Jinman takes pole position with help from University of Plymouth

Explorer Antony Jinman sets off on an epic journey to the North Pole today (Wednesday) with the help of a major sponsorship deal from the University of Plymouth. Antony is part of an expedition that will walk 480 miles from Cape Discovery to the North Pole over the next 10 weeks. As well as collecting samples to return to the School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Science, Antony will be posting a daily blog to enable people to track the expedition and ask him questions. Antony, who is being funded jointly by the University and by Microsoft Bing, said: "I love living in Arctic conditions, and, I want this expedition to be an inspiration to young people to get involved in science as a career." The first part of his journey will be a flight from London to Ottawa, Canada, on Wednesday morning. From there he will transfer by internal flight to Cape Discovery, where he will meet his expedition companions, Eric Larsen and Darcy St Laurent. The first test will be to ensure that the ice is safe enough to cross, for while the temperatures at Cape Discovery are a bracing -23 C, they should be nearer to -50 C at this time of year. Anthony's expedition to the North Pole will expand knowledge of the high Arctic greatly enhancing the range of sea ice data and will provide increased confidence in sea ice reconstructions.