From the edge of the world

In two days arctic explorer Ben Saunders will set off from Cape Discovery in northern Canada to ski solo and unsupported to the North Pole and set a couple of speed records along the way. After two earlier attemps had to be aborted because of gear malfunctions and fuel contaminating his food, Ben has decided to give it another go, more determined than ever. Failure is not trying, so in that respect this expedition is already a success.

The cool thing (pun intended) is that filmmaker Temujin Doran is traveling with Ben to Canada and has managed to produce a couple of beautiful mini documentaries over the last few days. The one at the top of this post is an introduction to Ben and the North3 expedition. Watch the other episodes on Ben's website.

Although I've never visited the high arctic myself, I have supported various polar expeditions in terms of getting their story out to the world. One constant factor is the difficulty to get any information (a text or voice message for example) out of those remote locations via dodgy satellite connections, let alone sending out this kind of high definition, artfully crafted video poetry. What's even more impressive that new updates are released as things develop, not weeks after the fact, lending the whole thing an extra dose of excitement. So make sure to check back regularly over the next couple of weeks...