Farmer triumphant in North Pole race

May 6 2008 by Sam Wood, The Journal

A FARMER from Northumberland has triumphed in a 350-mile race to the North Pole.

Jamie Wood, 28, of Prendwick Farm in Whittingham, near Alnwick, took part in the Polar Challenge, a team race in the Arctic to the 1996 location of the Magnetic North Pole and beyond.

He was racing with Paul Moxham, an engineer from Dorset, and Angus King, a primary school headteacher from Harrogate, in a team called Cold Beef.

They were the first group to all cross the line after two other teams partly finished before them, but with members who had dropped out.

Once he had reached the finish line, Jamie said: “It hasn’t really sunk in that we have won yet. Tomorrow I’ll be able to have my first shower for two and half weeks, which will be great.

“I’d like to thank all my sponsors who helped raise the money to get me out here and my mum and dad and the rest of the family for all the support.

“We arrived at the finish line in good time and it was great to be welcomed by everyone there.”

The race, which started in the middle of April, saw competitors in nine three-man teams from across the world race on skis, pulling their supplies in 120-pound sledges.

On their journey the team had to struggle over the desolate Bathurst Island. At first they fell behind their competitors, but they gained speed and came into the check point in the lead.

In the second half of the race, the team had to deal with ice rubble – waves that have frozen and moved together, forming high ice blocks to climb over.

Jamie also fell up to his knees in slushy water trying to cross a pressure ridge near to Thor Island.

Jamie was competing in one of the world’s most extreme environments, with temperatures as low as -50C.

As well as ice and freezing temperatures, he and his teammates had to travel through Polar Bear Pass, home to 800 of the world’s polar bears. They had to carry a shotgun in case of attack.

They were not allowed to shoot the animals unless it got within 20ft of them, and could only fire to scare them off when they are outside that distance.

Before he left Jamie, who was raising money for the Great North Air Ambulance, said bears were his biggest concern about the trip.