David Burckett-St Laurent: a man with a mission

If all goes according to plan, this fourth year medical student will be the youngest person ever to be part of a team trekking to the North Pole. Deborah Cohen finds out why anyone in their right mind would want to do this

Imagine it: days of pitch darkness followed suddenly by days of startling light. Temperatures dropping to 100°C with wind chill factor and only ice and water as far as the eye can see. The minute you stop moving the cold sets in, and it's incredibly difficult to warm yourself up. Because your destination keeps on moving, if you go to sleep you could end up 5 km further away from where you want to be. And the only way you know you're there is when your high tech compass, a global positioning system (GPS), shows a reading of 89° 59 mins 59 secs 09 msecs longitude.

On the way to your destination, obstacles continually line your path--hungry wildlife, chasms of freezing water thinly disguised by ice, and the very real risk of hypothermia. Because of the conditions, you eat an unpleasant high protein, high fat, dried food diet that may give you diarrhoea. But there are no toilets or loo roll--only snow. What's more, the effect of your journey takes …