Expedition Background

January 3, 2008
By: John Stetson

Meet the Expedition Team

teambadges.jpgThe Global Warming 101 Expedition includes educators and explorers – Will Steger leads the team in this expedition across Baffin Island, an area he has gotten to know over his years of exploring the Arctic. John Stetson, Expedition Manager, brings years of experience working with Steger and with sled dogs in various areas of the Canadian Arctic. Education coodinators, Elizabeth Andre and Abby Fenton, join the team from Voyageur Outward Bound School, having led dogsledding and experiential/adventure learning programs for several years. Learn more about the Team who will be traveling across Baffin Island for four months and bringing you updates on a regular basis.

Expedition Team Members

Will Steger – Team Leader

audio3Listen to Will’s Baffin Island Audio Dispatches

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A formidable voice calling for understanding and the preservation of the Arctic and the Earth, Will Steger is best known for his legendary polar explorations. He has traveled tens of thousands of miles by kayak and dogsled over 40 years, leading teams on some of the most significant polar expeditions in history.

Steger led the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole without re-supply (1986), the 1,600-mile south-north traverse of Greenland (the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history in 1988), the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica (the historic seven month, 3,471-mile International Trans-Antarctica Expedition in 1989-90), and the first and only dogsled traverse of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Ellesmere Island in Canada (1995).

Steger received his B.S. in Geology and M.A. in Education at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, and taught science for three years at the secondary level. In 1970, he moved from his birthplace in suburban Minneapolis to the wilderness north of Ely, Minnesota. There he founded a winter school and developed innovative wilderness programs for 10 years. In 1991, Steger received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters; University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN and Honorary Doctorate of Science; Westminster College, Salt Lake City, UT. His unique ability to blend extreme exploration with cutting-edge technology, have allowed him to reach millions of people around the world, under some of the most hostile conditions on the planet and be a pioneer in online education. Over 20 million students followed the 1995 International Arctic Project via on-line daily journal entries and the first-ever transmission of a digital photograph from the North Pole.

Steger joins Amelia Earhart, Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen and Jacques-Yves Cousteau in receiving the National Geographic Society’s prestigious John Oliver La Gorce Medal for “accomplishments in geographic exploration, in the sciences, and for public service to advance international understanding” in 1995. In 1996 he became the National Geographic Society’s first Explorer-in-Residence and received the Explorers Club’s Finn Ronne Memorial Award in 1997. In 2006 Steger joined Neil Armstrong, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Harrison Ford, in receiving the Lindbergh Award for “numerous polar expeditions, deep understanding of the environment and efforts to raise awareness of current environmental threats, especially climate change.”

Steger is the author of four books: Over the Top of the World, Crossing Antarctica, North to the Pole and Saving the Earth. Read Will Steger’s past expedition journals at www.willsteger.com


John Stetson – Expedition Manager

 

audio3Listen to John’s Baffin Island Audio Dispatches

 

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Stetson has traveled over 80,000 miles by dog team over the last 20 years, primarily in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Since 1986, Stetson has been highly involved with sled dogs as an educator, explorer/adventurer and as a professional racer. He has been a leader of several world-class expeditions, a team member on numerous others, in addition to being a consultant and dog trainer for many expeditions.

Stetson is a highly regarded and gifted sled dog trainer. His performance sled dogs have secured many top finishes in races across North America, including Championships in the grueling Hudson Bay Quest and the prestigious John Beargrease Mid-distance Race.

From 1986 to 1990 Stetson was the training and logistics director for the historic 1990 Trans-Antarctica Expedition. In 1993 Stetson founded Epic Adventures in Duluth, MN. Epic Adventures is an experiential education organization which uses sled dogs to educate and inspire people of all ages and abilities. Epic has provided incredible experiences for thousands. Stetson’s love of the Arctic and in its inhabitants led him to found Hudson Bay Adventures in 1995. Located in Churchill, Manitoba, on the coast of Hudson Bay, Hudson Bay Adventures has educated thousands of people on the use of sled dogs and their historical place in the Arctic.

