White — stark and gleaming white as far as you can see. That’s what first grabbed Doug Beall.
"It’s strikingly beautiful,” he said.
Then the cold hit — minus-40 degrees, so cold that backpack fabric crinkles, drinks freeze before you finish them, and food, such as a candy bar Perry Taaca munched, turns to stone. "It was like chewing gravel,” Taaca said.
That’s just the way it is up in "the last degree,” that final 200-mile-diameter disc of globe, the northernmost sliver of Earth above the 89th parallel. Up there, there’s barely any there there, just an immense slab of ice floating on an ocean. Each spring under an eternal sun circling in the sky, it begins to melt, cracking into huge pieces that bump and grind, forming "compression zones,” jumbles of ice chunks the size of dishwashers, and opening leads of 28-degree salt water that can stretch for miles.
Perfect for a hike.
At least that’s why Beal, 43, and Taaca, 67, both Oklahoma City physicians, recently flew to Norway, then north to Svalbard, north again on a Russian cargo jet to a tent city on the ice cap, and north once more to the 89th parallel. There, along with about a dozen other explorers from around the world, including a film crew, Beal and Taaca stepped from a Soviet military helicopter and into frigid emptiness.
"It is just so totally unworldly,” Taaca said. "It’s in a category of its own.”
After the whump of the rotors faded, the adventurers stood alone among their equipment-filled sleds. "It got real quiet,” Taaca said. "We hooked up our sleds and started walking.”
Adventure and the grit and fitness to pursue it have always driven the two docs. A wrestler at Oklahoma State University, Taaca ran marathons in his 40s and 50s, and in his mid-50s, wrestled in international competitions. A long-distance hiker, Taaca also made a harrowing crossing of the Pacific on a 58-foot sailboat. Beall played team sports in school and transitioned to marathons, triathlons and extreme downhill skiing. In recent years, Beall completed his quest to climb the world’s "Seven Summits,” including Mount Everest.
So, a hike to the North Pole seemed like just the thing. The challenges were clear: Avoid frigid waters and polar bears, endure the cold, and make it to "90-60-60,” the GPS coordinates at the top of the world. Turned out no one fell into the water, except near the end when several hopped in to try their dry suits. "We thought, ‘What the hell, let’s go for a swim,’” Beall said.
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