AAaLot
Aug 2, 03, 6:30 pm
DFW-ORD-EWR-OSL-LYR-Geographic North Pole
Earlier this year I visited the Geographic South Pole. Once you have been to one pole, you have to go to the other.
Here is the South Pole report from earlier this year.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/003550.html
AA: DFW-ORD-EWR
Uneventful. Upgrades cleared so that is good.
SAS: EWR-OSLO
As we were heading down the inter-terminal train, there was a mini-SAS booth that printed our boarding passes. It was great that we did not have to go to the main check-in for SAS.
The SAS business class lounge seemed a little crowded, but overall I would rank it above average.
The business class seats on the 767 were not as comfortable as I expected and the seats are almost similar to AA domestic FC. Service and food, however, was above average.
OSLO: Grand Hotel
Very nice old style hotel. Would stay there again.
SAS: OSLO-LYR
This was a charter flight, but had actual SAS flight numbers. Service was excellent and food was way above average for your typical economy flight.
We arrived at Longyearbyen in Spitzbergen, Norway (which I believe is the highest latitude commercial airport (LYR). From there we took a 30 minute ride on a Russian helicopter to the Yammal, a Russian working ice breaker that is converted in to a semi-cruise ship for 1 month a year. We had to take a helicopter to international waters to where Yammal was (since Norway won’t allow nuclear vessels near its coast, but we will spend 10 days in one). Also, we found out that Yammal’s sister ship has been cited 3 times in the past for insufficient shielding around its nuclear core. However, we did not see any sailors with three thumbs ☺.
We just found out that the group before us was unable to make it to the North Pole. Starting at about 80.00N the ice was 90%-100% 10 fee thick (so much for global warming). It took that group 5 days of heavy ice breaking to get to 86.50N (still 220 mils away from the pole). Due to time constraints they had to turn around. In the last past 9 years, this is the first time that has happened. Our group went further east to Frank Joseph Land (Russian) before heading north.
Our excitement for one afternoon was seeing an iceberg…apparently there are not many in this part of the artic. We saw a polar bear on a seal kill and later saw a polar bear with its two cubs.
Going through the ice on an ice breaker is like being in constant a Richter 5-6 earthquake--definitely not a natural boat motion. Yammal is the most powerful ice breaker in the world (75,000 horse power).
The helicopter frequently went on reconnaissance flights to scout the ice ahead. The ice captain stated many times that these were the worst conditions in the last ten years.
We usually spent our days by going to several lectures from experts in arctic things: polar bears, ice, birds, under-ice-submarines. We would watch a movie each afternoon about the artic by a film maker that is on board, and we watch a Hollywood movie after dinner. Other than that it is sleep and eat. All the while you are experiencing a 5+ point earthquake. It can be described as a very turbulent flight, too. The strange part is that you carry on normal conversations while the “earthquake” is shaking your glass at lunch. It seems like a skit from Monty Python. Once in a while you hit a patch that is calm. It lasts for 10 seconds. Everyone looks out the window to see if everything is alright!
We also got a tour on the engine room including the reactor. We got to sit down and play with the knobs and buttons that control it--really.
We finally arrived at the North Pole. Got out for a walk, pictures, and a quick…very quick swim. Other than for the GPS readings, the North Pole looked just like the ice we had encountered for the last few days. The water temperature was around 30F and the air temperature probably around 40F.
I also sent a few e-mails via my Iridium phone I had rented.
I was very impressed by what this ice breaker can go through. It is like living inside a washing machine for a week. As you look over the ocean all you see 10 - 20 foot thick ice with perhaps a small river of water about 3 feet wide. The boat aims next to the "river" not down it. That way when it cracks the huge sheet of ice (about the size of a city block) the ice has a place to move to. This ship has 75,000 horsepower, the next biggest ice breaker is 25,000. There are no other ships on earth that could do what we did. Apparently no non-nuclear ship has ever made it to the pole by itself.
There was even more ice on the way south than on the way north. Furthermore, this ice was under heavy pressure. The ice breaker really slowed down going though it and sometimes had to back up 4-5 times before being able to break it.
We were very lucky to have picked the path we did on the way north. If we had encountered these conditions on the way north we would not have been able to make to the North Pole. The bad news is we missed Frank Joseph Land. The captain had 35 years experience in the ice and he continued to state he had never seen it like that.
We were about 12 hours late to Spitzbergen so our charter flight LYR-Oslo had to be rescheduled for 0030. Arrived at 0400, had 2 hours of sleep at the Radisson before proceeding to our 1115 flight.
On good news, one of the passengers had a device to measure radiation. We received 0.9 mili-rads during the whole 2 week trip, which apparently is less than what he usually receives in day to day living in the USA. By comparison we received 2 mili-rads on the Oslo-EWR flight.
SAS: Oslo-EWR
I was very disappointed with SAS’s check-in. They had a specific check-in counter for this flight, but there were 100+ people on this slow (business class?) line. Furthermore, it seemed like they were hand searching all the check-in luggage for THIS counter only. I thankfully walked around and found a ‘regular’ business class check-in line and was able to check-in in 3 minutes. I was unclear what SAS is doing having separate check-in lines, luggage searches, etc. I later talked to some of the passengers on the long-line…they barely had enough check-in time. Other than that the service on the flight was great.
AA: EWR-ORD
We gave our FC seats to an elderly disabled couple that needed them more than us. I don’t like the Fokker aircraft. Pretty standard flight.
AA: ORD-DFW
The salad was incredible…new recipe that I would actually order at a restaurant.
Our suitcases arrived via a driven ‘cart’ while I waited at the carousel. Did the suit cases take the EWR-DFW direct flight?
