Dan Hornbogen at the North Pole. (Images courtesy of the Hornbogen Family)

The vast landscape is all ice, snow and open holes of freezing water that seem to go on forever. It’s so barren and cold that even wildlife doesn’t live here. What place could this be except the North Pole?

At age 68, Marquette resident Daniel Hornbogen (my grandpa) went to the North Pole. The team included 16 people (eight from the United States and eight from China) and 20 sled dogs. Why did Dan go? “Because there are no bugs up there. And if I told somebody where I went, they’d know exactly where I was.”

The journey started in Ely, Minnesota where Dan spent four days packing food, picking dogs, remaking harnesses, and rebuilding sleds with Paul Schurke, the man who invited him on the trip. Paul and Dan drove everything to Winnipeg, Canada. They boarded a chartered 737 and flew to Resolute Bay, 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle. They then transferred to a private aircraft that dropped them off on the ice 225 miles south of the North Pole. From there, they would travel by dog sleds and skis.

The Chinese team was familiar with Paul Schurke because of his work in Russia, which included dogsledding and writing. They invited Paul to Beijing to help train the Chinese team members on how to survive in the cold and reach the North Pole.

Although the warmest temperature was -10 F, Dan said it was very comfortable because the sun was always up, and they were moving the whole time. Every morning the team would get up, make porridge, and melt ice for water. They would feed the dogs, hook them up, and break camp.

As navigator, Dan left a half hour before the team each morning and headed north to break a ski track for the sled dogs to follow, detouring around open water and pressure ridges. “There were times when it was just too hard to tell [where to go], and I’d have to wait until the dogs came. I’d look either way and the water would go for one or two miles.”

The team stopped frequently to rest a bit, eat a candy bar, or drink some water. After traveling eight to fourteen hours, they would set up camp, melt ice, feed the dogs, and make a stew or porridge for dinner.

The American team had limited radio communication back to Resolute Bay. At -30 F, the radio batteries were very inefficient. The team would have to erect a 200-foot antenna on a pressure ridge to get a signal, and there was often interference from sunspot activity. Sometimes they went as long as five days without contacting the outside world.

Dan said the key thing in the Arctic is knowing how to be comfortable with the conditions. If you’re standing and waiting, it doesn’t take long to get cold. So, you always carry extra clothes. If you’re moving and skiing, it’s comfortable. “It’s a matter of knowing how to regulate your temperature.” If you are warm and start to sweat, you need to know how to maintain dryness, otherwise your clothes can freeze.

There were many difficulties. “I had no fears about going up there, but there were times on the ice when it was fearsome,” said Dan. The team would cross open water that was 30 to 40 yards wide by balancing everything on a cake of ice and pulling themselves to the other side with rope. One man actually fell in once.

Several times they came across pressure ridges forming, breaking the ice under their feet. Pressure ridges form when ocean currents and wind push the ice together and upward. The ridges can be 40 feet high. “The ice is not smooth like a tennis court. You’re zigzagging around pressure ridges and open water. That’s where the treachery is.”

Another hindrance is polar drift, where the wind blows the ice backwards. The team would advance 12 or 15 miles just to wake up in the morning and find they’d drifted back five or seven miles.

Dan described the Chinese team members as deeply respectful toward their elders. If he went over to a pot of stew to get another ladle of food, a member of the Chinese team would stand up and try to help him. Anytime he’d come to a group of the Chinese team members they’d move over to offer him a seat. They never did his work for him, but anytime they could help, they would. After four days on the trip, they started calling him “Papa Dan.”

Dan learned Chinese phrases for ‘Good morning’ and ‘North Pole,’ but there was basically no verbal communication between team members from different countries. None of the American team members spoke Chinese, and none of the Chinese team members spoke English. Dan had a chore partner with whom he’d cook dinner every third night. Bi was from the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and was very good in the cold, according to Dan. They were able to anticipate the other person’s actions and cooperated very well.

Unfortunately, Dan hurt his knee and couldn’t complete the journey. He and a man with heart issues were picked up by a resupply plane.

Two weeks after starting their journey the team finished, confirming by GPS that they had made it to the North Pole. Dan returned on the plane picking up the team, so he too reached the North Pole, just not on foot. Though the days seemed long, the trip had gone by very quickly for Dan. The only thing he would have changed would have been going 20 years earlier.

Dan Hornbogen had prepared for the expedition and knew what to expect. “There is the cumulative effect that occurs to the mind and body after a long period of time on the ice. Suddenly there is no other world. You know there is in your mind. There is home, there is family, but when you’re up there, the work ethic is very strong. You have to work, you have to keep warm, and you have to keep moving. It’s very tiring and there’s no relaxing. You’re in another world when you’re totally involved.”