We were incorrect to state in the May 2012 issue of Expedition News that the children of explorers Paul Schurke and Rick Sweitzer set youngest-ever North Pole records in 1993. They were not precisely at the North Pole. The children were flown out onto the Arctic Ocean to meet their fathers who had dogsledded and skied to the North Pole. Their plane landed at the spot nearest the Pole that had ice thick and stable enough to support an aircraft. According to a story in the February 13, 1993 Chicago Tribune, written by Sweitzer and confirmed by him this month to be correct, that spot was approximately 13 miles from the point Schurke and Sweitzer had determined to be the North Pole.
Our thanks to Jaimie Donovan’s father, endurance runner Richard Donovan, for pointing out this error. We were wrong to question the eight-year-old’s Guinness World Record.
We confirmed the error after reaching Paul Schurke on May 21, a day after he returned from a dogsled trek across Svalbard Island, located in the Arctic Ocean.
We also regret saying that Jaimie was nicknamed “Captain Tot”. That was a name given to her in the headline of the Apr. 10 UK Daily Mail. Richard Donovan confirms that it is not her nickname.
We apologize for any misunderstandings this error may have caused.
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