Arctic Explorer Will Steger
June 2005 Weather Feature
Frank Watson, Meteorologist

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a speech given by world-renowned explorer Will Steger. Will Steger is best known for his Arctic and Antarctica adventures. His visit to the north and south poles is a true testament to mans ability to withstand some of the harshest weather conditions in the world. Handling just of few days of subzero high temperatures here in the Midwest I can't imagine this type of extreme weather day after day for a period of months and with only a tent!

Will Steger lives in Ely, Minnesota, which is not far from the Canadian border in the northeast corner of the state. He caught the outdoor bug at an early age and has since devoted his time and energy exploring and educating people about the world we live in.

His spoke of his 1997 visit to Antarctica where he led a team of six people and three dog sled teams to cross nearly four thousand miles of ice and snow. Each team of dog sleds consists of 12 dogs, which are bred specially for extreme weather conditions. A temperature of 60 degrees causes the dogs to become uncomfortable but with temperatures reaching minus 40 below and rarely rising above zero this was no problem.

One thing of concern was that if one dog fell into a crevasse it would take the rest of the dog team with it so special care had to be taken to avoid this. At camp the dogs would sleep in fours and often needed to be dugout in morning, as snow would cover them as night.

They began their Antarctica journey on the Larson Ice self, which has since broken off. Despite the breakage of this vast supply of fresh water it will have little effect on ocean levels because much of it was and is located below the surface already. What does cause concern is the lost of reflective material. The Larson Ice shelf is white and reflects incoming solar radiation. A white surface replaced with darker surface, ocean water, absorbs more solar energy, which contributes to warmer temperatures.

In all, his trek across Antarctica took 30 days. Along the way they broke 2 of the 3 sleds, one of which they weren't able to fix called Shackelton, named after an Antarctic Explorer whose ship was trapped and crushed in the ice in 1914.

Steger's next trip is a trek across Greenland, which is basically one large glacier. The lost of this ice sheet can cause ocean levels to rise because it sits atop land and will melt into the ocean. Steger plans to raise awareness of the disappearing ice in the Arctic and the challenges the Inuit face as their climate undergoes massive changes with the lost of ice after living in "extreme simplicity" for the past 5,000 years.

Steger left us with the thought to go out and empower ourselves with information. To learn about the complex world we live in and the changes taking place in our climate. Not only the changes that we've seen in just our lifetime but the changes to come.

Frank Watson is a White Bear Lake, Minnesota meteorologist and can be found on the web at WeathermanWatson.com