Extreme Swimmer Lewis Pugh Will Kayak From Svalbard To The North Pole - Starts 8/29 - AFP

[hatrack]

LONDON (AFP) — A British explorer unveiled plans Tuesday to kayak all the way to the North Pole to expose just how quickly the ice cap is melting. But renowned extreme swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh, dubbed the human polar bear, is hoping his bid will fail -- and not because of the lethal conditions or a walrus attack.

The climate change campaigner said the mission ought to be impossible -- but some scientists predict that due to global warming, this year might be the first when someone could do so. Pugh is due to paddle out from Norway's Svalbard islands on August 29, heading 1,200 kilometres (some 750 miles) north across the Arctic Ocean to the North Pole, kayaking up cracks in the ice.

The journey should take a minimum of two weeks. "I'm going to try and get all the way to the North Pole to show the world what is happening," the 38-year-old told AFP after launching his Polar Defense Project expedition on the River Thames in London.

"It shouldn't be possible. But this might be the year that it could be. I hope I can't go all the way. "Failure would equal success in this expedition," he said.

EDIT

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hLteYYJvlze-9uJT-slGdWYqNbrQ

[XemaSab]

1. Too bad he's trying to kayak through all the thickest, oldest ice

I don't think there's much open water even immediately north of Svalbard, no? :shrug:

[Dead_Parrot]

2. And as if by magic...