World First: Ponant Trans-Arctic Voyage Reaches North Pole of Inaccessibility

Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s first luxury icebreaker, has celebrated a new first: The ship has become the first to sail to the North Pole of Inaccessibility. On board, 20 scientists marked the event with guests and crew on a journey from Nome, Alaska, to Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Norway. 

“Reaching the North Pole of Inaccessibility is a moment of rare intensity,” says Captain Étienne Garcia.
This is the third North Pole Le Commandant Charcot crossed on this journey, having passed the Magnetic North Pole on September 13 and the Geographic North Pole on September 15.

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How can there be three poles? 

The Magnetic North Pole is the point where the Earth’s magnetic field is focused and where the needle of a compass would begin to point downward to the center of the Earth. It moves as the molten interior of the planet moves, and since the early 2000s has been gradually flowing from Canada toward northern Russia. 

The Geographic North Pole is the arbitrary point where all the lines of longitude converge on a map; in other words, where every step you take in any direction is southward. 

The North Pole of Inaccessibility, on the other hand, is a sailor’s measurement. It’s the point in the Arctic Ocean pack ice that’s farthest from any landmass. It’s currently pinpointed at 85°48′N 176°9′W, or about 626 miles (1,008 kilometers) from  Henrietta Island in the De Long Islands, from the Arctic Cape of Severnaya Zemlya, and from Ellesmere Island in Canada.
In 1927, Hubert Wilkins flew over the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility for the first time in a plane, but until now, no one had ever set foot on it.
Le Commandant Charcot made it to this remote point thanks to a Polar Class 2 (PC2) hull, with minimal environmental impact thanks to a hybrid electric engine powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). The ship’s complement of scientific researchers were able to collect data in person in a region that has never been explored so directly.