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Hypoxia 2009 Speakers
Jerry Kobalenko

Email: jkbanff@telusplanet.net
Talk Title: The Iceman Returns
Session: Evening Presentation
Abstract: Imagine being dropped off by a helicopter to the middle of nowhere in the bone-chilling cold. Now imagine hauling 275 pounds of gear in a sled over 400 miles of barren tundra by skis and on foot. Your food supply consists primarily of chocolate, peanut butter and cheese. The only shelter you have is what you can haul and there won't be another human being in sight for 39 days. As Canada's premier arctic traveler, Jerry Kobalenko doesn't just endure such expeditions, he revels in them. After his first taste of the Arctic 20 years ago, he was drawn into the elite circle of adventurers whose passion lies in icy landscapes. "In most wildernesses, I enjoy the company of people, and often the more the merrier," he explains. "But the lure of the Arctic is the lure of a landscape. I love how small the land makes me feel." To date, Kobalenko has racked up over 6,000 miles, crossing Labrador twice and completing 22 expeditions on Ellesmere Island, which is as far north as you can get before running into the North Pole. Recently, Kobalenko returned to Labrador 20 years after his first solo midwinter expedition there to see if an older but more experienced traveler could succeed in re-doing the hardest trip he's ever done. Would experience let him complete a trek that had taxed him to the limit as a young man?

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