Rescue at the North Pole: Pilot from Urn saved adventurer from icy hell
The Scotsman Dave Mill, 34, wanted to be the first man to reach the North Pole on foot and unaided. But the weather left him in deadly danger - until a pilot from Urn rescued him from that white hell.
Mill had already tried twice to reach the Pole on foot and unsupported. On his 3rd attempt he had covered 300 out of 700 kilometres, in temperatures down to -30 degrees and sometimes followed by polar bears. The Scot dragged his equipment behind him in a sledge, which also served as a boat. In 54 days on the march through the eternal ice, the young adventurer lost 20 kilos' weight. On Sunday he had to give up - the weather was too bad. Mill's life was in danger on the ice; as it broke up around him, the tides had trapped him on a floe between two icebergs. No rescue could reach him there.
Mill called for help by satellite phone, sending a photo of his position. An Urn man decided to dare the risky 16-hour flight for Mill: Karl Zberg, 63. The pilot, born in Sirenen, UR., is one of the Canadian airline First Air's most experienced men, with nearly 30,000 hours and 25 North Polar landings.
In his 8-ton De Havilland Twin Otter, he found Mill amidst the ice - and almost
scared him to death. "He touched my tent on landing", said Mill. But the pilot's nerves were "as good as Michael Schumacher" - he put the macchine gently down on the ice floe. And Zberg had thought of everything; he brought cheese-and-tomato sandwiches for the exhausted adventurer. "Then he said there was a seat in the back for me", laughed Mill. "After all, I hadn't had a bath in seven weeks."