Print This Page Email This Page See Most Sent

• U.S. Marines Elated to Reach Central Baghdad • Persecuted Iraqis Consider Their Future • Why Can't the IRS Collect Unpaid Taxes?

It wasn't the Arctic cold, or lugging 150 pounds of gear up steep rocks, or even the broken ankle from tumbling down a waterfall.

David Hempleman-Adams already knew his latest record-setting solo trek would be his last.

The 46-year-old British adventurer is hobbled and tired, but ultimately content, after recently becoming the first person to make a solo, unsupported trip to the magnetic North Pole.

After 20 years of adventures that have included similar treks to the magnetic North Pole and South Pole, Hempleman-Adams heads home to England on Thursday to mend the injured ankle and look for new kinds of challenges.

"It's the one that hadn't ever been done solo by anybody, and I wanted to, after 20 years, just go out with a bang," he said of the 300-mile, 21-day trek that involved cross-country skiing while hauling a sled loaded with gear and climbing glaciers and waterfalls.

The geomagnetic North Pole, which marks the northern end of the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth, differs from the geographic North Pole at the top of the world. Hempleman-Adams reached it April 4 on the east coast of Ellesmere Island in northern Nunavut, the Inuit territory of Canada opposite Greenland.

Speaking by telephone from Resolute, Nunavut, before flying home Thursday, Hempleman-Adams described a grueling journey across the frozen Arctic tundra.

Wearing Arctic gear "amalgamated over the years," he set out March 17 for what he knew would be his final solo run.

"You just dig in and start pulling," he said of hauling the 150-pound sled over the ice and up the inclines, some so steep that it took four trips to get everything.

On the way he saw wolves, Arctic foxes, musk oxen and other wildlife, including some polar bear tracks. The weather was "gorgeous, absolutely fantastic," with no storms and moderate Arctic temperatures of around minus 30 Fahrenheit.

"It was my last one, so somebody was looking out for me," he said of the conditions.

There was the usual touch of frostbite on his nose but no other problems until the waterfall, where he injured his ankle badly enough to spend the night on the spot. He started off again the next day, popping pills for the pain.

"I was on pretty good painkillers and the English are notorious for being stupid," he said. "They can't correlate pain with the fact they might be doing permanent damage."

He covered the final 60 miles that way, only learning after he was picked up and taken to Resolute that the ankle was broken.

"It wasn't too bad," he said. "It was very, very slow and you sort of just tolerated it."

The winner of two Royal Humane Society bronze medals for bravery, both involving rescues on expeditions, Hempleman-Adams said he dedicated his final solo Arctic trek to journalist Terry Lloyd, the correspondent for Britain's Independent Television News who was killed in the war in Iraq.

Lloyd had covered some of Hempleman-Adams prior exploits.

Hempleman-Adams previously climbed many of the world's tallest mountains, including Everest. In 1984, he completed the first solo expedition to the Magnetic North Pole without the support of dogs, snowmobiles or air supplies.

On Jan. 5, 1996, he became the first Briton to walk solo and unsupported to the South Pole, then sailed to the magnetic South Pole a month later to become the first person to do both in the same year.

Now it is home to his wife and three daughters in Box, near Bath in England. His solo trekking days may be over, but Hempleman-Adams is already thinking of other adventures perhaps even a balloon trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.