In March 2002 Jim McNeill placed an advert calling for volunteers with no previous Arctic experience to take part in one of the most ambitious series of expeditions of our time.

Respondents were selected first by paper and then by attendance at an outdoor selection process on Dartmoor giving rise to the Ice Warrior Squad.

After ten months of UK training the squad set off in March of 2003 to undergo a 70 day, comprehensive training programme in the Arctic, at the end of which they had become competent and experienced sea ice travellers.