Richard Weber named to Order of Canada for polar adventures

For most people, a trip to the North Pole would be a major once-in-a-lifetime achievement, remembered and dined out on for years.

Canadian adventurer Richard Weber has been there seven times, more than anybody in history.

Weber, who lives near Ottawa,has just beennamed to the Order of Canadafor his decades of pioneering work as an explorer, adventurer and advocate for Arctic research and preservation.

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"It's a great honour, of course. It's really nice to be recognized," he said.

Besides his many trips to the North Pole, Weber has set up the non-profit Arctic Watch Beluga Foundation,to promote and support beluga research at Cunningham Inleton Nunavut's Somerset Island.

A series of firsts

Webermade his first trip to the North Pole30 years ago, when he became the first person to do soon foot.

"I had this opportunity, and I thought, 'wow, this is pretty cool," Weber said. "One thing kind of led to the other."

What followed over the next decades were a series of firsts first to reach the Pole from both sides of the Arctic Ocean (1988);first to stand exactly at the Geographic North Pole (1989);first trip to the Pole with no outside help (1995);first expedition to the Pole using only snowshoes (2006). In 2010, he set a record by trekking tothe Pole from Canada in just 41 days.

His most memorable trip was the 1995 expedition, witha Russian partner,Mikhail Malakhov. Nobody had successfully staged anunsupported tripto the Pole, and none hasdone it since.

"One hundred and twenty-twodays entirely self-supported, and we just managed to do it. Personally, it was my greatest trek."

'A different place'

Weber's many trips to the Pole have given him a unique perspective on how that environment has changed in recent decades. His first visit was in 1986, and his final trip was in 2010.

Between his first and last trips, it became "a different place."

"The weather's warmer, the ice is thinner, there's much less multi-year ice," he said. "There's much more openwater, huge expanses of open water that weren't there in the 1980s.

"It's shocking. It's completely shocking."

Weber has also noticed big changes at Arctic Watch, the resort heoperateson Nunavut'sSomerset Island.

"When we first went there, there were no biting insects. And the little cabins had mosquito netting, and I removed some of the mosquito netting. I said, 'this is ridiculous, what's this for?'"

This past summer, mosquitos were out in force.

"You don't get insects unless you change the climate," he said.

Weber was one of 69 people who received appointments to the Order of Canada last month.