ELY —In celebration of the 40th anniversary of their voyage to the North Pole, explorers Will Steger, Paul Schurke, Ann Bancroft, Richard Weber, Geoff Carroll, and Bob Mantell, six members of the original eight-person team, will host a reunion on Oct. 9 at Ely’s Historic State Theater.
The celebration will include a reception at 6 p.m., the screening of “North to the Pole!” at 7 p.m., a Q and A session with the team at 8 p.m. and a concert and dance with the Stoney River Band at 8:45 p.m.
Earlier in the day, the team will meet at the Grand Ely Lodge for a special Friday edition of the Tuesday Group. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m., with the program beginning at noon. Each of the six expedition members will share personal reminiscences of the 1986 expedition and their subsequent polar adventures. The Tuesday group presentation will also be available to stream live at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81910363662
The reunion comes 40 years after the team completed a two-month journey across the Arctic, reaching the North Pole without resupply. The eight-person, 49-dog expedition covered roughly 1,000 zigzagging miles over shifting sea ice, with temperatures at times reaching 70 degrees below zero. National Geographic later called the expedition a “landmark in polar exploration.”
Bancroft’s participation also marked a milestone, as she became the first woman to trek to the North Pole.
The expedition had almost comically humble beginnings in Ely, with the sale of buttons and T-shirts featuring the lead sled dog Zap providing much of the initial funding. Steger and Schurke used the pay phone at the Ely Chamber of Commerce to solicit support for the expedition, as Steger did not have a landline at his remote homestead.
During the expedition, members of the group wore homemade mukluks and anoraks made by Patti Steger and Sue Schurke. The clothing worked so well that the two women soon launched their own winter gear manufacturing operations to bring their high-quality products to the public. The two businesses, Steger Mukluks and Wintergreen Northernware, are now two of Ely’s best-known businesses.
Even the dogsleds were locally made, with assistance from Steve Smrekars shop class at Ely Memorial High School. Meanwhile, Ely outfitter Cliff Wold helped vacuum-pack the team’s trail rations.
The team left Canada’s northernmost shore on March 7, 1986, carrying about three tons of supplies and equipment. By the time they reached the North Pole on May 1, only a few pounds of food remained.
About a month into the expedition, the team realized it had used more than half its supplies while covering only about a third of the distance. The group responded by abandoning anything considered unnecessary, including extra clothing, equipment and even parts of personal belongings.
Near the end of the journey, another problem nearly brought the expedition to a halt. The team’s only navigation device, a sextant, malfunctioned just days from the North Pole. With the expedition traveling across drifting sea ice, the team was effectively lost. Using a Swiss Army knife, Steger disassembled the sextant and managed to repair it well enough to resume the journey.
When the team finally reached the Pole, it had traveled for 56 days across the Arctic Ocean.
After returning to Minnesota, the team was welcomed with a reception that included then-Gov. Rudy Perpich and the Ely Memorial High School marching band. A parade followed in Ely, with the State Theater displaying a “Welcome Home!” marquee. Zup’s and the IGA donated supplies for a reception at Whiteside Park.
Forty years later, the expedition members will return once more to the same remarkable community that helped make the journey possible.