Please feel free to ask further if you are interested in more details.
Earlier this year I visited the Geographic South Pole. Once you have been to one pole, you have to go to the other.
Here is the South Pole report from earlier this year.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/003550.html
AA: DFW-ORD-EWR
Uneventful. Upgrades cleared so that is good.
SAS: EWR-OSLO
As we were heading down the inter-terminal train, there was a mini-SAS booth that printed our boarding passes. It was great that we did not have to go to the main check-in for SAS.
The SAS business class lounge seemed a little crowded, but overall I would rank it above average.
The business class seats on the 767 were not as comfortable as I expected and the seats are almost similar to AA domestic FC. Service and food, however, was above average.
OSLO: Grand Hotel
Very nice old style hotel. Would stay there again.
SAS: OSLO-LYR
This was a charter flight, but had actual SAS flight numbers. Service was excellent and food was way above average for your typical economy flight.
We arrived at Longyearbyen in Spitzbergen, Norway (which I believe is the highest latitude commercial airport (LYR). From there we took a 30 minute ride on a Russian helicopter to the Yammal, a Russian working ice breaker that is converted in to a semi-cruise ship for 1 month a year. We had to take a helicopter to international waters to where Yammal was (since Norway won’t allow nuclear vessels near its coast, but we will spend 10 days in one). Also, we found out that Yammal’s sister ship has been cited 3 times in the past for insufficient shielding around its nuclear core. However, we did not see any sailors with three thumbs ☺.
We just found out that the group before us was unable to make it to the North Pole. Starting at about 80.00N the ice was 90%-100% 10 fee thick (so much for global warming). It took that group 5 days of heavy ice breaking to get to 86.50N (still 220 mils away from the pole). Due to time constraints they had to turn around. In the last past 9 years, this is the first time that has happened. Our group went further east to Frank Joseph Land (Russian) before heading north.
Our excitement for one afternoon was seeing an iceberg…apparently there are not many in this part of the artic. We saw a polar bear on a seal kill and later saw a polar bear with its two cubs.
Going through the ice on an ice breaker is like being in constant a Richter 5-6 earthquake--definitely not a natural boat motion. Yammal is the most powerful ice breaker in the world (75,000 horse power).
The helicopter frequently went on reconnaissance flights to scout the ice ahead. The ice captain stated many times that these were the worst conditions in the last ten years.
We usually spent our days by going to several lectures from experts in arctic things: polar bears, ice, birds, under-ice-submarines. We would watch a movie each afternoon about the artic by a film maker that is on board, and we watch a Hollywood movie after dinner. Other than that it is sleep and eat. All the while you are experiencing a 5+ point earthquake. It can be described as a very turbulent flight, too. The strange part is that you carry on normal conversations while the “earthquake” is shaking your glass at lunch. It seems like a skit from Monty Python. Once in a while you hit a patch that is calm. It lasts for 10 seconds. Everyone looks out the window to see if everything is alright!
We also got a tour on the engine room including the reactor. We got to sit down and play with the knobs and buttons that control it--really.
We finally arrived at the North Pole. Got out for a walk, pictures, and a quick…very quick swim. Other than for the GPS readings, the North Pole looked just like the ice we had encountered for the last few days. The water temperature was around 30F and the air temperature probably around 40F.
I also sent a few e-mails via my Iridium phone I had rented.
I was very impressed by what this ice breaker can go through. It is like living inside a washing machine for a week. As you look over the ocean all you see 10 - 20 foot thick ice with perhaps a small river of water about 3 feet wide. The boat aims next to the "river" not down it. That way when it cracks the huge sheet of ice (about the size of a city block) the ice has a place to move to. This ship has 75,000 horsepower, the next biggest ice breaker is 25,000. There are no other ships on earth that could do what we did. Apparently no non-nuclear ship has ever made it to the pole by itself.
There was even more ice on the way south than on the way north. Furthermore, this ice was under heavy pressure. The ice breaker really slowed down going though it and sometimes had to back up 4-5 times before being able to break it.
We were very lucky to have picked the path we did on the way north. If we had encountered these conditions on the way north we would not have been able to make to the North Pole. The bad news is we missed Frank Joseph Land. The captain had 35 years experience in the ice and he continued to state he had never seen it like that.
We were about 12 hours late to Spitzbergen so our charter flight LYR-Oslo had to be rescheduled for 0030. Arrived at 0400, had 2 hours of sleep at the Radisson before proceeding to our 1115 flight.
On good news, one of the passengers had a device to measure radiation. We received 0.9 mili-rads during the whole 2 week trip, which apparently is less than what he usually receives in day to day living in the USA. By comparison we received 2 mili-rads on the Oslo-EWR flight.
SAS: Oslo-EWR
I was very disappointed with SAS’s check-in. They had a specific check-in counter for this flight, but there were 100+ people on this slow (business class?) line. Furthermore, it seemed like they were hand searching all the check-in luggage for THIS counter only. I thankfully walked around and found a ‘regular’ business class check-in line and was able to check-in in 3 minutes. I was unclear what SAS is doing having separate check-in lines, luggage searches, etc. I later talked to some of the passengers on the long-line…they barely had enough check-in time. Other than that the service on the flight was great.
AA: EWR-ORD
We gave our FC seats to an elderly disabled couple that needed them more than us. I don’t like the Fokker aircraft. Pretty standard flight.
AA: ORD-DFW
The salad was incredible…new recipe that I would actually order at a restaurant.
Our suitcases arrived via a driven ‘cart’ while I waited at the carousel. Did the suit cases take the EWR-DFW direct flight?
Please feel free to ask further if you are interested in more details.