# Has anyone ever walked over the North Pole from Canada to Russia? (Or vice versa)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 11, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445 "2012-10-11T18:49:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/1 "2012-10-11T18:49:57Z")
This popped into my head for some reason.
During the Arctic winter the sea is frozen from the north of Russia to the north of Canada, has anyone ever walked from one country to the other in this fashion? _(Passing through the North Pole to make it a journey across and not just around the Arctic)_
Is it even possible?
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/2 "2012-10-11T18:59:41Z")
[A team of 9 Soviets and 4 Canadians](http://www.weberarctic.com/expeditions-and-guiding/previous-expedition/soviet-canadian-polar-bridge-expedition/) skied from Cape Articheski (Siberia) to Ward Hunt Island (Canada) via the North Pole in 1988. They received a couple of resupply drops along the way.
I’m not sure if anyone has done it since, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/3 "2012-10-11T19:02:09Z")
In Russia, Pole walks over _you_!
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/4 "2012-10-11T19:08:08Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> In Russia, Pole walks over _you_!
Generally, the Russians walk over the Poles…
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/5 "2012-10-11T19:08:57Z")
It is shorter going from Alaska to Russia via the Bering Strait but the idea is the same.
Yes, [it has been done.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bushby) It is still theoretically possible to walk an unbroken path from South America, into North America, across the Bering Strait into Asia, on into Europe, and then down into Africa.
“In March 2006, Bushby and French adventurer Dimitri Kieffer crossed the Bering Strait on foot, walking across a frozen 56 mile section in 15 days.[1] They were detained by Russian border troop officers while they were crossing the Russian border near the Chukotkan village of Uelen, for not entering Russia at a correct port-of-entry. They were threatened to be banned from Russia, which would stop the journey.[2] It was announced on 5 May 2006, that the Russian appeal court had upheld Bushby’s application and his walk would continue.[3] This was reported to be the result of consultation between John Prescott, the then British Deputy Prime Minister (and MP in Bushby’s home town of Hull), and Roman Abramovich, the Governor of Chukotka.”
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/6 "2012-10-11T19:21:57Z")
Wouldn’t an ice road to Russia (like the quote) be possible? Assuming relations are ever friendly enough between the countries?
> **[Building Canada's Epic Ice Road](https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a1290/4212314/)**
>
> The truckers who haul 70-ton rigs hundreds of miles across Canada's frozen lakes aren't afraid of much  except warm weather.
> [@](#):
>
> When it comes to epic northern engineering, nothing tops the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, a superhighway of ice that extends 370 miles from north of Yellowknife into the neighboring territory of Nunavut. To build it, 140 workers from the Nuna Logistics construction firm struggle through 20-hour nights and windchills that dip to 70 below. By the end of January, they have completed the longest heavy-haul ice road in the world, as wide as an eight-lane highway. When the ice thickens to 40-plus in. – typically, in late February – it is capable of supporting 70-ton eight-axle Super B Train articulated trucks.
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### Author:  [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/7 "2012-10-11T20:48:42Z")
Thanks for the answers everyone!
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> It is shorter going from Alaska to Russia via the Bering Strait but the idea is the same.
I recently read an article on the BBC website about an American woman who swam across the Bering Straight in the late 1980’s as a peace gesture, she said she wasn’t expecting it to be _quite_ so cold!
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### Author:  [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/8 "2012-10-11T20:51:38Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> Wouldn’t an ice road to Russia (like the quote) be possible? Assuming relations are ever friendly enough between the countries?
The land underlying the ice roads in Northern Canada or Alaska can be relied upon to stay put. The pack ice on the Arctic Ocean [cannot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drifting_ice_station). I would suspect that an ice road of that length would be broken into multiple segments by the end of the season.
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### Author:  [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-walked-over-the-north-pole-from-canada-to-russia-or-vice-versa/637445/9 "2012-10-11T21:26:40Z")
> [@MikeS](#):
>
> The land underlying the ice roads in Northern Canada or Alaska can be relied upon to stay put. The pack ice on the Arctic Ocean [cannot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drifting_ice_station). I would suspect that an ice road of that length would be broken into multiple segments by the end of the season.
In fact, the ice drifts so much that parts of the road might not even be in the Arctic Ocean proper after a few months; [here](http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/DriftTrackMap.html) is a map showing the position of buoys over the past 6 months; note the green line starting near the North Pole in April and ending in Fram Straight on the right (no longer in the Arctic Ocean itself; eventually it flows down the coast of Greenland and melts in the Atlantic). This is especially true of recent years, since thinner ice (in the winter as well as summer) moves around faster. The ice isn’t a continuous unbroken sheet either and will also vary considerably in thickness since ice gets thicker over successive seasons if it doesn’t melt or is forced together in pressure ridges.