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego graduate students are afforded a rare opportunity to commandeer Scripps research vessels in support of their science goals. Scripps student Christina Frieder is the latest to get the chance and explorations now readers are invited to follow the progress of her San Diego Coastal Expedition aboard R/V Melville. The cruise begins June 30 and will explore the health of our ocean and seeks to expand our knowledge of local San Diego waters.

Frieder and her fellow students, both graduates and undergrads, will blog from the field and offer a multimedia experience of the coast.

Follow the San Diego Coastal Expedition here and let the adventure begin!

UFO found lying on the bottom of the Baltic Sea?

A Swedish expedition team has found an unidentified object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, leaving some to believe it’s the remnants of an extra-terrestrial ship.


Scientists went off on a deep-water dive to debunk some theories about the underwater object, but were left with more questions than they had answers.
The divers found that the object was raised about 10 to 13 feet above the seabed, and curved in at the sides.


“First we thought this was only stone, but this is something else,“ Ocean X team diver Peter Lindberg said in a press release.


The object had an egg shaped hole leading into it from the top, working like an opening. On top of the object, they found strange stone circle formations, which resembled small fireplaces. The stones were covered in something that resembled “soot“.


“During my 20-year diving career, including 6,000 dives, I have never seen anything like this. Normally stones don’t burn. I can’t explain what we saw, and I went down there to answer questions, but I came up with even more questions,“ Stefan Hogeborn, one of the divers at Ocean X Team, said in the press release.


Farther back from the object, the Ocean X team said that they could see a “runway“ or a downhill path that is flattened at the seabed with the object at the end of it.


“As laymen we can only speculate how this is made by nature, but this is the strangest thing I have ever experienced as a professional diver,“ continues Peter Lindberg, one of the founder Ocean X Team.


Scientists are currently examining samples from the circle-shaped object, and experts in sonar imaging are processing data from the “ship“ to help shed more light on what exactly this underwater object is.


The outline of the ship on pictures resembles the famous Star Wars ship the “Millennium Falcon“.


Lindberg said the odd thing about the discovery is that there is no silt on the rock, which is an ordinary thing to find when lying at the bottom of the sea.
He also told Fox News that the object is “disc-shaped“ and “appears to have construction lines and boxes drawn on it“.


Lindberg told the news agency that the Americans and Japanese “are much more excited“ about the discovery than the local Swedish people.


A brief video clip of the dive was released to Swedish-language paper Expressen and can be viewed on Gizmodo. (redOrbit.com & http://www.dailymail.co.uk)

The Edge of the Earth - Gates of the Arctic National Park

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A documentary about a journey to "The Edge of the Earth". The Gates of the Arctic National Park is the northernmost national park in the U.S. (the entirety of the park lies north of the Arctic Circle).There are no established roads, trails, visitor facilities, or campgrounds in the park.
Following the Alatna River you will see an amazing place people rarely see, including the amazing Arrigetch Peaks.
"For the next two weeks you must survive using the knowledge, skills and gear you bring with you. You will walk or float through intact ecosystems where people have lived with the land for thousands of years. You will experience solitude, self reliance and nature on its own terms. Are you prepared?"
Filmed using Solar Power for Two Weeks = 10,000 combined shutter releases and video clips. Below is the link to how I accomplished this and stored all the pictures and video files.



The Edge of the Earth - DOCUMENTARY from Eric Dennis on Vimeo.


References:
NPS -  Gates of the Arctic National Park
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_of_the_Arctic_National_Park_and_Preserve

Crew will attempt to recover millions from Southeast Alaska shipwreck

SS Islander, 2006. Courtesy Dave McMahan


The Alaska Office of History and Archaeology estimates there could be as many as 3,000 shipwrecks lining the state’s 44,000 miles of coastline. Now, the multi-million-dollar mystery behind one of those wrecks may finally be answered, when a Seattle-based company attempts to salvage the remains of the SS Islander, which sank in 1901 while carrying Klondike gold rushers – and, reportedly, lots of their gold -- from Skagway to the city of Victoria in British Columbia.


A federal judge in April declared that Ocean Mar, Inc. and its president, 62-year-old Theodore Jaynes, could move ahead with plans to survey and possibly salvage the more-than-century-old shipwreck. The decision ended more than a decade of legal wrangling over the salvage rights to the ship, and could finally answer the question of just how much -- if any -- gold remains on the sea floor where the SS Islander sunk in Southeast Alaska.


But there’s more to this story about how a luxury ferry -- built in Scotland and considered “unsinkable” by some -- found its way to Alaska, and then to the seabed off of Alaska’s Admiralty Island. Along with the ship, about 40 people met their fate on an August night at the beginning of the 20th century.


