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April 2026 – Volume Thirty-Two, Number Four
Celebrating our 32th year!
EXPEDITION NEWS, founded in 1994, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects, and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate, and educate.
EXPEDITION UPDATE
| | Steger North Pole Expedition veteran Paul Schurke, an owner of Minnesota’s Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge, with his friend Woopsy. | | |
1986 Steger North Pole Expedition’s Paul Schurke is Still Mushing
As the 1986 Steger North Pole Expedition plans to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a reunion in St. Paul, Minnesota, this fall, former co-leader Paul Schurke, 70, is still mushing along. (See EN, June 2014). Elaine Glusac writes in the New York Times (March 4), of her January trip to Schurke’s Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge on the edge of the frigid Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Ely, about two hours north of Duluth.
For more than 40 years, Schurke, who owns Wintergreen with his wife, Susan Schurke, has been offering dog-sledding excursions, originally as the winter alternative to leading summer canoe trips in the Boundary Waters for people with disabilities.
“We attract dog lovers in a big way,” said Paul, who runs about 100 trips that regularly sell out each winter. “It’s a winning combination to have such accommodating dogs and the forest to enjoy them in.”
Schurke’s numerous polar trips have included retracing the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton’s 1916 expedition across South Georgia Island, and the 1989 Bering Bridge Expedition linking the indigenous people of Alaska with the then Soviet Far East.
Read the Times story here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/travel/dog-sledding-minnesota.html?searchResultPosition=1
Meanwhile, at press time, Paul’s former North Pole co-leader, Will Steger, 81, was about to depart on a 60-day, 800-mile, unsupported rafting expedition in the Northwest Territories from Great Bear Lake to Paulatuk on the Northwest Passage.
See more details about DSteger's latest project and hear daily reports here:
https://www.stegercenter.org/2026log
EXPEDITION NOTES
| | Rendering of the courtyard for the National Geographic Museum of Exploration. (Photo: National Geographic Society) | |
Beyond the Yellow Border: Nat Geo
Launches New Exploration Museum
The National Geographic Society announced last month that the National Geographic Museum of Exploration will open at its global Washington, D.C., headquarters on June 26. The new museum marks a major revitalization of the nearly 130-year-old campus and will span over 100,000 square feet of new public space dedicated to inspiring the explorer in every visitor.
The $300 million re-imagined museum uses cutting-edge, immersive technology and will serve as a center for global discovery for families and travelers.
"Every inch is designed to immerse visitors in explorers' journeys, the tools that move exploration forward, and the curiosity that drives our mission to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world," said Jill Tiefenthaler, NGS CEO.
Museum highlights include archives that celebrate the Society's legacy of storytelling; a Rolex-sponsored display that focuses on the journey from a National Geographic Explorer's first spark of curiosity to their lasting impact. There’s also a curated collection of the Society's most powerful and enduring images.
General admission starts at $29.99 for adults.
Learn more: natgeo.org/moe
| | “A Day of Exploration” was held last month in Monaco. | | |
Scientists and Explorers Unite in Monaco for “A Day of Exploration”
From the preservation of ocean species to exploration on the Moon, from the study of underwater shipwrecks off the coast of Majorca, to the oceans in space. At the Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM), explorers, scientists and prominent figures gathered to share their experiences last month at an event called “A Day of Exploration.”
As EN wrote in January, yachting is becoming a platform for ocean observation and research, actively contributing to a better understanding of our oceans.
Attendees represented a diverse range of careers and approaches, united by a common goal: to better understand the world to better assess its vulnerability.
The event was held in partnership with The Explorers Club and was part of the program of the first Monaco, Capital of Advanced Yachting Rendezvous.
“Here we had artists, biologists, musicians – even a dentist who studies narwhals. The goal of conferences like this is not only to communicate stories, but also to offer different perspectives,” said Explorers Club president Richard Wiese.
In attendance was world-renowned American marine biologist, oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle who said, “To become an explorer, I think the number one thing is curiosity. Everyone should keep the curiosity of children, because everyone has the capacity to be an explorer – you just have to find that inner child and keep going.”
