Ben Saunders (explorer) - North Pole Debate

North Pole Debate

Saunders' claim to have reached the North Pole solo in 2004 is disputed by ExplorersWeb, a website maintained by rival explorers Thomas and Tina Sjogren, who consider only expeditions that begin their journey on land to be valid. His 2004 expedition started 70 km north of Siberia's Cape Arktichevsky, with his online journal reporting 50 km of open water north of the Russian coastline that prevented him starting from land. This 70 km head start represented just over 5% of his total journey. ExplorersWeb therefore listed Saunders' 2004 journey to the North Pole as a "partial expedition" on their database of expedition records In 2004, Australian explorer Eric Phillips argued that this categorization of expeditions may have been a factor in the death of Finnish explorer Dominick Arduin, who died at Cape Arktichevsky in March 2004: "I can't help but think that this tragedy permeated as a result of the pressure placed on adventurers to have their expeditions regarded as unsupported. Again, Explorers Web and others are placing undue pressure on the adventuring community by categorizing expeditions on their achievements. Of course decisions must be made in the face of what we sense, not what others will think, but we should not be pressured into feeling that our efforts fall short of somebody else's parameters."