Two years after trekking more than 1,100km (700 miles) across Antarctica, Kerry mountaineer Mike Barry (52) set out this week to become the first Irishman to walk to both North and South Poles. Barry, a member of the first Irish Everest expedition and a wind energy consultant, landed on the Arctic's Ellesmere Island this week in temperatures of minus 40 degrees.
He hopes to complete the 644km (400-mile) trek by the end of April in aid of Crumlin Children's Hospital, Dublin.
Barry is walking with an Israeli and a American guide, Matty McNair. All three are pulling "pulks" or sledges with tents and supplies weighing 70kg (more than 11 stone) each. Two years ago, he was part of an international expedition led by McNair which trekked to the South Pole in more than 50 days.
Barry told The Irish Times before his departure the Arctic posed a very different challenge.
Shrinking ice cover in the Arctic Ocean due to climate change was making it easier to travel by sea but harder to travel by land to the North Pole. "We will be travelling over a floating platform which will be drifting southwest all the time as we head north. It means we have to choose a route based on ice floes coming together. We also have to listen out for ice cracks beneath the tent when sleeping." They are also bringing a gun for "polar bear cover".
