MT EVEREST MOUNTAINEER
BEAR GRYLLS
departs UK to begin his latest adventure
THE ARNOLD & SON TRANS ATLANTIC ARCTIC EXPEDITION
Bear Grylls and his team of four are set to leave the UK for Nova Scotia, Canada on July 28th 2003. The team will set out from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and their journey will take them across some of the most treacherous icy seas in the world, made famous by the ‘Perfect Storm’ & ‘Titanic’. They will stop briefly in Greenland and Iceland before their scheduled arrival, 3,500 nautical miles later, in John O’Groats, North Scotland in late August 2003.
Bear has been planning The Arnold & Son Trans Atlantic Arctic Expedition ever since he returned from his Everest expedition in 1998, where, at the age of 23, he successfully became the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mt Everest. This was made all the more remarkable by the fact that only three years earlier, whilst serving with the British Special Forces, he broke his back in a freefall parachuting accident in Africa.
His hankering to achieve the impossible has yet again led him to the extremes. Bear and his team are attempting to be the first ever to do an unassisted crossing of the North Atlantic, just south of the Arctic Circle, in an open rigid inflatable boat (RIB). This epic, world record-breaking adventure was attempted by a British team in 1997, however their boat became enclosed by the ice-pack off Greenland and they had to be lifted to safety by a Danish ice-breaker.
Bear Grylls, now 29, is leading this highly trained team of four, including his old climbing friend and Everest partner Mick Crosthwaite as Meteorologist, Nigel Thompson as the team’s navigator and Lt. Andy Leivers (RN) as the Engineer assigned to the team by the Royal Navy. Charlie Laing will be the cameraman recording footage of this recording breaking attempt.
The local community of Halifax, Nova Scotia, are eagerly awaiting the team’s arrival on 29th July where two days of final preparations are planned. On Thursday 31st July, following a farewell breakfast, Bear and the team will be escorted from the port by a flotilla of boats out into the icy waters which await them. Once the boat has begun its journey the satellite tracking system will submit a signal back to the website,
www.arctic2003.com, where it will be possible to view the position of the RIB. This information will be live and updated every 30 minutes.
Bear Grylls comments: “I realise now that when I reached the summit of Mt. Everest I was merely a young man, lucky to have survived those frightening odds that Everest holds. But now things have changed; this time I am leading the expedition - I have people’s lives in my hands. I am also now a father for the first time too. It feels so hard already, leaving my wife Shara and our small baby, for the ice and those frightening oceans. But I have spent the last three years planning this and along with the funds we are raising for the Prince’s Trust, I have two aims in mind – to return safely to my family and, God willing, bring this record home to the UK.”
