Dark Ice Project

Only a handful of polar expeditions have ventured into polar winter. Hibbert aims to join that prestigious group and to set new records in the process. We caught up with Alex to ask him about the Dark Ice Project and ask the question: what happened last year and where is Dark Ice now?

Between mid-December 2013 and July 2014, the members of the Dark Ice team will each haul in excess of 250kg the length of the Nares Strait and then make an unsupported return attempt on the Geographic North Pole. An initial preparatory phase will lay and prepare depots for the main phase, with the final goal of the Pole unsupported in winter. A feat never before achieved. The Pole has also never been reached from Greenland – the final main route as yet untravelled.

The team will traverse up to 1800 miles of fractured and mobile sea ice between the cliffs and glaciers of Ellesmere Island and North-West Greenland and vast, frozen Arctic Ocean. Setting out from the Inuit village of Qaanaaq, they will travel north to the edge of the Arctic Ocean and then the North Pole, and back again. Some of the most dynamic and technically demanding terrain in the world.

Sidetracked: Dark Ice is going ahead! You have a new look personal website and the Dark Ice website is looking great. Tell us about your final preparations.

Alex Hibbert: Thank you! Yes it’s extremely exciting to have Dark Ice ready to go and it’s now a culmination of about two years of focussed effort and actually six or seven years of conceptual research. I believe that it’s important to not leave things to the last moment and so most of the preparations are done now and the final month can be dedicated to unexpected last-minute tasks, physical preparation and enjoying our last weeks for a while with friends and family. One of the most important final jobs we had to do was to solidify our insurance and evacuation plans and to undertake medical testing and briefings with both UCL’s Xtreme Everest team and Dr Alex Kumar, a long-standing supporter.

On April 7th this year you posted a very short summary of the setback to Dark Ice and the lost season. Can you tell us in more detail what that meant to you personally and the project?

It was a real setback to lose the first phase of the expedition as the main purpose of it was to lay supply depots for ourselves for the second, main phase. Personally it was tumultuous – a combination of enormous disappointment, frustration and also a focus to get my team-mate back to safety and medical attention for his hernia. It’s detailed more fully in Maybe and is not something I wish to dwell on but the treatment I received shocked me to the core, especially since my previous expedition partners have been some of the most honourable people I can imagine. I’m now very confident that the new Dark Ice team and I are going to take on this journey as a united team.

On a practical level, I decided not to shift the whole project, phases one and two, back a year and instead went up in the summer of 2013 to coordinate the laying of a couple of depots by boat.

Have you hit upon any last minute, unforeseen snags to the second phase of the project? How have you resolved them?

There’s always a couple of snags, almost always caused by certain companies or individuals who consider deadlines to be things that don’t particularly apply to them. It’s built into our schedule though and essentially, we feel very calm about the final countdown to the launch. We’re watching the ice conditions carefully and hoping that we will be able to get going soon after arriving in Qaanaaq. That’s a snag we can’t control!

We’re able to learn a little more about your team on the new website – how did you choose them?

I have used the same principle I’ve used over the years – putting the word out amongst the community, but not so widely that I have to sift through hundreds of poorly suited ‘applications’ (I use inverted commas because I feel strongly that my team picks me as much as I pick them – it’s a partnership and two-way). Then, I search for a basic set of hard skills which make someone proficient in the outdoors. There, the skills search stops – I want to look more deeply into the person, their psyche, their motivations and how likely they are to be a constructive member of my team. You won’t find a perfect polar team-mate by ranking their CVs – rather through finding the right personality. The more specialised skills can be learned and refined as time goes on. I always make sure I get out in the hills or on the ice with them first to see if the same person prevails when up to their neck in mud as when sat across a table in a pub.

In James, Anastasia and Anders I firmly believe I have the best combination of skill, calmness, enthusiasm, reliability, robustness and old-fashioned ‘goodness’.

In your personal blog, back in June whilst testing kit in Iceland, you say this: “Since I first read about PowerPots on Kickstarter, my interest was held…The idea of essentially exchanging a little bit of stove efficiency for the ability to charge battery packs with a reliable high-power current is very attractive…This gadget could be a game-changer for extended winter journeys.” How important do you think Kickstarter and Crowdfunding will be to developing niche products like PowerPots?