The night in question
A 1992 report by the Community Development Department of the Borough of Juneau recounts in detail the life and sinking of the SS Islander. Built in 1888 in Glasgow at a cost of about $200,000, the 240-foot-long vessel was a model of late 19th-century luxury, built specifically for northern waters.


Like the more famous Titanic, many presumed the ship to be “unsinkable,” constructed with airtight compartments that could flood individually without the entire ship sinking.


The Islander operated during the peak of the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s, plying the waters of Southeast Alaska as the region saw a huge influx of hopeful prospectors seeking their fortunes. The treacherous waters of the Alaska Panhandle, combined with the heightened shipping traffic, claimed more than a few vessels.


“There are a lot of wrecks in Alaska from that date -- from the Gold Rush Era,” said Dave McMahan, an archaeologist with the state Department of History and Archaeology. “During the Klondike Gold Rush, there was just this massive migration of folks to Alaska.”


On the night of August 14, 1901, the Islander departed Skagway with 180 people aboard and made its way down Lynn Canal. At about 2 a.m., the ship was positioned between Douglas and Admiralty Islands when it struck what was likely either an uncharted rock or a sizeable iceberg. The 1992 report says that a former captain of the vessel believed it was likely an iceberg, which first punctured the hull before being submerged and rising to punch another hole in the vessel toward the stern.


The ship reportedly sank a mere 20 minutes after initial impact. About 40 people went down with the ship, though that number may be higher due to a reported 11 stowaways on board who weren’t accounted for. Others rowed lifeboats to Douglas Island, walking to the mining community of Treadwell to inform the world of the tragedy.


Rumors of riches
Given the timeline of the vessel’s sinking and the origin of its passengers, speculation began immediately that the Islander had gone down with a substantial quantity of gold aboard. Numbers vary, but if there were any truth to them, the value of the gold would be extremely high, then and now.


One estimate from the “Inventory and Survey of Historic Shipwreck Sites” reports:


It was rumored that the steamer’s purser had $275,000 in his safe and that the passengers had another $100,000 with them. Other rumors were that over a quarter of a million dollars in gold went down with the ship. This was at a time when gold was worth $20.67 an ounce. Fifty ounces of gold were found on one body. Another passenger was reported to have taken aboard about 600 ounces of dust.


Some $250,000 worth of gold at $20.67 per ounce breaks down to 12,100 ounces of gold rumored to be aboard the Islander when it sank. At today’s prices of around $1,500 per ounce -- a conservative number -- there could potentially be more than $18 million of gold somewhere on Southeast Alaska’s sea floor.


And that was at the absolute lowest end of the estimates. In his book “Sunken Klondike Gold” -- an excellent resource on the sinking and salvage of the Islander -- author Leonard Delano cites numerous passengers aboard the Islander who claimed that there was an estimated $2-$3 million aboard when it sank. One Canadian Klondike Mining Company engineer said that there were millions in gold bullion on the vessel.


Another Bonanza Creek miner, J.C. Dumbolten, declared, “It was the general belief there was at least $3 million in gold aboard the Islander.”


Worth $260 million today?
Gold was worth $17 per ounce at the time of sinking, according to Delano. That means there could have been as much as 176,000 ounces of gold on the Islander, which would total more than $260 million at today’s prices.


The reliability of these rumors, and how much of that gold ended up on -- or made it off -- the ship is the big unknown. But rumors like that are certainly enough to spur interest. Salvage talks came fast and furious in the wake of the sinking, despite the ship being in water too deep for any traditional methods of recovery.


It took until 1921 for the Islander to be officially located an estimated 300 feet below the surface.  That was too deep for diving equipment, and the ship’s carcass could only be viewed from a diving bell in 1929.


Raising the Islander
Finally, in 1934, a massive salvage effort was launched with the help of two other ships, the Griffson -- an old schooner barge -- and the Forest Pride, a sailing vessel. The Griffson was outfitted with winches on either side, and at low tide a team of divers would swim down to the wreck of the Islander, and string cables in a cradle beneath it. At high tide, as the Griffson rose on the water, the Islander would be lifted from the sea bed and moved toward shore. They would repeat this process numerous times, tightening the cables at each low tide and moving during high tide. Eventually, the Islander reached shore, and the Griffson was beached along with it in the process.


The search for gold may not have turned out the way the recovery team expected. “Salvagers were very close-mouthed about what they found,” the Borough of Juneau reported. “It has been estimated that it cost $200,000 to beach the Islander and they only got $50,000 for the effort.”


About $6,000 in currency, but no gold, was found in the purser’s safe. A sizeable quantity of gold was recovered from a urinal, likely shifted there during either the sinking or the transit to shore. Gold and gold dust was reportedly found at various other locations in the remaining husk of the ship.


Despite the middling results from the 1934 salvage effort, rumors persisted that the Islander’s gold was still out there. The ship’s bow had broken off during transit to shore, and some speculated most of the ship’s gold was stored there.


