“I’ll Greet You from the North Pole”

“I poured everything into preparing for this expedition. There can be no failure. I will greet you from the North Pole.”

The long road toward the world’s first “mountain-climbing grand slam” has begun. On the afternoon of February 24, world-renowned mountaineer Park Young-seok (42, director of Goldwin Korea, Dongguk University Mountaineering Club alumnus, photo) and his team left for Canada via Korean Air flight 073 on an expedition to the North Pole.

The expedition team will arrive in Toronto on February 25, where they will purchase additional equipment needed for their mission. The team will then go on to Resolute, where they will set up base camp on the 27th, by way of Ottawa and Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada’s polar region.

There they will undergo acclimation training, and on March 5 they will fly some 900km north by light plane to Ward Hunt (latitude 83.2 degrees N), where the expedition will begin in earnest. The straight line distance to North Pole is 780km (walking distance over 2,000km), and the estimated date of arrival is May 6, 63 days after the expedition starts.

If this expedition is successful, Park will have achieved the first “Grand Slam” in mountaineering history by conquering the 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000km, the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, and the earth’s three poles.

Meanwhile, Dong-A Ilbo’s Internet website (www.donga.com) launched the North Pole Expedition News Service on February 23 with the co-sponsorship of LG Insurance, NCSoft, The North Face, and SBS. The service can be accessed by clicking on the banner labeled “Grand Slam Challenge: North Pole Expedition,” under the Dong-A homepage title.

jeon@donga.com