The event’s YCM Explorer Awards honored responsible yacht owners who use their ships as platforms for exploration, scientific research and technological innovation.
Read the announcement:
https://tinyurl.com/MonacoExploration
Watch the YCM Explorer Awards sizzle reel:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DWTxZYdDPLY/
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Home, man feels once more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood. … Afresh dawns the morn of life….”
– Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), British explorer, army officer, writer and scholar. (Source: The quote is from the opening chapter of his book Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, first published in 1855.)
EXPEDITION FOCUS
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Why We Can’t Quit Amelia Earhart;
CNN Plans “Definitive” Documentary
There are greater modern-day aviation mysteries than the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) and her navigator Fred Noonan (1893-1937). Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 which went missing in 2014 with the loss of 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard, immediately comes to mind.
The disappearance of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E in the Republic of Kiribati, 1,650 miles southwest of Hawaii, is arguably the last great unsolved mystery of the 20th century, captivating aviation enthusiasts, researchers, and the public for almost 90 years.
Why do we still care? Between the time she first flew a plane in 1921 until she disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, Earhart became the biggest global celebrity of her day.
She was an international icon, a boundary-breaking celebrity. She was stylish, articulate, and – not for nothing – a friend of the Roosevelts. When someone that famous vanishes into thin air, it creates a cultural vacuum that people naturally want to fill with answers.
Today, there’s an annual Amelia Earhart Festival (July 17-18, 2026) in Atchison, Kansas, Earhart’s hometown; a mural in the Route 66 town of Cuba, Missouri, where she once landed overnight; a 7-ft. bronze statue in the U.S. Capital; countless books, newsreels and movies; and at least 10 schools in the United States and abroad specifically named after the aviation pioneer.
There's also a song by American musician Jim Kweskin called Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYP_7PR_vWc).
Even the U.S. Postal Service honored her with an 8-cent air mail stamp in 1963. (Eight cents? Sigh.)
Recently CNN Films announced that it too can’t quit Amelia.
CNN Films and Imagine Documentaries and have reunited with Storyville Films to produce a feature-length documentary, Amelia. Directed by Academy Award nominees Julie Cohen and Betsy West (RBG), the doc is billed as the definitive portrait of Earhart.
“Nearly a century after her mysterious disappearance, we’re excited to tell the other unknown story about Amelia Earhart: who exactly was this iconic woman who continues to garner headlines and inspire millions,” said Cohen and West.
“We can’t wait to bring to life this feminist, free-thinker and groundbreaking influencer, a global icon whose glamour, courage and chutzpah make her an obvious choice for a rollicking, adventurous film.”
The film will be an immersive journey anchored in Earhart’s own voice, drawing from an extensive archive of film and audio recordings, some previously unseen or unheard, alongside her books, journals, magazine columns, and intimate letters.
Amelia will follow Nauticos, a deep-sea exploration and historical research organization, on its fourth expedition to find Earhart’s Electra, guided by newly acquired proprietary data revealing a possible location of the plane (of course, we’ve seen this all before).
A release date has not yet been announced.
Read the CNN Films announcement here:
https://tinyurl.com/CNNAmelia
MEDIA MATTERS
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From Zero to the Roof of the World
Zero to 8848 is an award-winning documentary that tells the extraordinary story of a 476-mi. journey from Nepal’s lowest point to the top of Everest. Beginning at Kachankawal, Nepal, and rising to the summit of Mount Everest at 8,848 meters, the film explores the shortest natural route from zero elevation (actually 58 meters above sea level) to the top of the world.
Reportedly, it’s the first Nepali-made documentary about Everest, and features a route no tourists have ever walked.
The doc features American climber Conrad Anker, Pushkar Shah, Pasang Tendi Sherpa (16-time Everest summiteer and international mountain guide), and screenwriter Nepali journalist Prem Baniya.
Highlighting Nepal’s unique geography, culture, and resilience, the documentary showcases the physical and mental limits tested during this historic ascent – from fertile plains and remote villages to extreme alpine terrain and the thin air of Everest.