Stetson is married to his partner and the love of his life Shelly Stetson and they have a wonderful son — Nelson, age 5.


Abby Fenton – Education Coordinator and Expedition Member

audio3Read the Baffin Island Trail Dispatches abby.jpg

Fenton, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, developed a love of wilderness early in life. She spent her first night in a tent with her parents at age two. As a child she grew up camping and canoeing with her family in Maine. Her passion for winter adventure developed in high school when she participated in several extended winter backpacking trips in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

A graduate of Earlham College, with a BA in Human Development Social Relations, Fenton has spent the past 10 years working in the field of Outdoor and Experiential education. Combining her love of people and wilderness, Fenton has worked as a camp counselor, high-ropes instructor, and program director for various outdoor education centers including the Farm and Wilderness Foundation, the Hulbert OutdoorCenter, and Gennessee Valley Outdoor Learning Center. Fenton has spent 5 years working for the Voyageur Outward Bound School leading backpacking, climbing, and dogsledding expeditions for all ages in northern Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains of Montana.

Loyal to her urban roots, Fenton is committed to meeting the needs of urban youth and has worked, most recently, directing a youth program in inner-city Minneapolis. She has traveled throughout South America, Northern Ireland, and Western Europe, and is passionate about connecting kids of all ages with the outdoors and the environment through experiential education.


Elizabeth Andre – Education Coordinator and Expedition Member

audio3Read the Baffin Island Trail Dispatches

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Andre spent ninety-six weeks of her first sixteen years of life at sleep-away summer camp. Her love of outdoor exploration that germinated at summer camp grew as a college student at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory where she participated in an archaeological dig, collected plant specimens from quaking bogs and mapped glacial-stagnation topography using surveying equipment. Then as a student at the Wild Rockies Field Institute, an expedition-based college-level academic field school, it blossomed into her passion:environmental education through expeditions.

Andre then earned a Master’s degree in Outdoor Education at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. For 240 days a year, over the next four years, Andre led wilderness expeditions for the Wild Rockies Field Institute and Outward Bound Schools. When she wasn’t instructing expeditions, she was exploring reefs, whitewater rivers, rock crags and mountains on her own.

In the autumn of 2004, Andre began doctoral work as a Fellow at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on expeditions as an educational tool. Andre’s doctoral work in education, as well as her experience leading dogsled expeditions for Outward Bound, connected her with Will Steger and the 2007 expedition to Baffin Island.


Nancy Moundalexis – Dog Trainer and Expedition Member

Nancy Moundalexis

Nancy hails from King George, Virginia. Her love for nature and adventure grew out of her time at a science-based Nature Camp where she was a camper and counselor. After graduating from The College of William and Mary with a degree in Environmental Geology, Nancy served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa, working with sustainable agriculture and forestry for two years in a little village named Aledjo Kadara. She worked as a winemaker near her hometown for two years at Ingleside Winery and then found her way to Minnesota where she instructed canoeing and dogsledding for Outward Bound courses over a period of four years. Now, Nancy spends her summers working in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for the Forest Service and runs sled dogs in the winter.


Inuit Expedition Team Members

Born as Siqujjut, Puja, Nagitarvik, Kigutikarjuk
Theo Ikummaq – Expedition Member and Inuit Partner

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Theo Ikummaq is an Inuit hunter and explorer who has experienced the effects of global warming first-hand. He is a trained expert on moving ice and travel in the Arctic region of Baffin Island.

