A team of adventurers planning to drive a pair of hybrid Hummers to the South Pole later this year will soon test the specially modified vehicles on a 400-mile run across the frozen Arctic Ocean off the Alaska coast.
The “micro-expedition” leaving the Prudhoe Bay oil fields next week will give organizers a chance to drive the vehicles in subzero temperatures under the eyes of an Alaska off-road guide trained to handle polar bear encounters, according to the group’s application for a state land-use permit. While polar bears won't be an issue in Antarctica, cold and ice will.
The effort has been organized by Drive Around the World, a California-based nonprofit whose members have conducted previous long-distance treks to raise money or highlight social issues.
The Antarctica trip, a 22-day, 1,200-mile journey planned for the relative warmth of December -- summer in the Southern Hemisphere -- is designed to showcase renewable energy in one of the harshest climates imaginable, according to the groups’ website.
The group hopes to highlight the need for sustainable practices, said Jonathan Knowles, a member of the expedition who works for Autodesk, an international software company that provided the program to design the rigs.