Author Delano, who was part of the Griffson salvage effort (he died in 1989, but his son saw “Sunken Klondike Gold” through to publication in 2011), speculated that the sinking and transit may have displaced the gold along the sea bed.


“Looking at the crumpled mass of what used to be the foundation of the cabin structure, we could see that the contents of any strong room could have easily gone overboard after the room’s collapse,” Delano writes, adding that the recovery effort may have caused the purported boxes of gold bullion to be scattered underwater during the movement of the ship -- ”Irony indeed after so much effort!”


Though parts of the Islander were eventually moved to Seattle, a portion of its hull remains on a northern beach of Admiralty Island, a skeleton of a once-great vessel.


Modern-day efforts
Twelve years ago, the Juneau Empire reported that Ocean Mar -- the recovery company interested in taking another shot at recovering gold from the remaining wreckage of the Islander -- might soon begin a salvage effort.


That optimism proved to be short-lived, as more than a decade of legal wrangling ensued over Ocean Mar’s right to claim the remaining cargo of the SS Islander. Now, again, the long journey appears to be at an end. In April, a federal judge authorized a plan to examine and recover cargo from the SS Islander.


Ocean Mar’s recovery plan isn’t immediately clear -- because of the sensitive nature of the effort, much of the information has been filed under seal in court, unavailable for public viewing. Neither Jed Powell, a Seattle attorney representing Ocean Mar, nor John Baker, a Senior Assistant Attorney General for Alaska, were able to comment on specifics.




Powell filed a declaration in March noting that Ocean Mar had joined with MK Salvage Venture to help finance the expedition. Additionally, Ocean Mar had “engaged the services of one of the world’s foremost deep sea science and technology companies -- Tetratech”.


In that same declaration, Powell said that Ocean Mar hoped to have an operation in Juneau by mid-May in order to devote the whole summer season to the recovery. That didn’t happen, though.


The Puget Sound Business Journal reported in May that Powell estimated the recovery effort could cost between $3-4 million. That same article reported that Jaynes and Ocean Mar will likely use an imaging system to scan the sea floor for possible gold located under the immediate sea floor. Twenty-five percent of the price of any “insured gold” recovered from the site will go to insurers who had already paid out claims to those who lost gold when the Islander went down.


Whatever the case, if Ocean Mar finally gets its way and is able to search the remaining wreckage of the SS Islander, it could answer, once and for all, century-old questions about the wreck and how much gold -- if any -- was left behind.


Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com


http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/crew-will-attempt-recover-millions-southeast-alaska-shipwreck




Additional Shipwreck Information:
Shipwrecks of Alaska - http://alaska.boemre.gov/ref/ships/index.htm
Shipwrecks of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands - http://www.amnwr.com/Shipwrecks/
Shipwrecks on Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge - http://www.amnwr.com/ShipwreckList.htm

Arctic Expedition To Prove That The Earth Is Hollow

Almost as nonsensical as flat earth, there is still the idea going around that the earth is hollow. A flashy expedition site is soliciting donations for this trip and subsequent movie. The hype will make your head spin…


NPIEE: The North Pole Inner Earth Expedition.


The science is real. The story is more than 5,000 years old. The legend says that at a certain place above the Arctic Circle, there exists an oceanic depression or an entrance into the Earth. It’s a place where the maritime legend claims sea level isn’t level anymore.


The discovery that the earth is hollow would forever shatter our long-held beliefs about how planets are formed. More importantly, however, discovering life beneath the earth’s crust could potentially provide us with new tools that would allow life on the surface to regain environmental balance, harmony, and possibly even peace. These prospects make the North Pole Inner Earth Expedition the greatest expedition in the history of the world.


It’s hard to know where to begin with this. But they are relying on “legends”. Legend is fine if you have nothing more to go on. Then you investigate and see if there is anything behind it. Centuries later, we know the earth is decided NOT hollow from many lines of converging evidence.


Sometimes, the silliness is go great I can’t help but laugh, point and walk away. There is not a shred of a reason why anyone should put any credence in or contribute funds to such a venture. This is the second bold exploration we’ve talked about recently (see trip to Congo by nonscientists to look for dinosaurs). Once again, we have this epic story of adventure and opportunity with a poor foundation and unprofessional methodology.


If you have a strong constitution, you can look at the “science” portion of this site. It’s HIGHLY “sciencey” but makes no sense. If such work is being carried out, it is not in the context of a hollow earth, it is in relation to planetary science. I’m feeling snookered from their use of real papers and real theory. This is pseudoscience proposed to upend existing science. It left me wondering, why do you need a boat to go to the pole? PLENTY of people have examined the geographic north pole AND the magnetic north pole and didn’t find a hole into the center of the earth. Why would this group think they are going to find anything different?


