Who are your clients?
We've brought some children up there, and we've brought folks up to 88 years old. Most people are in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, and have worked all their lives to make something of themselves, and saved some money, and then found that their life has zapped away from them before they got that adventure that they always said they were going to get. It costs about $15,000 to go to the North Pole, so you have to decide if you want to buy a car or fly up there for a week.

What is the most important piece of advice you'd give someone going to the North Pole?
To take the itinerary that you plan, open up the window, and throw it out, because it's never gonna be that. It's never going to go as planned. It's an expedition. If you want to go on a tour, or a cruise, go to the Caribbean. If you want to go on an expedition, go to the North Pole. People say to me, "What time is this flight going to fly?" and I say, "We talk in days, what day will it fly."

What are some of the worst experiences you've had?
In 1997, when we did the first trip, there was a white-out for five days and we were stuck in a tent. We had five people in a tent, and one of them had a panic attack because the white-out went on day after day and no one could rescue us. The nearest rescuers were about 800 miles away and they were grounded. During a white-out, the wind blows so hard from where the ice is to about 25 feet up, that permafrost blows around, and you can't see your hand in front of your face. You go outside with a rope because people have gone outside the tent to go to the bathroom and never been seen again.

How would you describe the place to someone who has never traveled there?
The North Pole is not just a geographical location or a physical activity, it is a psychological entity. People will say, "Yeah, I'll go up there, that sounds like fun." And then when we take them to the real North Pole, where there's just a helicopter, and they get out of the aircraft and walk around, people are hit with the psychological entity of it. It's the largest desert on the earth. The thing is, you can describe it, you can see it on a video, you can think it, you can read it, but you can't at all feel it psychologically until you're there. It's not describable. That's what the 15,000 dollars are worth.