The Polar Challenge was a competitive, 350 nautical mile (650 kilometer) team race taking place in the Arctic, to the 1996 location of the Magnetic North Pole.
The race ran between mid-April and mid-May each year, taking teams approximately 4 weeks to complete, including the training time.
Paul “Seamus” Hogan, a sales manager from London, England, with no experience of the outdoors whatsoever, was asked to enter the Challenge for the program.
Competitors began by participating in a 4-day, 65-nautical-mile (120 km) training expedition in which they set off from Resolute, Nunavut in northern Canada to Polaris Mine on Little Cornwallis Island, the Polar Challenge starting point.
The first two checkpoints were re-supply points where competitors rested for 12–24 hours and took on new food and fuel supplies, and the third was the 1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole.