Lunch break is no picnic in Antarctica during a 56-day storm on the Antarctic Peninsula. Wind blown snow pelted our faces coating beards and eyelashes with ice crystals, denying us even modest comfort or rest. The Tran-Antarctica expedition was completed some five months later covering 3700 miles in 221 days.

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20 Years Later - NEW INTRODUCTION

On July 26, 1989, I saw Antarctica for the first time. Along with my expedition partner, French doctor and explorer Jean-Louis Etienne, and our teammates—Victor Boyarsky (Russia), Geoff Somers (UK), Keizo Funatsu (Japan) and Qin Dahe (China)—I’d been training and dreaming of this moment for several years.

The expedition was assembled on King George Island, one hundred miles off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. From there we shuttled man, gear, and thirty-six sled dogs south on six Twin Otter flights, to our starting point on the Larsen A Ice Shelf. I was on the second flight with Jean-Louis and my team of ten dogs.

Once we lifted off and cleared the mountains of KGI, the yellow light of midwinter filtered through the windows and shimmered on the dogs’ hair. The vibrations of the twin engines calmed the dogs’ excitement and put most of them to sleep. Out the foggy window I caught my first sight of Antarctica; in the far distance I could just make out the ice-capped mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula rising out of the ocean.

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• Successful...safe trip
• Global warming IS being played out on the sea ice
• Later freeze ups and early break ups diminish the winter season
• Global Warming is affecting the Inuit of Baffin Island
• The Inuit will adapt, but will we

Will Steger visits with Don Shelby on his radio show at WCCO Radio 830AM. The program aired on Nov. 13, 2003 as the team prepared for their expedition. In this first segment, Will and Don discuss the effects of global climate change on the Arctic regions.

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Will Steger visits with Don Shelby on his radio show at WCCO Radio 830AM. The program aired on Nov. 13, 2003. In this second segment, the two discuss the future of the Arctic and how the Arctic Transect 2004 expedition will bring awareness of the issues to the public.

Will Steger visits with Don Shelby on his radio show at WCCO Radio 830AM. The program aired on Nov. 13, 2003. The third and final segment of this show describes the education component of the expedition and how you can get involved in protecting the fragile Arctic regions.

Polar explorer Will Steger is preparing a quest across northern Canada -- a six-month dog sled adventure that will bring the Arctic into thousands of classrooms. Steger hasn't led a sled dog journey in five years, but but says he came out of retirement because of his concerns about global warming.

Ely, Minn. — The trip begins Dec. 15 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories - in the heart of a northern Canadian winter. Temperatures hover around 40 below zero. There's more night than day. Six adventurers, three sleds, and 30 dogs on a 3,000 mile journey to the Atlantic Ocean.

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