5:00AM Wednesday March 28, 2007
The team will use kites to power their skis and snowboards across Spitsbergen. Photo / Reuters
Fast vehicles, guns and polar bears - as adventures go, it's just about every boy's dream.
When New Zealander Daniel Cardon, Australian Cynan Rhodes, Englishman Charlie Hunter and Irishman David O'Brien set out to become the first people to cross the remote Norwegian island of Spitsbergen on kite-powered skis and snowboards next month, they will be deep in polar bear territory.
"It's a real boys' trip," said Mr Rhodes, 32.
"We've got the kites and skis, so we get to go really fast. We get to carry guns, and there's bears."
The guns, mind you, will be an absolute last line of defence on the trip, dubbed the Bear-dodging Expedition, which is expected to take three weeks from April 7.
More than 2500 polar bears live along the intended route.
It is illegal to kill one unless it poses a very real threat to a human being, so the group will have to try everything from firing warning shots, flares and banging pots and pans to scare them off first.
"If we do kill one, we have to stay where we are and phone the authorities and they'll come out to assess the situation to make sure it's fair that we did kill it," Mr Rhodes said.
Trip wires will provide protection around their tents while they sleep.
"It's one of those situations that you have to manage," Mr Rhodes added.
"If you're English and you travel to Australia, everyone's scared of snakes. You just have to know how to travel in that environment.
"A polar bear attack is quite rare on a person."
That said, and a sense of adventure aside, why would these four London-based friends want to do a trip like this?
"So many people, they go to the South Pole and things, which is something we looked at in depth, and they just do the same trip again and again," said Mr Rhodes, who grew up in Perth but has been living in London for six years.
"That's just walking. You can only go so far because you've got to carry all your bits and pieces.
"With kites, you can still travel cleanly but you can go further. We can see more of Spitsbergen just by moving faster."
The group's mode of travel is not without its drawbacks, though.
Mr Rhodes crashed during a recent training session in strong, gusty winds, leaving him with a bruised shoulder and a conviction that high winds in Spitsbergen would mean a "tent day".
The weather was also threatening to pose problems last week when the temperature in Spitsbergen soared from minus 22C to almost 3C.
Temperatures between minus 10C and 10C make camping uncomfortable because body and tent temperatures melt the snow, meaning clothes and gear become wet and difficult to dry again.
"It is much better when everything remains frozen," the group's website said. "Any sweat turns to ice on the inside of clothing and you just brush it off, or you can just sweep the snow out of the tent.
"Let's hope for some decent cold weather - if we wanted a wet three degrees, we'd just stay in the UK."
The remote island of Spitsbergen, meaning "jagged peaks", extends to 81 degrees north, less than 1000km from the North Pole.
The expedition will first travel to the most northerly point of the island and then head south, covering 900km across a polar ice cap, using the prevailing easterly winds.
Mr Rhodes, a former rally driver, and Mr Hunter, 29, who is the great-grandson of former New Zealand prime minister Sir Joseph Ward, are also planning a race across Antarctica.
The other members of the Spitsbergen expedition are Mr O'Brien, 40, who describes himself on the website as a professional hippy, and Kiwi Mr Cardon, 27, who says he "can sell ice to Inuits".
Inuits are the indigenous people of the Arctic regions.
- AAP
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