Steve prepares for walk to North Pole (From Echo)

Steve prepares for walk to North Pole

11:30am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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IMAGINE walking in freezing temperatures for 35 days trying to pull 100kgs along with you.

Add in the risk of being attacked by a polar bear and you perhaps realise why a man’s family think he’s mad for taking on such a challenge.

But Steve Kidwell, 47, from Thorpe Bay, is determined to complete the challenge of walking and skiing 360 miles from Resolute Bay in the Canadian Arctic across the sea ice to the Magnetic North Pole.

There is no chance to pick up extra supplies during their journey and there are no checkpoints which mean the 12-strong team will have to battle through -35°C temperatures alone.

He will be dragging a sledge weighing 100kgs throughout the trek which is expected to take 35 days. Training involves tenting, gun handling, endurance and fitness training.

Steve is taking up the challenge in the hope of raising £50,000 for the Coins Foundation, of which he is a trustee, which supports the development of communities in sub-Saharan Africa. This year it will also go towards rebuilding houses in Haiti.

Steve said he has been training hard for the challenge which will be the first all-British unaided trip to the North Pole.

He said: “I have been running along the seafront in shorts and T-shirt in the snow.

“How long it takes depends on the weather because we could just be stuck in our tents for a week.

“They reckon I will lose two stone because we will be using up to 8,000 calories a day.

“My wife thinks I am mad and my daughter wants me to bring back a penguin, but it is the wrong pole.”

Steve said it was not the first time he had been to the arctic region as he went on a fact-finding trip last March. He said: “We were sleeping on the ice last year on Baffin Island. It was training. We survived that, now we’re doing the big one.”

Steve will be flying out to start the challenge on March 28. To find out more about his adventure, or to donate to his charity, go to justgiving.com/Steve-Kidwell