The Team

Lonnie Dupre
Expedition Leader
USA, Age 46

During an Arctic career spanning 20 years, Lonnie Dupre has traveled over 14,000 miles throughout the high Arctic by dog team, ski and kayak. His path has often followed in the footsteps of the great Arctic explorers of the last century - Robert E. Peary, Roald Amundsen, and Knud Rasmussen. Like them, Dupre has lived and traveled with the Polar Inuit, learning from these hardy people and developing a deep appreciation for their culture and way of life.

Raised and living in Minnesota, he is descended on his mother's side from Jacques Cartiér, the French explorer and founder of Quebec. Shortly out of school, he made a living as a carpenter and Alaska commercial salmon fisherman.

In Minnesota, he instructed and guided dog sledge trips in the northwoods for outdoor enthusiasts through Wintergreen Adventures in Ely. In 1989, with the Cold War drawing to a close, he, expedition leader Paul Schurke and 10 others completed a joint Russian/American 1,200-mile dog sled and ski expedition called 'Bering Bridge' through the Russian Far East to promote peace and cooperation between the two superpowers. In 1991, he organized and led the Northwest Passage Expedition, making a 3,000-mile, first winter, west to east transit of the Canadian Arctic route by dog sled. In 2001, Dupre and his teammate John Hoelscher of Australia became the first to circumnavigate Greenland. They traveled the 6,500 miles of rugged island coastline by dog team and kayak. Most recently, Dupre along with Eric Larsen completed the One World Expedition, the first summer expedition to the North Pole pulling and paddling white-water canoes over 600 miles of shifting ice. During the trek they collected important data on ice and snow for the National Snow and Ice Data Center and Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Scientists are calling these measurements the Holy Grail of global warming data because no one had ever taken accurate measurements of the Arctic ice across this region during summer. The expedition reached 68 million people worldwide about the ravages of global warming.

Dupre was awarded the Soviet Sportsman Medal for Arctic exploration in 1989 and was elected Fellow National of the Explorers Club in 1996. He has carried the Explorer Club Flag on both his Greenland and North Pole expeditions. Upon completion of the Greenland Expedition, Dupre was keynote lecturer to the Fellows of the Royal Geographic Society in London. In September 2004 Dupre was named one of five Rolex Laureates 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, which expand human knowledge or improve the lot of mankind. Over 1,700 people from 117 countries applied for that year's awards, which span five major areas of recognition: exploration and discovery, science and medicine, technology and innovation, the environment, and cultural heritage. The highly coveted international award carries a $100,000 cash prize and gold Rolex chronometer. In 2005, Dupre received the Explorers Club Scott Pearlman Field Award for Science and Exploration based on his One World Expedition.

Dupre has authored a book titled "Greenland Expedition-Where Ice is Born," and authored a story in the Explorers Club book 'They Lived to Tell the Tale' published by Lyons Press. Dupre's expeditions have been featured in such varied publications as Reader's Digest, Sports Illustrated, Outside Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, and also in front-page stories in Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal and Minneapolis Star-Tribune as well as Internaional newspapers in Scandinavia, Japan, and England. His Greenland expedition was under sponsorship from National Geographic Expeditions Council.

As the book "To the Ends of the Earth: The History of Polar Exploration" notes: "In a time when true exploration has been lost in a headlong rush toward commercialized adventure, or obscured by the glare of high-tech, ego-driven one-upmanship, he stands out as one of the few who embodies the spirit of the early 20th-century explorers. Dupre is from the same mould as Nansen, Amundsen, and Shackleton."

His extensive knowledge and experience, his sense of humor, and his ability to captivate and inspire audiences of all ages, make him a sought-after speaker for corporations, schools and non-profit organizations.

Dupre currently lives in Grand Marais, Minnesota with his wife Kelly. He is 46 years old.

For more information, go to www.lonniedupre.com

Expedition Logistics
USA, age 33

In the winter of 2007, Nancy spent 3 months on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada as a team member and dog trainer with Will Steger's Globalwarming101 Expedition. With 3 Inuit and 4 American teammates, she dogsledded from Iqaluit to Clyde River, a distance of over 600 miles, to raise awareness fo the effects of global warming on the Inuit population.

Previously, Nancy spent 2 years in the Peace Corps in West Africa, thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, and worked a few years as a professional winemaker. She then worked for Outward Bound as a wilderness canoe and dogsled instructor in Ely, Minnesota for four years. In 2004, Nancy completed a 45-day canoe expedition in Nunavut ending at the Arctic Ocean. Now, she is employed as a backcountry ranger with the Forest Service in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and works with sled dogs in the winters.



Denmark, age 42

In 1988 Tine studied as an orthopedic shoemaker and worked for 10 years in that profession.

From 1989 to 1996 she traveled extensively in Australia, New Zealand, and Central America working and hiking. In Israel she spent two months on horseback traveling from south to north.

Between 1996 and 2001 Tine lived in the northwest Greenland village of Qaanaaq together with her husband Torben Diklev, archaeologist and director at Thule Museum. She assisted in archaeological reconnoitering and creating the new exhibition at the museum, which covers 4,500 yeaars of human presence in northwest Greenland. During this period she immersed herself into Polar Inuit culture and lore. Tine participated in traditional hunting trips, preparing both skins and meat according to tradition. Tine learned the Inuit sewing techniques and how to make Polar Inuit skin garments. During this time she also became an accomplished dog sled driver and breeder of Inuit dogs.

In 2003, in cooperation with Torben, then curator of the museum "Knud Rasmussen's House", in Hundested, Denmark, Tine helped create the exhibition "Qaanaaq 50 years". The topic of the exhibition was the Polar Inuit culture and tradition, commemorating the forced movement of the population from Uummannaq/Thule to Qaanaaq 120 kilometres/75 miles to the north.

In 2003 and 2004 she spent time in the Faeroe Islands assisting on sheep farms and participated in a Faeroese/Danish sailing expedition to Svalbard, Norway.

In 2007 she planned and guided a group on a one-month cultural sojourn to west and northwest Greenland.