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To: Brumar89 who wrote (28915)	9/27/2012 12:54:13 PM
From: koan	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85487

<<Piece of cake" Really? Amundsen went through the NW passage over 100 ya. It opened up August 21, 2007 and again August 25, 2008 according to wikipedia. Also>> Wasn't a piece of cake. That is your usual misinformation. He did not do it on one year! It took him three years and he was trapped in the ice during two winters. NOW it is a piece of cake. And your picutrre of a submarine at the north pole, was a submarine. They ahd to go under the ice, and it came up when it found a "lead" (some open water). And yes, 2007 was a huge ice melt. all of the 2,000 has opened up huge open ice free areas. Using theh 2,000's makes my point. In recent years at least one scheduled cruise liner (the MS Bremen in 2006) has successfully run the Northwest Passage, [49] helped by satellite images telling where sea ice was. .... On November 28, 2008, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Canadian Coast Guard confirmed the first commercial ship sailed through the Northwest Passage. .... In 2009 sea ice conditions were such that at least nine small vessels and two cruise ships completed the transit of the Northwest Passage. I think every summer there's usually an interval when ships can transit the northwest passage. And I think the satellite images mentioned above have something to do with why it's getting safer to do. I think I should point out that Eskimos migrated from western Alaska around the northern coast of Alaska, through the Canadian arctic islands to and down the coast of Greenland over the past few thousand years. Their way of life was dependent on use of the sea to hunt marine mammals, whales, seals, etc. If there were no open seas in the arctic they wouldn't have been able to live along the Canadian arctic shore, much less migrate thousands of miles from western Alaska to Greenland. In 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse Canada's Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (something explorers had been attempting since the days of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, and Henry Hudson), with six others in a 45-ton fishing vessel, Gjøa. Amundsen had the ship outfitted with a small gasoline engine. [6] They travelled via Baffin Bay, Lancaster and Peel Sounds, and James Ross, Simpson and Rae Straits and spent two winters near King William Island in what is today Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada. [5] [6] During this time Amundsen learned from the local Netsilik people about Arctic survival skills that would later prove useful. For example, he learned to use sled dogs and to wear animal skins in lieu of heavy, woolen parkas. After a third winter trapped in the ice, Amundsen was able to navigate a passage into the Beaufort Sea after which he cleared into the Bering Strait, thus having successfully navigated the Northwest Passage. [4] Continuing to the south of Victoria Island, the ship cleared the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on 17 August 1905, but had to stop for the winter before going on to Nome on the Alaska District's Pacific coast. Five hundred miles (800 km) away, Eagle City, Alaska, had a telegraph station; Amundsen travelled there (and back) overland to wire a success message ( collect) on 5 December 1905. Nome was reached in 1906. Because the water along the route was as shallow as 3 ft (0.91 m), a larger ship could not have made the voyage.[ citation needed] It was at this time that Amundsen received news that Norway had formally become independent of Sweden and had a new king. Amundsen sent the new King Haakon VII news that it "was a great achievement for Norway". He said he hoped to do more and signed it "Your loyal subject, Roald Amundsen."[ citation needed]