The Barclays Capital Ultimate North Expedition is aiming to solve the greatest mystery in the history of polar exploration. Led by British explorer Tom Avery, the team is attempting to recreate Robert Peary’s disputed expedition of April 1909, when he claimed to have discovered the North Pole in a record 37 days.

Although little known outside of the British polar community, the American explorer, Commander Robert E Peary was arguably one of the greatest polar explorers that ever lived. Mystery and controversy surround his expedition of 1909, during which he, along with Matthew Henson and four Inuit men, claimed to have discovered the North Pole.

The Barclays Capital Ultimate North Expedition aims to verify Peary’s claim once and for all, proving that he could have reached the top of the world in the extraordinary speeds he claimed.

The five-strong expedition team is traveling in a similar style to Peary’s with teams of Canadian Inuit dogs and custom-built wooden sledges. Their goal is to prove the Peary sceptics wrong and match his 37-day time. In nearly a century of polar exploration, the fastest journey that anyone has managed since Peary’s day was by a Canadian team in 2000 who reached the Pole after 43 days.

The Barclays Capital Ultimate North team comprises 29-year old polar explorer Tom Avery from Sussex, who in 2002 became the youngest Briton to reach the South Pole; South African Andrew Gerber, a member of Tom’s team that also became the fastest to reach the South Pole; Matty McNair, an internationally-renowned American polar explorer now living in Arctic Canada, George Wells, a property developer from Suffolk with a passion for climbing and exploration, and Hugh Dale-Harris, a teacher and dog driver from Thunder Bay in Canada.

Barclays Capital’s funding of the expedition is integral to the expedition, but it is the energy, determination and sheer drive of the team that will turn their ambitions into reality.

Intensive training including core condition and physical training, gym work, running and swimming began as early as January 2004 to ensure they are fully prepared and at their optimum fitness levels. During the past year, the team has also spent many weeks in the extreme climate of Baffin Island, driving dogs and making the final preparations for the expedition.

The Arctic Ocean is one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet. The Barclays Capital Ultimate North team will encounter temperatures as low as -45°C, enormous pressure ridges up to 30 feet high, constantly moving ice that splits with deadly leads (areas of open water) sometimes many miles wide.

In places the ice is only a few inches thick, so there is a danger of falling through the ice into the freezing Arctic water, plus there is a constant threat from Polar Bears. An expedition to the North Pole is all the more treacherous today because of the thinning effects of Global Warming on the polar ice pack.

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