Watch the trailer and learn more about showings near you:
https://zeroto8848.com
EXPEDITION MARKETING
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A baseball cap ($90) and new TEC logo from the Tory Burch x
The Explorers line. (Photo: Tory Burch).
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Peak Chic: New Tory Burch Designs Honor Women Explorers
American fashion designer Tory Burch has introduced a limited-edition capsule of sports apparel and accessories with the Explorers Club (TEC). It features a new “Women in Exploration” patch, according to Lisa Lockwood writing in Women’s Wear Daily (March 6).
Since 1904, the Club’s legacy of adventure and discovery has been embodied by a man on the Explorers Club seal. Burch suggested to TEC they work together to create a new icon celebrating its women members who were finally allowed to join the Club in 1981 thanks in part to the late American astronomer and planetary scientist Carl Sagan advocating on their behalf.
Burch collaborated with nature artist Emily Damstra to design the “Women in Exploration” patch, which depicts a woman climbing skyward in Burch’s signature chevron leggings and jacket.
| | This nylon belt bag ($195) is part of TEC-branded merch. | |
The patch (above) is featured on recycled nylon belt bags, baseball caps, and a tech canvas jacket. Retail prices range from $90 to $595. Pricey? Yes, but it's a great cause.
“Through this collaboration we are supporting women in exploration and creating a women-centric identity for the Club,” James Robinson, VP-Corporate Outreach, tells EN.
Barbara Doran, president-elect of the Club, said, “For more than a century, women have been at the forefront of exploration – diving deeper, climbing higher, and pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery. Jane Goodall, Sylvia Earle, Kathryn Sullivan, and so many others didn’t wait for an invitation. They led the way.
“This partnership with Tory Burch gives that legacy the recognition it deserves, and I’m proud that it will directly support the next generation of women explorers. The patch is new, but the spirit behind it is as old as The Explorers Club itself,” Doran said.
Ten percent of net sales from the capsule will benefit the Club to support women in exploration. The patch will also be used in future merchandise sold by TEC and its partners, according to WWD. The collection is currently available online at ToryBurch.com, and soon at Explorers.org.
(Editor’s note: In the fashion industry “capsule” refers to a strategic release that differs from a line’s main Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter offerings and usually results from a partnership.)
Read the story here:
https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/tory-burch-explorers-club-women-in-exploration-patch-capsule-1238653901/
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Citizen-astronaut Kellie Gerardi
appeared at the “Ultimate Barbie Fan Event” last month.
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Explorer Honored as Barbie Role Model
Citizen-astronaut Kellie Gerardi, 37, is one of the new members of the Mattel’s first-ever Barbie Dream Team honoring women who led the way in their industries. The promotion includes one-of-a-kind dolls made in their likeness, special Barbie Dream Days retail events, and the debut last month of the Barbie Dream Fest, a multi-day fan experience.
Since the iconic doll brand debuted in 1959, Barbie has spotlighted more than 100 women across industries and communities who have driven meaningful change.
This year’s global Barbie Dream Team honors women who were among the first in their fields. Kellie Gerardi, a research astronaut and payload specialist, is joined by tennis legend Serena Williams, a Mexican professional race car driver, a UK women’s footballer, a German pop artist, an Australian professional surfer, a Polish climber, and an Indian cricketer.
“After helping open the door for scientists to fly and operate their own research on commercial spacecraft and walking through it myself as a payload specialist and astronaut, it's now my mission to hold that door open wider for the next generation of girls to follow," said Gerardi, known for conducting microgravity research.
In November 2023, Gerardi, then 34, was part of a Virgin Galactic flight from the New Mexico desert, ascending to 54.3 miles, just shy of the Karman Line (62 miles), which is generally accepted as the place where Earth ends and outer space begins, according to Astronomy magazine (March 2021). (See EN, November 2023).
