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Seven days ahead of schedule to reach North Pole (PDF Type, 27 kByte)

April 26, 2002

Seven days ahead of schedule to reach North Pole
Hitachi Extreme North Expedition

Media Advisory

Adventurer Khoo Swee Chiow will be seven days ahead of his original schedule despite the delay before the start of trek.

Khoo & his team embarked on their journey on 22 March 2002, five days later than originally scheduled due to the blizzard conditions. The first resupply was also delayed to 11th April when the plane could not land as a result of bad weather conditions.

Nevertheless, despite the initial hiccups, the team managed to catch up very quickly and they are now not only on track, but at least seven days ahead of schedule should weather conditions remain stable. The second resupply also came in a day earlier, and the team now has sufficient resources to keep them going for the rest of the journey. They aim to reach the North Pole between 7 to 9 May 2002.

Distance to go as of Day 35 (25 April) is 229km and Khoo plans to travel on average 19km per day. Current position is 87° 56.9 and the team is expected to reach 88° on Saturday, 27 April.

Khoo said:”Spirits are high except for the fact that we have drifted almost 5 km south. This is caused by the wind and currents. We hope that the wind will die off and the drift slow down soon.”

“A saving grace is the fact that the temperatures for the past two days have remained constant at –21°C. This

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