Trio Conquers the Pole
Bayside Bulletin
Tuesday 11th May 2010
Three Redland businessmen have travelled to the ends of the Earth to raise $14,000 for research into Bipolar Disorder.
The three, solicitor Jon McCarthy of Wellington Point, Don MacDonald of Capalaba and glaciologist Tim Medhurst, who has a partnership in Cleveland, trained for months for the gruelling five-day trek.
The trio were the 18th, 19th and 20th Australians to get to the North Pole and, at 57, Jon of Cleveland's MDRN solicitors, is the oldest Australian to make it there.
They joined veteran polar trekker Eric Phillips of Icetrek for the fundraiser, starting their journey at Longyearbyen, a little Norwegian mining town on an island north of the Arctic Circle.
There they packed sleds and loaded all the gear they would need for the 50km journey across the pack ice to reach the North Pole (90°N).
A helicopter from the Russian ice station of Barneo dropped the foursome off on the floating ice, south of the North Pole.
"Fifty kilometres doesn't sound far, but when the ice is floating at 14km a day away from the pole, we had to keep a fair pace," Tim said.
"Because the ice is moving and breaking up all the time, there are often big gaps and we had to tie our sleds together and use them as canoes," Tim said.
At other times, the men had to manoeuvre their sleds over big mounds of ice, no easy feat in temperatures that averaged -30°C.
After accomplishing their goal and reaching the Pole, the team was picked up by helicopter and taken back to Barneo. Although it was a relatively short trip on the pack ice, the four managed to raise enough funds for research into the disorder which affects one in 200 people.
Through its website, The Bipolar Expedition has already raised $91,000 which has gone to Australian Rotary Health and used as grants specifically for Bipolar Disorder. People can still donate to the cause at
www.bipolarexpedition.com before June 30.