Key facts

Distance trekked: 233 miles (375 km)

Days on the ice: 73 days

Coordinates: Drop off: N 81° 40′ 30′  1″  W 129° 48′ 23.5″  Pick-Up:  N 85° 33′ 50″ W 124° 30′ 39.7″ 

Dates: 1 March – 7 May

Explorers: Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley

After more than 12 months of planning, three intrepid explorers set out across floating sea ice on the remote north Beaufort Sea. The first Catlin Arctic Survey sought to answer an important environmental question: how long will the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice cover remain a year-round surface feature of our planet?

Across hundreds of kilometres explorers took thousands of measurements of sea ice thickness. This data was collected and analysed by research partners in the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge.

Highly experienced polar explorer, and Catlin Arctic Survey founder, Pen Hadow led the expedition. He was accompanied by Ann Daniels, also a renowned polar explorer, and Martin Hartley, the UK’s foremost expedition and adventure-travel photographer.

The findings from this survey, together with decades of existing measurements, led the Cambridge scientists to suggest there is a significant probability that, by around 2020, only 20% of the Arctic Ocean basin will have sea ice cover in the summer. Visit the sea ice loss webpages for more information about the science. For more information visit the Catlin Arctic Survey 2009 website.

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Explorers

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2010, Ice Base