Byline: Mark Brownlee
Publication: Canadian Press
Date: Thursday July 14th, 2011
TORONTO _ A Carleton University grad student has found a way to combine his two main passions _ rowing and science_ into one activity. And he’s going to be part of history in the process.
Richard Webster will be helping out with the first expedition to the North Pole to take place by rowboat. He leaves July 25 for Resolute Bay, Nunavut.
”I’m really looking forward to have a chance to be involved in an expedition that’s really got the essence of (Ernest) Shackleton or (Robert Falcon) Scott, these really great historic polar explorers,” said Webster.
It’s particularly exciting, he added, given that there’s a ”dash of danger and the unknown because it’s something that’s never been tried before.”
The team of five rowers will depart from Resolute Bay on July 30. Webster will stay behind and help chart the group’s course.
This is the first time the voyage from Resolute Bay to the magnetic North Pole has been attempted in part because it’s one of the first years it’s been possible.
Until recently, the waters the team will be using for their trip were for the most part frozen _ even in summer. Now though, thanks in part to a warming planet, there is a small path the crew will be able to use to reach their destination.
That’s where Webster comes in.
He’ll be consulting maps and charts and looking at satellite images to make sure the rowers chart a path that is as free of ice as possible.
”It’s not until the very peak of the summer that the ice is completely lost all the way to the magnetic North Pole,” he said. ”I’ll be monitoring that and, according to weather conditions, advising them which way to take as the ice ebbs and flows.”
He’ll also be helping the rowers to test how much salt is in the water while they voyage north, which should help them determine exactly how much ice melt there has been.
But that doesn’t mean he won’t be keeping up with his other passion during that time.
He intends to stay in shape by spending two to three hours a day on the rowing machine. It’s a good thing too, since he will have to travel by helicopter to replace one of the rowers if they get injured.
Webster, a native of England currently finishing his fourth year for a PhD in biology from Carleton University, is also excited to see parts of Canada he’s never seen before.
”I’m obviously really looking forward to the opportunity of going into the high Canadian north,” he said. ”That’s going to be a really interesting part of Canada that most Canadians don’t get to see or experience.”
Copyright © 2011 The Canadian Press