Explorer Stuck Alone At North Pole

(CBS)  Pen Hadow is at the North Pole tonight, just about as alone as a human being can be.

The 41-year-old British adventurer has become the first person to walk solo from northern Canada across the frozen sea to the North Pole.

The trick -- he has learned –- will be getting back alive.

His training was basic, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips. Hadow hauled some old tires and one of his kids around during the past British winter.

And rather than walk around open water -- he had planned to swim through it using a special dry suit. Somehow, it worked.

Sixty-four days later, as documented on his web site, Hadow reached the pole last Monday, which is when his troubles really began. He's been sitting on the drifting ice ever since, surviving on a diminishing diet of dried fruit, nuts and chocolate, waiting for the fog to lift so a plane can land to pick him up. One attempt has already failed. And fog isn't the only problem. He hasn't been able to call on his satellite phone since the batteries died. He can only send brief coded messages through a beacon device.

The longer Hadow has to wait, the harder it will be to get him, because the weather is getting warmer and the ice is breaking up.

It will be at least another 24 hours before Hadow can be picked up. If that attempt fails there are plans to drop food to him.

The explorer has prepared a landing strip on the ice using a flare and his remaining ski. He lost the other one after falling through thin ice last month.

Meanwhile, he sits alone in a tent on an ice floe, surrounded by
fog, with only the knowledge that he has done what no one has done before
to keep him company.