Theo was born in an igloo on January 20th, 1955, in the town of Iglulik, Nunavut. He attended a boarding school run by the Oblate Mary Immaculate, Order of the Roman Catholic Church in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut from 1961-68. Theo spent his teenage years at an outpost camp on Baffin Island using only a shortwave radio for communications. From 1979 to 1982, he studied Renewable Resources Technology Management at Fort Smith College in the Northwest Territories, Canada. His skills include hunting techniques, wildlife and animal behavior observation, Arctic survival, and shelter building. Theo has lived and explored remote areas of Greenland, Arctic Bay, Iqaluit, Broughton Island, and Ottawa, Canada. In 1987, he traveled on the Ultima-Thule Expedition by dogsled from Iglulik, Nunavut, to Thule, Greenland. The expedition traveled 3100 km and included five team members with three teams of dogs, building igloos along the way for shelter. Theo has worked with National Geographic on Four Cultures – Life on Baffin Island and Isuma Productions on Journals of Knut Rasmussen and The Fast Runner. He is the co-author of the book, Ice Thru Inuit Eyes. He currently lives with his wife, Lydia, in Iglulik, Nunavut.


Lukie Airut, Inuit hunter

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Lukie was born in 1942 and spent his young years at an outpost camp outside of Iglulik. He is a hunter and has held a variety of different jobs over the years. Lukie is a celebrated carver and has been a member of the Canadian Rangers for 15 years. He has spent more than 30 years running dogs and brings a lot of knowledge of Inuit traditional ways to the expedition team. Lukie lives in Iglulik with his wife Marie and has nine children.

 

 


Simon Qamanirq, Inuit hunter

audio3Listen to Simon’s Baffin Island Audio Dispatches

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Born in 1953, Simon spent most of his life in Arctic Bay in northern Baffin Island. He remained there until he moved to Iglulik last year with his wife Eunice and six-year-old son Ishmael. He makes his livelihood as a hunter and carver. Simon is a renowned artisan and has traveled widely in Europe and Alaska to demonstrate and exhibit his carving. Simon is a member of the Canadian Rangers and a Northwest Territory Craft Council Member. He is also a polar bear hunting guide and skilled dog driver.

 

 


Expedition Basecamp Members

John Huston — Expedition Base Camp Manager

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John is a wilderness and Arctic expeditioner, experiential educator, writer, world traveler, cross-country ski racer and fledgling historian. In the spring of 2005, John completed a 1400-mile ski and dogsled expedition on the Greenland Ice Cap with a team of 4 Norwegians. The expedition was filmed as part of a BBC/History Channel documentary film project in which British and Norwegian expedition teams re-ran the 1911 race for the South Pole.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Illinois, John worked as a wilderness expedition instructor at Outward Bound Wilderness in Ely, Minnesota for six years. During the spring and summer of 2006, John worked as expedition manager for the One World Expedition, the first expedition to reach the North Pole in the summer. As Global Warming 101 Expedition Base Camp Manager, John handles all of the expedition logistics, communications with the team in the field, and oversees the countless details that go into operating a remote, traveling base camp in the Arctic.

John and his expedition partner Tyler Fish are planning to ski unsupported to the North Pole in 2009. Visit www.forwardexpeditions.com for more information on this expedition.


Jim Paulson — Webmaster and Expedition Technology Logistics

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Jim is the Technology Director for the Will Steger Foundation and webmaster and technical logistics for the Global Warming 101 expeditions. Passionate about outdoor adventure and travelling to remote places, Jim brings his vision of expedition communications to the Global Warming 101 project. Working in technical support for creatives, non-profits and freelancers for the past 10 years, Jim finds the challenge of helping people use technology as a tool to tell their own story rewarding.

Jim has lived in Minnesota throughout his life and could never invision living anywhere else, although a year or two on Baffin Island, Nunavut would be considered. Married with two children, Jim and his family make time each year to venture out and explore new places. Friends, school, good times and keeping active are at the core of their daily lives. Jim’s supportive family and friends have made it possible for him to follow his vision and work at such a unique and rewarding job.


