The team have stated that ‘it was a very difficult and disappointing decision to have to turn around; we had been moving well through one of the hardest sections in a period of uncharacteristic bad weather, but with our opportunity of shared resupplies removed we were left with no choice but to return to the start point and get a charter out to Resolute Bay. It will take several days for us to return to Cape Discovery and we hope to catch a Charter on the 15/16th March’.

‘We never anticipated this turn of events. It’s very hard to explain how difficult it is to walk away from an expedition into which we have invested so much time, energy and money -especially when it feels like things are going well for us. We have turned and are heading back to our start point from where we have arranged pick up. This will take some days.’

Thank you to all our Sponsors, supporters and well wishers; we will post an update when we are off the ice.

Other than that, the landscape here is like an earthquake site with jumble in every direction, lumps of ice in every shape and size you could imagine, and when its not covered in snow the ice blue hue is amazing. The sunrise and sunsets are like nothing you have ever seen, so spectacular rising behind us over the mountains of Cape Discovery, and each day getting a little higher in its arc, ever increasing our daylight and visibility.

The eery sound of ice cracking is always an exciting noise, looking to see what is moving and not, and lying in the bag at night listing to the ice creak and groan can certainly keep the senses awake, it’s hard to conceive that we ate on a moving ocean that this only a small distance beneath our feet

On the 5th of February 2012 the Irish North Pole 2012 team of Mike O Shea & Dr. Clare O Leary flew from Ireland to Iquluit in Northern Canada which would act as their base for three weeks. Here they trained in the frigid -40 degree centigrade temperatures and ensured that all the equipment was working correctly. Here they packed all their food that they would require for the 50 day expedition to the North Pole. The team spend a great deal of time training in Iquluit with the famed Arctic explorer Matty McNair , who is also acting as Canadian Base Camp for Mike & Clare when they are on the ice.

On the 25th of February the Irish North Pole team flew from Iquluit to Resolute in Northern Canada where they began waiting for the weather window to allow them on to the ice.

Photo courtesy of Margo Pfeiff

The great news is that on Friday the 2nd of March the team got their flight from Resolute to Cape Discovery to start their expedition. Over the past two days the team have been making consistent, if slow, progress hampered by temperatures down to -55 degrees centigrade. Yesterday the temperature only rose to -47 degrees in the middle of the day! This blog will be updated regularly over the course of the Irish North Pole 2012 Expedition , both by myself, Cian, back in Dingle and directly by the team. The team are contacting me daily if possible by text and email with GPS location and news . They are using an Iridium Sat Phone along with a WiFi hotspot which means that they should be able to blog from their iPhone and iPad while on the expedition.

You can also follow the teams updates on www.facebook.com/irishnorthpole2012 and www.twitter.com/inp2012