15-year-old Polar Explorer Taylor Sweitzer Endures Icy Near Miss

For Immediate Release

15-year-old Polar Explorer Endures Icy Near Miss

Polar Explorer Taylor, 15 year old

Taylor Sweitzer is used to skiing over the chilly arctic ice fields, enduring temperatures of -25 degrees Celsius and more. But as hard as it is to get over the rough ice fields, where steep pressure ridges often form as ice pans crash together, it’s even harder to get to the North

Pole if you try walking on water.

“Lucky me, my foot slipped but the water didn’t go over the top of my boot. If it had, tt would have been a little more of a problem.” Taylor says nonchalantly. Once the icy water touches the flesh, frostbite can swiftly follow. In those cases, the team would rush to get him to solid ground and race to replace his wet sock and boot. If Taylor seems unnaturally calm in the face of a frigid emergency, it’s because he’s seen it all before – he rehearsed just such a scenario in the Minnesota wilderness during the extensive pre-trip training period.

This season, in addition to pressure ridges, polar adventurers have been encountering many open leads, areas of water which must be crossed or skied around, a process which can add many miles to the quest to reach the North Pole. Taylor is part of a Polar Explorers expedition led by his father, Rick Sweitzer, an experienced polar veteran who has reached the North Pole over 18 times. This time, the team was dropped on the arctic ice a full degree (about 69 miles) from the North Pole, and left to ski the remaining distance. Since the ice floats on top of the Arctic Ocean, it sometimes pushes against the direction they are skiing, adding many more miles to the task in an effect called “The Polar Treadmill”

If Taylor successfully reaches the North Pole, he will be among the youngest in the world to do so, though he has already accepted that he won’t be the youngest in his family to reach the North Pole. “My dad flew in my my mom and my brother Christopher when he was a baby to the Pole to greet him when he completed his first Polar Explorers expedition in 1992. I wasn’t even born yet. At that time there were no age restrictions to be allowed on the flight to the Pole -there are now- so he’ll always have the family record!” Taylor admits. “But I’ll be the one who actually skied there under my own power.”

To hear Taylor’s audio report from the ice for April 20th, go to polarexplorers2010skiexpedition.blogspot.com/

Interviews with Taylor by satellite phone from the ice are available on and can be arranged by contacting Annie Aggens, Director of Polar Operations, or Nancy Vedder, Program Manager, at Polar Explorers: 1 800 732-7328 or 1 847 256-4409. Annie Aggens cell phone is 1 847 651 0524.

MORE ABOUT POLAR EXPLORERS
polarexplorers.com

Annie Aggens
Polar Expeditions Director
PolarExplorers – a division of The Northwest Passage
www.polarexplorers.com
1.800.732.7328 (in the U.S. & Canada)
+1.847.256.4409 (worldwide)

“One of the Best Outfitters on Earth” – National Geographic Adventure Magazine

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