Exclusive: [Catlin fraudsters trigger] alarming ice warning; they also continue to emphasize cold-weather misery and their strong desire to get warm

The leader of the three-strong survey team said the initial results of the 14,400 measurements taken on the intrepid trek showed the ice was actually half the thickness the scientific community had previously believed.

Father-of-two Hadow, 47, said the thickness of the ice sheet was always believed to be around three metres from the interpretation of satellite images and computer modelling.

But after drilling up to 10 measurement holes a day, Hadow and his team found the average thickness of the ice was just 1.77 metres.

And he warned that the ice could disappear altogether as early as this summer.
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During the expedition the team travelled and surveyed 434 kilometres across the surface of the frozen Arctic Ocean in temperatures of minus 46 degrees Celsius with a wind chill factor on occasions down to minus 70 degrees Celsius.

Speaking from the ice, Hadow added: “I think the abiding memory of this expedition has been the desperate struggle and effort required. We kept moving north with the sledges and drilling every night – it was so cold all our strength would be sapped as soon as we started the measurement work.
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...“I can't wait for that train journey back to Devon [where it's warmer] and to see how everything is so rich, lush and fertile.

“From this barren environment it will be amazing to see the crops waving in the wind, the hedgerows alive with all their wildlife and all the views bursting with colour."
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The expedition's navigator, Ann Daniels, asked her family back in Devon to turn the central heating on and shake the duvet in preparation for her return home.

“I can't wait to crawl into my own bed,” she said. “It will be paradise not to have to get inside a wet and icy sleeping bag any more.”

April '09: North Pole Sea Ice twice as thick as expected

The research aircraft “Polar 5” today concluded its Arctic expedition in Canada. During the flight, researchers measured the current ice thickness at the North Pole and in areas that have never before been surveyed. The result: The sea-ice in the surveyed areas is apparently thicker than scientists had suspected.

Normally, newly formed ice measures some two meters in thickness after two years. “Here, we measured ice thickness up to four meters,” said a spokesperson for Bremerhaven’s Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. At present, this result contradicts the warming of the sea water, according to the scientists.