e-mail
	comment

A VISIONARY: In 1968, Ralph Plaisted led a team of adventurers on Ski-Doos who became the first to reach 90° North by over-ice mechanized travel.

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: Ralph Plaisted signs the hood of Bill Donner’s 1968 Ski-Doo Super Olympique—the same model of Ski-Doo that reached the top of the world on April 19, 1968.

Not many will recognize April 20th as the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest polar expeditions ever. This is an expedition that remains virtually unknown by most historians; perhaps it is better known by vintage snowmobile buffs than anyone else.

For a child growing up at the right time to experience the dawn of the snowmobile phenomenon, the highlights were many: the first snowmobile sighting, the first ride, the first time to drive one—and so on. I can remember the excitement of even seeing a snowmobile track in the snow.

A tale worth retelling

As I grew up, there was one adventure I thought was the ultimate for a snowmobiler: the Plaisted Polar Expedition to the North Pole.

I probably would have missed hearing about it in 1968 (when I was 13 years old), except for the neighbour at our cottage; Mr. Milt Christian was a Bombardier Ski-Doo dealer and he regaled my father with the details of Ralph Plaisted and his expedition. I listened to every word.

“Wow,” I thought, “how cool would that be?”

The truth was very cool—downright cold in fact. The expedition averaged temperatures that were between -40° and -50° F.

The thought of going along with those guys and making history was constantly on my mind. The thought of being the first expedition to the North Pole by mechanical device over the ice was a very adventurous idea for a 13-year-old to contemplate.

A 38-year-old American by the name of Ralph Plaisted must have had the same thoughts. Ralph was from St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A., and was bitten by the snowmobile bug in the early ’60s. He cooked up the idea of duplicating Admiral Robert Peary’s 1909 expedition to the North Pole, but instead of using dog teams he would use Ski-Doo snowmobiles.

Starting out

The trip was first planned in 1967, with 10 Ski-Doo Olympique 10-horsepower machines and 12 men in the party. This trip is well documented in a book by Charles Kuralt called To the Top of the World. The 1967 trip was unsuccessful in reaching the Pole, but a lot of valuable lessons were learned.

The next year, starting on March 7, 1968, a trimmer party of eight snowmobiles and eight men were gathered for the second attempt. Only four men would make up the ice party, with the others at base camp on Ward Hunt Island as support.

The Ski-Doos used this time were the more powerful 1968 Super Olympique models with a 16-horsepower Rotax motor and the newly developed ramp-type secondary clutch. These machines were far superior to the 1967 models; in addition, the expedition mechanic, Walt Pederson, had made several modifications to make them better suited for the extremes.

Walt was a Ski-Doo dealer from Minnesota himself and a bit of a mechanical genius. He invented the first handlebar hand-warmers, used golf cleats in the track for added traction on ice and installed a large auxiliary gas tank on the hood. Walt pioneered extreme-cold starting techniques, such as sticking a burning rag held on a wire in front of the carb and pulling it over to start. The Bombardier people, who supplied the Ski-Doos for both trips, obviously had a great deal of faith in Ralph and Walt as key players or else they wouldn’t have risked it. The upside to making it 830 miles across drifting, broken ice floes would be a claim to the reliability and toughness of their snowmobile. If it could conquer the Arctic Sea ice and make it to the North Pole, it could go anywhere—this was the marketing idea at the time. It was a gamble, but it was the right one.

Reaching the top of the world

On April 19, 1968, after 43 days of hacking their way across the ice, the expedition party of Ralph Plaisted, Walt Pederson, Jean-Luc Bombardier and Gerry Pitzl made it to the Pole.

Bombardier Inc. had sent Jean-Luc, the nephew of the company founder, Joseph-Armand Bombardier, to act as scout; his skills as a Ski-Doo rider were well known and he was extremely valuable as a trail breaker. The difficult job of navigation belonged to Gerry Pitzl, a schoolteacher from Minnesota who taught geography. The endless Arctic days with constantly drifting ice made Pitzl’s job interesting, to say the least. The bottom line is that he nailed the North Pole dead on and the air force confirmed it.

They spent a day at the Pole and waited for a U.S. air force plane to fly over on April 20th to confirm they were indeed directly at the exact geographic North Pole. These four men became the first “over the ice” party to be confirmed to have reached the Pole by independent confirmation. It was learned later that Robert Peary’s claim is disputed and unconfirmed. A book written by the famous Arctic adventurer Wally Herbert—called The Noose of Laurels—has studied the claim by Peary and concluded the likelihood of Peary making it to the exact North Pole seems doubtful and his claim lacked confirmable evidence.

Real-life heroes

My research into this story was made interesting when I decided to see if I could speak to the surviving Plaisted explorers that reached the Pole. I learned that Jean-Luc Bombardier had passed away in the ’70s but the three others were living in the U.S.A. I spoke to Ralph Plaisted first and as it turned out he was coming to Saskatchewan to hunt geese and invited me to meet with him. I was overjoyed to accept and drove to Lloydminster, Alberta, to spend more than five hours learning about the expedition and the leader himself. I had dinner that evening with Ralph and his wife, Sally. I was invited to Ralph’s 80th birthday party the next weekend; of course, I attended and had birthday cake with Ralph and was able to meet with his daughters and friends. It was a thrill to meet and get to know a man I had thought about as a hero for 40 years.

I have spoken to Walt Pederson and Jerry Pitzl via telephone and their information combined with Ralph’s has helped me to piece the story together. Interestingly, a book has never been written about the 1968 expedition. Walt Pederson wrote a children’s book called The Adventures of Little Lady detailing the expedition’s adventures through the eyes of his Ski-Doo. It is well illustrated with lots of actual photos.

This remarkable trip made by some very remarkable men will go down in history as one of the greatest polar achievements of all time. With global warming reducing the polar ice cap yearly, it is likely that soon this trip will be impossible to duplicate. These men, in my view, are unsung heroes that history has barely recognized. To Ralph, Walt and Gerry I say: you are brave men who will be remembered. Happy 40th Anniversary to the 1968 Plaisted Polar Expedition.

What became of the gear?

In speaking with the three men, I learned that one Ski-Doo was left behind on the ice after they reached the North Pole. The expedition pilot, Mr. Weldy Phipps, picked up the four explorers from the Pole in a De Havilland Twin Otter airplane. With the two pilots, two cameramen and four expedition members on board, there was only room for three Ski-Doos (without engines) and their personal gear—that’s it!

• The eight-foot Sno Champ fibreglass sleighs that were badly damaged over 43 days of ice ridges were considered junk and left on the ice; none were hauled back from the Pole.

• Ralph said the odd six-footer Sno Champ with a Plaisted decal still exists around Minnesota; they used these for training and later ice fishing. Contrary to stories that are told, none of the eight-footers returned from the Pole.

I have been able to confirm with the Bombardier museum the items they have from the expedition.

• On display to the public is Jean-Luc’s ’68 Ski-Doo Super Olympique named Le Swinger.
• In storage is Ralph’s ’67 Ski-Doo Olympique named Caribou Queen from the unsuccessful 1967 trip as well as Walt’s ’68 Ski-Doo named Little Lady.
• They are not sure where Ralph’s ’68 Ski-Doo ended up; Ralph thinks it is in an American museum but he is not exactly sure where.