When they signed up for a trip to the North Pole, the 40 Stanford travelers expected insightful lectures, amazing vistas and maybe a polar bear or two. But they didn't know they'd be part of a news-making rescue mission.
The drama began after polar explorer Will Steger decided to give up on his quest to make a solo trek across the fractured ice of the summer Arctic Ocean. He had been dropped at the North Pole on July 13 and planned to travel 500 miles by foot and canoe.
But just nine days into the trip, Steger, 53, decided to quit because of fatigue, dangerous ice and thick fog. He sent an e-mail asking to be picked up by the Russian icebreaker Sovetskiy Soyuz, which was already heading to the pole with its Stanford Travel/Study passengers. The ship's helicopter found Steger on July 25.
The decision to give up the daring journey made headlines around the world; but aboard the icebreaker, the rescue seemed unremarkable, says passenger Joe Pool, '56, a rancher from Amarillo, Texas. Safely on board, Steger gave a talk to passengers, discussing his adventures in frozen climes and his reasons for abandoning the solo journey.
"After seeing that country, I feel he did the right thing by asking to be rescued," Pool says. "I think maybe he bit off more than he could chew."
