First Summer Expedition to the North Pole
Pulling for the Planet - 2006

Polar Explorer Lonnie Dupre named Rolex Laureate

Award will help finance 2005 summer crossing of Arctic Ocean  

Grand Marais, Minn.  October 2, 2004. Polar explorer Lonnie Dupre of Grand Marais, Minn. was named one of five 2004 Rolex Laureates Sept. 29 in a ceremony in Paris. The Rolex Awards for Enterprise are given every two years to provide visionary men and women worldwide with the financial support and recognition needed to carry out innovative projects that expand human knowledge or improve the lot of mankind. Over 1,700 people from 117 countries applied for this year's awards, which span five major areas of recognition: exploration and discovery (Dupre's category), science and medicine, technology and innovation, the environment, and cultural heritage.

Dupre will use the $100,000 award to help fund the One World Expedition, the first-ever summer crossing of the Arctic Ocean, to highlight global warming. Dupre and teammate Eric Larsen leave in May 2005 from Cape Arctichesky, Siberia, on a 100-day unsupported journey across the geographic North Pole to Ellesmere Island, Canada. No one has attempted a summer crossing of the Arctic Ocean due to the dangerous nature of the crossing because of extreme fog, hypothermic temperatures, and unstable ice conditions. Dupre and Larsen will pull and paddle specially-modified kayaks over 1,200 miles of shifting sea ice and open ocean.

"I am so thrilled and humbled to be chosen for this honor," Dupre said.   "Over one-third of our budget is now covered. We have many wonderful sponsors and a lot of individual donors, as well. We can now begin to shift our focus in part from fundraising to getting the word out about global warming."

Dupre and Larsen hope to raise awareness of the growing threat of global climate change, which affects the entire planet but has particular impact on the Earth's delicate Polar regions. The amount of ice covering the Arctic Ocean has diminished by 40 percent over the last 40 years. For more information about the expedition, see www.oneworldexpedition.com .

During an Arctic career spanning 17 years, Dupre has traveled over 13,500 miles throughout the high Arctic regions of Siberia, Lapland, Alaska, Canada and Greenland by dog team, ski and kayak. In 2001, Dupre and Australian teammate John Hoelscher completed the first circumnavigation of Greenland, using dog sleds in winter and kayaks in summer. Dupre was awarded the Soviet Sportsman Medal for Arctic exploration in 1989, was elected Fellow National of the Explorers Club in 1996 and was keynote lecturer to the Fellows of the Royal Geographic Society in London upon completion of the Greenland Expedition. For more information about the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, see www.rolexawards.com .

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