Jerry Stenger — Expedition Cameraman and Producer

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Jerry Stenger was raised in Mankato, Minnesota and developed an early appreciation for camping and nature. Stenger attended the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and received his undergraduate degree in television production. It was during his college years that Jerry discovered the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), in northern Minnesota, and enjoyed slipping away on frequent canoe trips with friends. Jerry went on to receive his master’s degree at St. Thomas in Instructional Design. He spent 15 years supervising the television studio at the University and teaching courses in broadcast production and learning technologies for the graduate school of education. In 2002, Jerry began working at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

First joining Will in 1989 when he was preparing for his International Trans-Antarctica Expedition, Jerry continues to produce, shoot, and edit video programming for Steger’s projects. As of February 2007, Jerry joined the Will Steger Foundation Global Warming 101 Expedition as media devloper. His involvement with each of Will’s successive expeditions has taken him to places such as Siberia, the North Pole, Antarctica, and northern Canada.

Jerry married Jeanine Joseph in 2001 and they have a 16 month- old son named Landon. In his spare time Jerry and his family enjoy spending time working on their beautiful log cabin on the edge of the BWCAW.


Guest Expedition Members

Ed Viesturs

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Washington resident Ed Viesturs is widely regarded as America’s foremost high-altitude mountaineer. He is familiar to many from the 1996 IMAX Everest Expedition documentary and in 2002, he was awarded the historic Lowell Thomas Award by the Explorer’s Club for outstanding achievement in the field of mountaineering. In 1992 he was awarded the American Alpine Club Sowles Awards for his participation in two rescues on K-2. In the autumn of 2006 Viesturs released his autobiography, No Shortcuts To The Top. Viesturs has successfully reached the summits of the world’s fourteen 8000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. His goal was completed on May 12, 2005 with his ascent of Annapurna, one of the world’s most treacherous peaks.

Viesturs motto has always been that climbing has to be a round trip. All of his planning and focus during his climbs maintains this ethic and he is not shy about turning back from a climb if conditions are too severe. In spite of his conservative attitude Viesturs has been one of the most successful Himalayan climbers in American history. His story is about risk management as well as being patient enough for conditions to allow an ascent. Ultimately, in his words, “The mountain decides whether you climb or not. The art of mountaineering is knowing when to go, when to stay, and when to retreat.”

edviesturs_dotcom.jpgViesturs was born in 1959 and now lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington with his wife of 10 years, Paula, and their three children — Gil, 9, Ella, 6, and Anabel, 2.

Check out http://www.edviesturs.com for more on Ed Viesturs.

Sarah McNair-Landry

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No stranger to cold weather, Sarah grew up in Iqaluit from age three. Shortly after turning 17 she went on her first extended expedition, crossing the Greenland ice cap with her parents and older brother Eric. A year later she traveled to the South Pole on a 71 day kite-ski expedition with her mother and brother. In 2005 she traveled by kite-ski again joining her father and brother in setting the speed record for crossing the Greenland Ice Cap, east to west. Most recently Sarah traveled to the North Pole on a 100-day dogsled expedition with her father and two British explorers.

When she’s not off chasing the winds across the Arctic, Sarah is busy chasing her dreams of becoming a film-maker. After graduating from high school in Quebec, she took courses at the New York Film Academy studying digital film-making in New York City. She plans to apply to Full Sail next winter, a school for the entertaining arts in Orlando, Florida.

Sarah and her 22 year-old brother Eric are returning to Greenland to cross the Ice Cap vertically by kite-ski, traveling 1429 miles/ 2300 km over the course of 2 months, leaving in mid-may of 2007. The goal of the expedition is to inspire youth around the globe to reach their dreams. We are lucky to have someone with Sarah’s qualifications join us on the expedition, and encourage our online audience to follow her expedition this summer. You can read more about Sarah and her upcoming adventure at www.pittarak.com.

Sam Branson

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Sam was born in England on August 12th, 1985. At 21 this makes him one of the youngest members of the team. He grew up in between England and the Caribbean and has a great respect for nature and all the elements within it. After school he trained as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu and then went on to do a year’s diploma in music. Since he was young he has always had a love for extreme sports, ranging from racing motocross to surfing. When he isn’t working he travels the globe to find the perfect wave. He jumped at the chance to join the expedition and it looks like he’s going to embrace everything this environment throws at him.