Heart of cold

WHEELS OF FORTUNE John Huston pulls two 50-pound tires at North Avenue Beach to simulate towing a 200-pound sled to the North Pole.

He moves as fast as a wounded turtle, but when John Huston hits the beach, he’s like Britney on a rampage: impossible to ignore.

“I’m a magnet,” says the 31-year-old, who works on a contract basis, guiding expeditions and giving outdoor survival lectures. “People gawk at me, and sometimes they even shake their heads. Traffic will slow down.”

We’d stare, too, if we saw him coming. Three days a week, the Glen Ellyn native straps on a harness and lugs two 50-pound tires down North Avenue Beach. The reason? The tires mimic the drag of a 200-pound sled, which Huston hopes to pull unassisted to the North Pole next spring.

“I want to do the trip as self-sufficiently as possible,” says Huston, a Northwestern graduate. “The harder it is, the more driven I am to do a good job.”

In March, Huston and his expedition partner, Tyler Fish, will kiss their cars goodbye and fly to the northernmost tip of Canada’s Ellesmere Island, where they’ll begin their eight-week, 500-mile journey. Their goal is to reach the North Pole by April, without any sled dogs, helicopters or supply drops—something no American has accomplished. “It’s the hardest trek on the planet,” Huston says. “Only 22 people have made it. In my [opinion], people didn’t prepare humbly enough.”

Given his résumé, Huston’s got a decent shot at success. In January, he led his first expedition to the South Pole, and in 2005, he schlepped 1,400 miles across Greenland with a team of Norwegians. He’s also a former instructor with Outward Bound, a program that leads young adults on challenging outdoor expeditions.

Huston says his trips taught him an important lesson: Respect time and use it wisely. Out on the ice, he and Fish will follow a rigid, office drone–like schedule: Wake at 6am. Work. Eat. Repeat.

“It’s really not that much different than a normal person’s working day,” he says.

Throughout the journey, the men will face multiple threats: Temperatures will hover near 30 degrees below zero, ice conditions will shift constantly and hungry polar bears will be on the prowl.

Plus, the polar exploring duo’s menu would probably make the hardiest inmate cry. “We eat dried-meat-fat paste for breakfast and dinner,” says Huston about their preparations. “Plus, we don’t bathe.”

In exchange for their suffering, Huston and Fish hope to spread the word about climate change, which they say is having a huge effect on the Arctic. They’ll also conduct scientific research for the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, along with psychological research on coping with extreme, remote environments for the University of Minnesota.

“We’re not going up there on an ego trip,” Huston says. “The Arctic Ocean is half as thick as it was 20 years ago. In 15 years, this trip may not be possible.”