Polar hero remains stranded
British Polar hero Pen Hadow remains stranded at the North Pole today, waiting to be picked up after setting a solo Arctic trekking record.
He has been left sitting out bad weather at the top of the world for six days which has stopped a plane picking him up.
But one small comfort is a telegram of congratulations from the British Queen sent to his wife Mary praising the explorer’s courage.
Mr Hadow, 41, became the first person to reach the geographic North Pole unsupported from Canada on Monday but has been stranded since then on half rations of nuts, chocolate and dried fruit.
His wife Mary said yesterday from their home in Hexworthy on Dartmoor that a plane was still waiting for a weather window to reach her husband.
She said she had no idea when the attempt would be made.
Mr Hadow, an experienced polar explorer, has now spent more than two months on the ice after completing the 478 mile marathon.
His dwindling food supply is expected to last him until Wednesday.
Two Twin Otter aircraft took off from Eureka weather station on Ellesmere Island on Thursday night to pick him up but missed their refuelling stop because of bad weather and had to turn back.
Now the explorer’s satellite phone is dead, and his only communication is his signal beacon.
That is currently set to a signal which indicates “non-urgent pick up requested here. Conditions OK for plane to land“.
The last time Mrs Hadow spoke to her husband was on Monday when he called to say he had reached his goal.
She added that she thought her husband had now accepted the situation and would be resting and relaxed.
The explorer – who has had no human contact since March 17 – has prepared a landing strip on the ice using a flare ad his remaining ski.
He lost the other after falling through thin ice on April 30.
Mrs Hadow and their children, Wilf, four, and one-year-old Freya, both named after explorers, are looking forward to a reunion with him.
She called her husband “invincible” after his success in which he hauled a 150-kilo sledge of food and equipment over constantly moving, cracking sea ice.
The explorer braved freezing temperatures, swam in the freezing sea, and negotiated huge pressure ridges.
