WE MADE IT TO THE NORTH POLE (polar plunge!)

Six days ago, we boarded this icebreaker.

And since then, we have traveled 1100 nautical miles from the northernmost city in the world all the way here to the North Pole.

We're on top of the world. We are going to be spending the next 24 hours stuck here in the ice, on top of the world. And in just a few minutes, we're going to be changing out of these warm parkas and into our swimsuits. Polar fly to the North Pole.

Here we go.

We are so close. Seven nautical miles away from the North Pole. And for the first time in six days of being on the ship, we are about to have the opportunity to get off and stand on the ice that we've been watching flow past out the window for the last week. Finally, what a day. Stepping on the Arctic ice for the first time and hopefully later this evening, actually reaching the North Pole. Okay, we have a lot of clothes to put on.

Waterproof pants, insulated layer, super cheap H and M sweatshirt that I bought last week.

I might should put my sweatpants on. Are you putting your sweatpants on?

I don't have sweatpants. Socks, insulated, buff. And our goats. I am warm.

It's happening.

It's happening.

Oh, it's getting colder the lower we go. Oh, my gosh.

Wow.

Wow.

Our first time. Well, it's not touching land. I was gonna say our first time. Touch. Landon.

Oh. You trusted the thickness of that ice. We're doing it.

We're standing on the Arctic Ocean.

This is insane.

There's nothing between us and the sea floor except for 2 meters of ice and thousands of feet of water.

Look at how deep this is. I feel like we're gonna blow away.

We're experiencing 30 knots of wind.

So the way these landings are working is the expedition team came out before us. They set up these poles to mark perimeter, and then pretty much, we're just completely free to do whatever we want inside of the perimeter. I love having this amount of freedom.

We also have to wear our life jackets because there is the possibility of falling through the ice, which would definitely be scary, but also kind of awesome.

I don't know how much I love that. It's kind of slushy on top. Being out here, walking on the ice, just seeing how much snow there is and then knowing that this ice is holding up hundreds of people gives me even more appreciation for the work that this boat has been doing to break through the ice for the last six days.

I'm warm. This is a lot of work.

The snow is different. This is all over the ice. So every once in a while you'll just be walking and all of a sudden you'll sink all the way down to your knee. I just feel so grateful to be here. This is amazing.

In addition to the stakes that they have marking the outer perimeter of where we can go, they also have guard stations with rifles and handguns to protect us in case a polar bear comes. We still haven't seen one yet. There are 25,000 in this world and not a single one of those has crossed paths with our ship in the last week. They do say it's less likely to see a polar bear actually around the North Pole. You'd be more likely to see it where the ice is more broken up the more further south.

I cannot believe at some point in the next 24 hours I'm going to be out here in a bathing suit, jumping in the water.

The one word that I can think of to describe that experience was intense.

Even though there technically wasn't anything to do but walk in a circle, I could stay out here all day. Just the feeling of standing on a frozen ocean. I love it.

Thank you. This is the best day ever.

So just wait to do that. We finish all our operation on the ice. So consequently, we will start to proceed again to North Pole.

All right, we have just started the last eight nautical miles until we get to the North Pole. It's pretty crazy. We actually had to back up out of that big ice sheet that we had rammed into and find a cleaner path to get there. We are officially on our way to the North Pole. We interrupt this video to bring you some breaking travel news. We are launching a newsletter called the Daily Drop.

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Knowing how close we are to the North Pole, I just can't let myself go inside. I feel like Nate right now. I'm just too excited. The wind is blowing harder, snowing more, and the ice that we're going through is getting thicker and thicker. Gosh, just watching us go through these huge ice chunks, it's just mesmerizing. I cannot believe we're about to be at the North Pole. The North Pole.

We're hanging out in the bridge where all the action's happening. As we approach the North Pole, I feel like if anybody's gonna celebrate that we got there safely, it's gonna be all the guys behind me. Seriously, those time lapses of the ship sped up moving through the ice make me appreciate doing so much more. Also, they have some futuristic space looking ice chart. It looks like a spider web and apparently that's showing them where the thinnest ice is. So we're not taking the most direct path to the North Pole. We're taking the one that makes the most sense based on the thickness of the ice and how quickly we're getting there.

So we are two vertical miles south of North Pole and we will now start to proceed ahead in order to try to catch 90 then with a row.

So.

I'm just so glad we get to be up here and see it from their perspective.

The moment the captain took his seat, everyone got quiet.

The mood has totally changed up here, dear passengers.

Just to let you know that we just reached a latitude of 89°59 minutes north. We just have 1 minutes left to.

Go, which is 1 nautical miles or.

1852 meters to reach the North Pole.

We're so close. It's so quiet, so quiet.

I can't stand the anticipation.

So apparently putting a boat on top of the North Pole is pretty challenging with the wind and the current and the ice the captain took over about an hour ago. Everyone's been whisked spring ever since. We've been driving around in circles trying to get it perfect. The suspense is real right now. It's kind of like if you're watching a movie and it was about to be the climax and someone just paused it and made you wait for an hour. That's what it's felt like.

I have no idea what's going on, but I feel like we're close.

I can't understand anything that's going on just based on the fact that nobody's cheering with mist again.

It.

We made it.

So, dear passengers, we finally succeeded to find the 9.00 despite it was a bit challenging due to the wind condition and the ice. However, we did it. And now we invite all of you in the atrium deck five to celebrate this first time for the common charcute with passengers to reach the North Pole.

We made it.

We're on top of the world.

I can't believe it. I don't know what to do with myself.

