Prince's expedition on track despite bad weather
Fri Apr 14
MOSCOW (AFP) - Prince Albert II of Monaco's trip to the North Pole continued without major incident despite difficult weather conditions, one of the expedition leaders said.
{the article is not publicly accessible-at least where I got it from, so I'm posting about 30% for new information; my emphases.}
Leonid Sloutski told the Itar-Tass agency that the team was doing "marvellously", adding that "everyone is in good health and injury-free".
The expedition, which kicked off Thursday, has had to face difficult weather conditions with strong winds and drifting ice blocks.
The section of ice where the eight-man team set up camp on Thursday night drifted by more than three kilometres (two miles), extending the following day's journey to 25 kilometres.
The prince, 48, and his team of seven left on Thursday from the Russian tent camp of Barneo, which is erected each winter on the frozen Arctic Sea.
Albert II, known officially as His Serene Highness and more used to the sunshine and glamour of his tiny principality on France's Riviera, had only a short distance to go.
He had first flown in a Boeing Business Jet from the Swedish Polar town of Kiruna to the Norweigan outpost of Svalbard, then in a twin-jet Russian Antonov-74 to a makeshift landing strip at Barneo just 92 kilometres (57 miles) from the North Pole. The team expected to reach their goal Sunday.
Ann