Show Climbing Adventurers Reach North Pole B Break rea k R Record d c r- r t Doug Struck The Washington Post With a final grueling sprint a tea team of five adventurers adventurers adventurers guided by American Matty McNair reached the North Pole barely five hours earlier than the record claimed by explorer Robert E. E Peary a century ago their sponsors announced The team is the first to prove that it is possible to reach the North Pole by dogsled in 37 days as Peary said he did in 1909 His claim to be the first to reach the Pole has been clouded by critics who doubted it could be done so fast The expedition organized by a British mountaineer Tom Avery reached the geographic geographic geographic geo geo- graphic North Pole at am a.m. Eastern Daylight Time after an exhausting day of sledding according to the sponsor of the trip Barclays Capital in London the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC It has been the longest and possibly hardest 37 days of our lives Avery 29 said in a statement issued by Barclays Avery along with a South African another Briton and anda a Canadian made the trek with 16 dogs trained and led by McNair 53 an born American-born adventurer who lives in Baffin Island in Canada She has been to the North Pole once before and to the South Pole three times Their expedition which began March 20 from Ellesmere Island replicated the swift journey of Peary Like Peary they moved with wooden sleds and had four points Like Peary they struggled to overcome obstacles including a jumbled jumbled jumbled jum jum- bled landscape of ice and open water as the polar ice icecap icecap icecap cap cracks and refreezes in inthe inthe inthe the spring Peary's claim has been in dispute for two decades because of the questions about his speed and his unusual navigation entries in his journals Unlike Peary who had to use more rudimentary rudimentary rudimentary rudi rudi- navigation tools the team that arrived today had Global Positioning Service devices that pinpointed pinpointed pinpointed pin pin- pointed their arrival at the 90 degrees north latitude which is the North Pole The expedition expedition expedition proved his speed was possible although it does not establish conclusively that Peary made it as f far r as ashe ashe ashe he claimed I 1 feel quite confident he did McNair said in a satellite satellite satellite satel satel- lite telephone interview last week from the Arctic Lots Lotsof of people say the time he made it is too fast A lot of those people have never dog sledded before |