Navigating by Knickers
British North Pole expedition finds their way using sexy underwear instead of GPS or compasses
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Map. Compass. GPS. These traditional navigation tools remain the indispensable standbys of any expedition. But on your next inevitable sojourn into the unknown wild, ditch the Garmin and pick up a copy of Victoria’s Secret: Lacy women’s underwear is the latest in orienteering technology.
Just ask British Arctic explorer Pen Hadow, first solo trekker to the North Pole and leader of the Catlin Arctic Survey. In their quest to blaze an uncharted route to measure the thickness of the ice at the North Pole, they’ve been forced to use the sun and wind to navigate as their proximity to the pole drives their compasses batty and the cold drains their GPS batteries. Their racy solution? Affix a pair of donated women’s panties to a ski pole and let the wind do the rest.
“It an entirely genuine situation. If you can get gossamer thin material and attach it your ski pole it is particularly useful for this project because we can cannot use the compass as we are so close to magnetic north and it is too cold to use the GPS.”
“As such, we’re currently relying on more traditional methods for day-to-day navigation, using the sun (for those few precious hours each day when it graces us with its presence), and using wind direction, as indicated by the panties…”
“As indicated by the panties…” I can’t recall any member of BACKPACKER’s Map Team ever saying that during GPS training, but I’m going to have to check to be sure.
One thing’s for certain: Navigation just got a whole lot sexier…
—Ted Alvarez
Lacy underwear secret tool of polar expedition (Telegraph)
via the Goat
Image Credit: Flirtykitty