Read the Mattel announcement here:
https://corporate.mattel.com/news/barbie-celebrates-international-womens-day-with-first-ever-barbie-dream-team-of-global-female-role-models
EXPEDITION INK
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Hurley’s Rescued Endurance Photos
Appear in New Photographic Art Book
On March 5, 2022, just over 100 years after Sir Ernest Shackleton's death, the wreck of the Endurance was located at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. Images of the remarkably preserved ship stirred new interest in one of the great historic tales of heroism.
June will see publication of an official visual record of Endurance in a large format, using digitally mastered prints made directly from the original glass and celluloid plates. They were taken by the expedition’s official photographer, Frank Hurley, who dove into freezing water to save them.
The high-definition images are accompanied by a portfolio of essays written by leading experts who shed fresh light on the fate of Endurance, plus a collectible catalogue of all 280 of Hurley's historic photos. $40 (Riverside Press, 2026).
For more information:
https://tinyurl.com/shackletonbook
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Martian Craze Enthralled the World in Early 1900s
Although the Martians never were real, the excitement about them was genuine and world-changing, for it sparked a new genre called science fiction and helped launch us into space – toward Mars, according to David Baron author of The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America (Liveright, 2025). Baron addressed an Explorers Club talk in Boulder on March 10, 2026, that attracted 90 fans of the Red Planet.
“Mars is inhabited by a highly civilized and intelligent race of beings,” proclaimed Alexander Graham Bell after astronomers discovered what looked like an irrigation canal. When Nikola Tesla, in 1899, set up an experimental laboratory in Colorado Springs and detected radio signals that he believed came from Mars, an all-out craze swept society.
During what amounted to mass hysteria, a songwriter in 1901 wrote a ragtime march called A Signal from Mars; there were Mars-themed ads for Kirk’s American Family soap; A Message from Mars theater performance; and even a comic strip featuring the Martian Mr. Skygack.
Baron spent seven years investigating this strange case of mass delusion. He reveals what the episode says about the human mind: the fallibility of our senses, the power of belief, and the lure of sensationalism.
“Mars wants to kill you in so many ways,” he told the group as he dispelled the possibility of the planet being colonized within his lifetime; Baron foresees that he will live to see astronauts walk on its surface, “although they may be Chinese.”
He continues, “Going to Mars is a lot harder than Elon Musk makes it sound.”
Baron is a former science correspondent for NPR and chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress, and has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other outlets.
Learn more: davidbaronauthor.com
WEB WATCH
| | Robert H. Goddard with the world's first liquid-fueled rocket and launch frame in Auburn, Massachusetts, in 1926. | | |
How Do Rockets Work? Just Ask an Astronaut
It's been a century since a two-second rocket flight in Massachusetts kicked off the liquid-rocket-fuel revolution. Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), who directed the flight, is widely considered to be one of the founders of modern rocketry. Goddard most notably designed, built and tested the first liquid-fuel rocket and flew it over 100 years ago on March 16, 1926.
Goddard was inspired by science fiction, having read H.G. Wells and Jules Verne (among others) while growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, according to Space.com (Mar. 16, 2026). He may have also been inspired by early theories of life on Mars (see related story).
Kudos to retired astronaut and fighter pilot Chris Hadfield for using a simple chair, a rolling platform and fire extinguisher to visibly demonstrate the theory of rocket propulsion.
He is the first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, has flown two Space Shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS).
| Kids, don’t try this at home. (Photo: Facebook screenshot). | | |
Appearing last month at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, where he is a former adjunct professor and current honorary advisor for the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics, Hadfield propelled himself backward using a fire extinguisher serving as a handheld rocket engine.
Hadfield posts, “A fire extinguisher is just a small rocket nozzle; a chair & cart make a good spaceship. Folks ask how it works in space with no air to push against? But it's the mass blasting out that makes me roll. Doesn't need any backstop. Newton's 2nd law.”
Brilliant. And for the dozens of students watching the demo, undoubtedly memorable.
Watch the Facebook video here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1E17ChMyd7/
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Here’s Lucy: New App Ties Digital Cultural
Assets (DCA) to Personal Identity
Lucy is a new app that turns historical artifacts into authenticated Digital Cultural Assets (DCAs) to serve as a personal gateway to the cultures and stories that are an extension of an individual’s identity.