Yay.

I feel like we should celebrate, but at the same time, I feel like all we did was get on a cruise ship and be on vacation for the last week. And now we're here.

We've been living in luxury.

So in a way, it kind of feels wrong to celebrate. I feel like I needed to pull a sled here or something.

I can't believe it. The North Pole.

It wasn't even on my bucket list because it was that far out there that I didn't even think it was ever going to be a possibility in my lifetime.

But here we are. Two kids from Tennessee who left to go backpacking for a year and spent all their money. We made it to the North Pole.

Hey, Christian. We are in the North Pole. Mr. Nathan is my guest.

Okay.

Thank you again. Let's go. He's our room attendant. He's been awesome all week. Karen's taking photos. Housekeeping.

Look at these giant balls.

Cheers. We made it. Cheers.

It's 11pm I'm wearing sunglasses, and we're at the North Pole.

Good morning from the top of the world. Slept amazing last night. My best sleep of the entire cruise because the boat was perfectly still just parked here on the ice. Today we are spending a full day at the North Pole. But first, let us give you a little tour around.

I have no clue what that thing is, but I want one. Or I at least want to drive one once.

So there's really not that much to do at the North Pole because it's pretty much just ice. But they have set up a bunch of fun photo ops.

I think a full nap.

I just realized this was an arrow. Oh, we're doing it. We're doing it. Wow, that's pretty heavy.

Yeah, that was hard.

All good. I feel like a little kid out playing in the snow.

Today is also French National Day.

This is the world's slowest break.

I wonder how old this is.

Thank you. It just hit me that not only is champagne a celebratory drink, but this is also a French tip. So this is like a celebration and a cultural experience all in one.

Champagne and caviar at the North Pole. This is a proper celebration.

Also, this is only my third time having caviar. First time was on a plane. Second time was on a train. Third time was on a frozen sea. Where will I eat caviar next?

Okay, I'm getting my mile in. I'll explain what all of this is about in the next video.

Nate is nuts.

Oh, the weather's taking a turn for the worse this afternoon. The wind's picked up, the snow started, and in the next hour or so, we're supposed to be jumping in this water. It was so bright and sunny this morning.

If all goes as planned, we are doing the polar plunge in about an hour. So I've come to the sauna to get my body temp up. I was still pretty cold from this morning. I don't think this is cheating. I was just thinking about how much I've grown as a person the last couple years, because two and a half years ago in Antarctica, Nate had to pull me out of bed. Don't make me do it.

Please don't make me do it. Drag me out of our room to do the polar plunge. I was 0% excited and 100% nervous. I didn't want to do it at all. And here we are at the North Pole, and they didn't even have to ask me if I wanted to do it. It was just understood that I was participating. And I'd say I'm like, 50% excited, 50% nervous, ladies and gentlemen. So we confirm at 3pm we'll start the polar plunge.

Please.

You can start to disembark and go.

Oh, we're doing it.

Oh, my goodness. It's so cold. The wind, it hurts.

We at the North Pole in bathrobes. How was it?

Good. Okay. Cold. Oh, you are here.

Minus 0.5 degrees for the water. Are you ready? Come on, you can do it. You got any to click off your.

Boots at some point?

Oh, I forgot about my boot.

Oh, my gosh, my feet. Okay, are you ready? All right. I can't believe I'm doing this. Here we go. Polar plunge at the North Pole.

Ten seconds.

Thank you.

Okay. I was a huge weenie when I did this in Antarctica.

The world's biggest brain freeze. My goal is to stay in the water for 10 seconds. My heart is beating so fast, I.

Can literally, as I'm walking, like, feel the blood in my legs. Like, I can feel it tingly and moving around.

Oh, my gosh.

It's already bad. I think this is the worst part. Ah, the belt's so cold. I gotta do a belly flop. Okay. I figure it doesn't matter, right? I'm not gonna be able to feel my body anyway. I might as well belly flop. One minute of pain for a lifetime of memories.

This feels so wrong.

Ready?

Breathe, breathe.

Okay.

Okay. I've enjoyed.

I did it.

Oh, I feel dizzy.

Oh, I still have the belt on.

I still have the belt on. How you feel?

Oh, like happy human.

Golly.

He can't take straight.

I'm so proud of you. You stayed him for so long. Wow.

I committed to the belly flop, and I'm proud of that.

You did not hold back.

Who's in charge of the shots? Cheers, guys. Race Station sante. Cheers.

Leonardo DiCaprio.

I love you.

I'm proud of you.

Wow.

I don't even feel cold except my hands. My hands are cold.

My hands are pretty cold. I can't believe we just swam it below freezing water.

Thanks. All right. I don't even feel cold.

Okay, that's it for the video. See you in the next one.

We are sailing away from the North Pole. We were able to see from the helicopter our previous track, which was easy to see it. And we'll try to follow this track.

And 14 nautical miles south, there is a big polynia, which means a space with open water.

Before you go, we wanted to say a big thank you to Swoop for helping us plan this adventure and making it possible.

And also a thank you to Ponot.

For inviting us on board their beautiful ship. If you'd like to travel to the North Pole, or if you need help planning your next polar adventure, we'll leave.

Links to both of these companies in the description below. I think maybe don't tuck your sweatshirt into your underwear.

You want to hold this?

See it?

I'm trying to prevent air from escaping. This is like a test for the North Pole. I don't feel like we're going to be out there long because it's almost lunchtime.

I think very few people on this boat are concerned about lunch.

Oh, sorry. This girl likes to eat.