.
While winter camping in northern Wisconsin many years ago, I watched my friend Andy Larsen peel a hard-boiled egg bare handed on a subzero morning with a stiff wind blowing off the snow- and ice-covered lake.
He worked carefully, concentrating on his task with such disregard to the cold that I found myself staring in disbelief as I wriggled my fingers inside heavy mitts trying to get them warm.
Some 20 years later, I am remembering that experience with Andy as I read about his son, Eric, who is about to leave on an expedition to the South Pole on skis — the first of his three-part effort to visit both poles and climb Mount Everest in a single year.
Eric, a St. Olaf College graduate who grew up in Cedarburg, Wis., was here two years ago to speak at a joint meeting of the Sierra Club and Coulee Region Audubon Society. He told us about his expedition the previous year with a partner to complete the first summer trek to the North Pole. They skied 600 miles in 62 days, pulling specially modified canoes that they used to cross open water — there’s lots of open water, even at the North Pole.
Eric has spent his time since then traveling and giving lectures as he raised money and sponsors for his expedition to Save the Poles from the effects of global warming. He launches his effort just as global warming is taking center stage in world and national politics.
Eric told an interviewer on CNN last week that the goal of the expedition is to “build a connection” to the last great frozen places on the planet and reinforce that climate change is happening and that there are things that can be done about it. Even small steps can help — personal choices we can make to reduce our carbon emissions, he said.
Eric leaves today for Punta Arenas, Chile. From there, a week later, he will fly to Antarctica to begin his trek to the South Pole. The trek to the North Pole will be in March, and the climb on Mount Everest in September and October.
“Mount Everest and the north and south poles represent the harshest and most extreme environments on the planet. Yet as inhospitable as these places are to humans, they are also the areas most affected by people,” he wrote in a news release. “Scientists estimate by summer 2030, the Arctic Ocean will be ice-free. Recently, the 1,250-square-mile Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed off of Antarctica and disintegrated into the Southern Ocean. A report by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts that if current trends continue, 80 percent of Himalayan glaciers will be gone in 30 years. While we are seeing the most dramatic changes in the polar and higher altitude regions, global warming is an issue that affects us all.”
Eric has been training for years for the rigorous year ahead. And he will have great gear he has assembled from sponsors. A recent posting included this description:
“SD’s (Sierra Designs) Polar Anorak and Polar Down. Goggles by Optic Nerve. Red nose beak by my mom ...” His mom, Judy, is a fiber artist, who fashioned the nose protector. And he’ll be wearing good genes — the genes that enabled his dad’s indifference to the cold on that icy day long ago.
We can follow Eric’s progress on his Web site —
www.savethepoles.com.
.
Advertisement 
