Did I meet Santa Claus at the North Pole?

En route to the North Pole in 1986. Here we are floating a sledge on an ice pan to get across a lead in the polar ice. Photo: Will Steger.

When I returned from the North Pole adventure, my young daughters and their friends asked me if I saw Santa Klaus and his workshop. I said "we were there in the middle of summer and santa and his elves were on holiday."

As I write, my good friend Richard Weber a member of our 1986 North pole Expedition is on his way to the South pole of skiis and using kites. Good luck Richard.

But on the subject of Santa and the North Pole, a piece of Arctic and North Pole history arrived in my in-box this morning from Will Steger who was leader of our 1985 North Pole training expedition and the first unsupported trip to the North Pole using dogs in 1986.

The copy of the letter was written as an update in November 1995 as we were training in Ely Minnesota for the North Pole journey. It was sent by Edward Atkinson who lives in Iqaluit in the Canadian Arctic.

This year we had the 25th anniversary of our 1986 North Pole Expedition in Minnesota. The team from the back row, L to R: Bob McKerrow, Will Steger, Paul Schurke and Richard Weber.

Front row. Goeff Carroll, Brent Boddy, Ann Bancroft and Bob (Ironman) Mantell.