These days it seems that whilst funding is hard to achieve, whether you’re talking about sponsorship or VC cash for new products or services, new avenues must be pursued. I’m keen on crowd-funding for this sort of thing and it supports my overriding belief in meritocracy. In some areas, I think the ‘crowd’ model is very dangerous – like in encouraging many creatives to work speculatively for a single pot of cash that only one can win. The PowerPot is a neat machine and we’ll have it as a supporting part of our electrical system.

You’re now Global Brand Ambassador for Wolsey. Why them and how did that come about? Why is it important to you?

Endorsement is a critical part of a workable and long-term career in outdoor travel but one that must be controlled and planned with great care. There are two rules I stick to – 1) Only work with and promote products you’d happily spend your own money on and ones you’d try and sell to your own grandmother – then, it’s the truth and the public can believe what they’re hearing. 2) Don’t spread yourself too thinly and dilute the sponsorship pool in search of publicity and money – it doesn’t work that way. Pick a few great brands, work twice as hard for them than they ask you to, and say no to the rest.

Wolsey are an awesome team, make great clothes now and we’re developing some really special stuff for the future. I’m really enjoying it, apart from anything else.

Funding through brand relationships is obviously critical to making expeditions happen and you’ve been reviewing some of the kit you’ve been given – Tentipi in particular. Do you approach partners who make kit you already trust or do you find you are approached to try hitherto untested kit?

It’s a mixture of the two – sometimes I come across a great product, like the Tentipi Zirkon 7cp, I want to integrate into my expeditions – I’m always looking for the next big thing instead of just copying what someone used last year. Sometimes companies, both established or new, approach me and ask if I would be willing to test and even use their kit – sometimes it works out and everyone becomes a winner.

What else has happened to you this year? Has it all been Dark Ice or have you got other pots simmering in the background?

To be honest it’s been very Dark Ice-centric this year but I have plans afoot for future polar seasons at both ends of the globe. I’m also proceeding to develop things in both the writing and broadcasting worlds. Watch those spaces!

At least one other polar expedition this year seeks to draw attention to climate change and Antarctica has been dubbed by David Attenborough the “Global Thermometer”. What stance do you take on climate change as a global issue and are elite explorers doing enough to advance discussion on the topic?

I’m not an environmental campaigner – I don’t think that the tactics employed by most actually achieve anything and sadly, they often have motivations which differ from those that appear at first. My view on how the problems we’ve caused (yes, we have caused/contributed to them and they are happening) can be solved is another, much longer matter, but those of us in my world must not lie. The Dark Ice team will burn fuel in planes, burn fuel in stoves and use resources that we could have decided not to – although arguably less than we’d use if living in London for the same seven months. The purpose of Dark Ice is to achieve a new feat of human endurance and skill. We are excited to support UCL/ISEH’s medical research but we are not saving the world – and neither are any of the expeditions who claim they are.

In terms of discussion on the environment – there is tons of it already – that’s done and everyone is aware. What is next is what is done about it and in the meantime, publicity stunts and getting arrested for the sake of it will get us nowhere and most likely take us backwards. In short, it must be made profitable to be green and responsible. Without that, everyone will forget about the environment when their bottom-lines are threatened.

Just to clear up any confusion, yes there is data to suggest that ice levels are rising on some icecap regions but especially regarding sea ice – every year sees a shortening in the active season skiers and local hunters can use – that’s fact.

Why did you feel it was important to write your “How to Get Into Expeditions” post, back in May?

It was a difficult choice actually – as I don’t think for one second that everyone should give up their jobs and become a traveller. Again, Maybe explains this and why in detail. I did not want to create a ‘how to’ article as some others seek to do on their websites and I don’t think it serves as one. I think it hopefully acts as a myth-buster and reality check for all and hopefully will send different types of aspiring people in the direction appropriate for them.

The Dark Ice Project commences mid December 2013. For updates see darkiceproject.com and the YouTube channel or follow Alex on Twitter for regular updates twitter.com/alexhibbert