According to The International Herald Tribune, GPS systems and wireless communications have changed the nature of exploring the earth’s most remote regions.
It was 1 a.m. and sunny when Ben Saunders, a young British adventurer, stumbled giddily into the mess tent at Camp Borneo, a way station for thrill seekers, scientists and extreme tourists 60 miles from the North Pole.
Sodden and chilled, he had just completed 13 solitary days of skiing, swimming and trudging to and from the top of the world, towing provisions and gear 120 miles (195 kilometers) in a sledge across the crack-laced ice floes.
Now that he was safe and warm, what was the first thing to do?
He did not join the French trekkers, South Korean skiers and Russian skydivers celebrating Russian Orthodox Easter with boiled eggs and rounds of vodka.
Instead, Saunders, 25, sat down at a table, pulled out his palm-size iPaq digital assistant, his pocket-size Global Positioning System locator, his satellite phone and his digital camera and began updating his Web site.
Such is the state of exploration these days.