It’s OK to entertain the idea of legends. They are romantic and exciting and they tell us MOST about the people who recounted them. But when you are dealing with lives and money and huge efforts, to be irresponsible in presenting the justification (or the justification is thin like tissue as in this case of hollow earth) to the public is unethical and shady. It’s false advertising at the least, potential fraud at its worst. I would not donate to NPIEE because there is no rational foundation to this premise at all. This proposal reveals astounding ignorance of the body of scientific knowledge and disrespect to previous researchers that had a damn good reason for exploring the unknown parts of the world. All we may find in this proposed documented expedition to the north pole is investor money going down a big hole.



Carefully crafted plans and millions in funding have been secured for a journey to locate the passageway to Inner Earth. I certainly hope that the North Pole Inner Earth Expedition happens:


This $1.5 million pledge gets the ship charter in place by August of 2012. The Expedition launches in July of 2013. The science is real. The story is more than 5,000 years old. The legend says that at a certain place above the Arctic Circle, there exists an oceanic depression or an entrance into the Earth. It’s a place where the maritime legend claims sea level isn’t level anymore.


The discovery that the earth is hollow would forever shatter our long-held beliefs about how planets are formed. More importantly, however, discovering life beneath the earth’s crust could potentially provide us with new tools that would allow life on the surface to regain environmental balance, harmony, and possibly even peace.




This is not real.


For more see:


Unmuseum Hollow Earth


Skeptic Dictionary: Hollow Earth


Hollow earth pole photo debunked.

Research Vessel Polarstern Embarks on Her 27th Arctic Expedition

20120615




The research vessel Polarstern left Bremerhaven on June 14, 2012 on course for the Arctic. 44 expedition participants from institutions from Germany, Belgium, USA and the United Kingdom will spend around one month at sea. Their main study area is the Fram Strait between Spitsbergen and Greenland where they will conduct long-term oceanographic measure.






At the end of June the second part of the expedition will travel to the “AWI Hausgarten” for two weeks with a biological focus. In August the research icebreaker will then travel to the Central Arctic after which it is expected back in Bremerhaven at the beginning of October.

The Fram Strait is the only deep sea water connection between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic. How much water is exchanged between these two seas and what heat and salt transport is associated with this? How is the water in the Arctic Ocean altered which flows in the East to the North and in the West to the South? Which masses of water flow how quickly through the Fram Strait? To record these basic parameters, temperature, salinity and oxygen content are determined precisely with sensitive sensors. 




Dr. Agnieszka Beszczynska-Möller, oceanographer at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, will be leading this first part of the expedition. The measurements are an important puzzle piece for understanding the complex correlations between ocean, sea ice and atmosphere in the Arctic. Other research groups from the Alfred Wegener Institute also use the long-term data for their disciplines such as for models on sea ice development. 

The Polar Regions play a decisive role in the global ocean circulation, thereby influencing the global climate. Warm, high saline water flows from the Atlantic to the North. By contrast, cold, low saline surface water flows from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic and on to the South. Low saline, cold deep-sea water also flows from the North Polar Sea and feeds the so-called thermohaline circulation. The flows may alter as a result of global warming which is why the researchers have been observing this region for 15 years by accurately recording the conditions in the Fram Strait and the changes from on board the Polarstern. 

In addition to this annual inventory in summer, the researchers measure the flow conditions and different environmental parameters also in their absence using so-called moorings: anchor stones are placed on the sea bed to which lines are attached which are held up several hundred to thousand metres with the assistance of floats. Sensors are attached at defined water depths, which record data throughout the entire year. Variations throughout the seasons can also be recorded accurately in this way and be considered in the overall analysis. This work is embedded in an international observation network. Sea gliders supplement the measurements; these are free floating vehicles, which determine their course in open water via satellites and are orientated by acoustic signals in the case of ice cover. They therefore supplement the stationary mooring assemblies. 

The two final parts of the Polarstern expedition also address questions of long-term changes in the Arctic. To the west of Spitsbergen biologists under the lead of Dr. Thomas Soltwedel primarily investigate the marine environment in the deep sea. After a stopover in Norwegian Tromsö an international team led by deep-sea researcher Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius will leave for the Central Arctic around the North Pole. 

After its return to Bremerhaven in October 2012, Polarstern will be prepared for the forthcoming Antarctic expedition. At the end of October the ship will then set out for one and a half year’s in the South: for the fourth time in its history, Polarstern will also be travelling Antarctic waters during polar night. On the way to the Neumayer Station III, on 9 December 2012, the German research icebreaker will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of its commissioning. 



http://www.hydro-international.com/news/id5553-Research_Vessel_Polarstern_Embarks_on_Her_th_Arctic_Expedition.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RV_Polarstern


http://www.awi.de/en/research/research_divisions/climate_science/observational_oceanography/instruments/gliders/