The app works directly with museums and cultural archives to authenticate and digitize artifacts. Every piece has verified provenance. Then online visitors can browse curated files tied to their heritage. They can purchase digital artifacts that speak to their personal story and collect them as authenticated DCAs.
The business model is still unclear, but co-founder Roey Nickelsberg, Ph.D., an Israeli archaeologist and Explorers Club Fellow, says DCAs are unlike NFTs by avoiding artificial scarcity, market speculation and trading.
Watch the video and join the wait list:
https://lucy-waitlist.lovable.app/
BUZZ WORDS
Galumping
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Unofficial term for how seals move on land. Because their pelvic bones are fused, they cannot walk on their flippers and instead must heave their bodies forward in a caterpillar-like, bouncing motion.
Watch the one-min. explainer video:
https://tinyurl.com/galumping
EXPEDITION MAILBAG
Open Letter to the Royal Geographical Society:
Ripley Davenport, a Prehospital Emergency Medical Responder based in Malmo, Sweden, was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) in 2011, vouched for by current Fellows relying on a CV detailing solo expeditions between 1998 and 2009.
By 2012, evidence compiled by me and others that Davenport faked his CV was widely available. In late 2025, Davenport publicly confessed that he had fabricated his entire history of exploration and expeditions. Contacted by RGS, Davenport resigned his FRGS.
Well done, RGS, Code of Conduct upheld, case closed.
Not so fast.
The RGS Fellows who nominated Davenport knew about allegations of fraud as early as 2012. Will RGS ask those Fellows why they failed to advise RGS? Does RGS sweep this Code violation under the rug or go public and learn from it?
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Kent Madin
Bozeman, Montana
rett139@yahoo.com
Kent Madin is an independent investigative journalist who stumbled onto Davenport in 2009 and provided research materials for articles in major European newspapers about fake explorers, Davenport included. His career spans early decades in outdoor education and later decades in
adventure travel, running Boojum Expeditions with his wife Linda.
Resources:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110715185558/
https://www.ripdavenport.org/
https://www.ripdavenport.com
Editor’s Note: We reached out to both Davenport and the RGS on March 20, 2026, for comment. We have yet to hear back.
EXPEDITION CLASSIFIEDS
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Join Conservation Trip to South Africa, June 12-27, 2026
The Katie Adamson Conservation Fund will lead an upcoming trip to South Africa to work with its global conservation teams. Led by Dave Johnson, a former Denver Zoo zookeeper, the trip will focus on how the KACF helps local communities deal with human/wildlife conflict.
Dates: June 12 to 27, 2026.
Activities include participation in a rhino horn trim in Kruger National Park to deter poaching, meeting with local K9 units to watch how the dogs catch poachers, and walking with Timbavati rangers to learn how they protect wildlife. Join our special team and give back to the planet.
Contact: Ray Lucero, Co-founder, Director, ray.lucero@katieadamson.org, 720 468 9414, www.KACF.eco
| | Travel With Purpose, A Field Guide to Voluntourism (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jeff Blumenfeld – People are traveling in record numbers and many include voluntourists. Be ready to lend a hand wherever you go. How to travel and make a difference while you see the world? Read excerpts and “Look Inside” at: tinyurl.com/voluntourismbook | | |
Get Sponsored! – Need money for your next project? Read about proven techniques that will help you find both cash and in-kind sponsors. If the trip is bigger than you, and is designed to help others, well, that’s half the game right there. Read Jeff Blumenfeld’s Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers.(Skyhorse Publishing).
Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Sponsored-Explorers-Adventurers-Travelers-ebook/dp/B00H12FLH2
Advertise in Expedition News – For more information: blumassoc@aol.com
EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 290 Laramie Blvd., Boulder, CO 80304 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2026 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through www.paypal.com. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com.
Research past issues of Expedition News dating back to May 1995 courtesy of the Utah State University Outdoor Recreation Archive. Access is free at: https://tinyurl.com/ENArchivesUSU
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