North Pole Trek By Canadian SAR Tech

A Canadian SAR Tech recently completed his land trek to the North Pole. Well done WO St-Laurent!

Warrant Officer Darcy St-Laurent is no stranger to operating in the far north. The Winnipeg search and rescue technician (SAR tech) received the Star of Courage for a rescue in the Torngat Mountains of Labrador and the Medal of Bravery for rescuing a downed helicopter pilot 322 kilometres west of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

Now, after trekking more than 800 gruelling kilometres and spending 51 days on the ice and open water of the Arctic Ocean, WO St-Laurent became the first Canadian Forces member, the first Manitoban and the seventeenth Canadian to complete a full scale expedition to the North Pole, originating from a point of land.

American explorer Eric Larsen teamed up with WO St-Laurent and Britain’s Antony Jinman on the North Pole leg of Mr. Larsen’s “Save the Poles” mission to raise awareness about the environment by reaching the South Pole, North Pole and summit of Mount Everest within a year. The three-man team skied, snow shoed and even swam from Cape Discovery on Ellesmere Island to the geographic North Pole.

“A lot of people ask me why I did this and I’m not even sure myself,” says WO St-Laurent. “I guess it was about seeing what my limits were and fulfilling a personal challenge. The North Pole is the furthest place you can go without going south and one of the most inhospitable places on earth so it had that attraction for me – plus maybe because it was hard.”

By: Shelldrake