Las Vegas man ready for cold northern trek

By Christopher Drexel

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 | midnight

To most people, the North Pole means Santa Claus. But to Dell Weingarten, it means the challenge of his life.

The Centennial Hills resident will be one of three Americans to participate in the Polar Challenge, a 368-mile ski and hike from northern Canada to the Magnetic North Pole. The journey will be done in temperatures reaching as low as minus 75 degrees. Racers will travel between 14 and 18 hours a day, often sleeping only four hours a night from mid-April to mid-May 2009.

It's a Herculean task for anyone. But at 55 years old when the race begins, Weingarten will be double the age of his two American teammates.

"I feel elated to be doing this," Weingarten said. "I want to show Americans you don't have to sit on the couch. If you eat healthy and exercise you can do amazing things with your life. "

Weingarten learned of the race from an ad in Wired Magazine. He applied for one of the three available spots by filling out an online application. From there, 40 people were selected for a tryout just outside Denver.

At the tryout, contestants ran a military-style obstacle course that included wall climbing, repelling, building a raft and running 8 miles on a trail using a GPS tracker. They were judged on physical ability, teamwork skills and enthusiasm. Weingarten was not only the oldest chosen, but the oldest of all the contestants.

The other two chosen include a 26-year-old male skier from Oregon who is training for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and a 28-year-old female from Rhode Island.

Though he hasn't regularly skied since moving to Las Vegas in 2001, Weingarten is no stranger to freezing weather.

"Everyone (at the tryouts) probably thought, 'What is this old guy from Las Vegas doing here?'" Weingarten said. "But skiing is like when you ride a bike. You don't lose the basics."

Weingarten grew up in Wisconsin, and one of his first jobs was working at a ski lodge from 1976 to 1983. He then began his current career, working for Northwest Airlines in a Minneapolis. There, he helped load planes in frigid weather for 18 years before taking a similar position at McCarran International Airport.

Weingarten's son Nick, a 2003 Centennial graduate, said his father's experience in the Midwest will have him prepared.

"We grew up in a lot of sub-zero, negative 30 days, so that will help him," said Nick Weingarten, currently a medic in the National Guard who will be in Afghanistan when is father is in the North Pole. "I won't be able to watch him, but I'm excited for him. How many times in your life do you get a chance to go to the North Pole?"

Dell Weingarten moved to Las Vegas partially for the for the hiking possibilities the weather brings. He has been a hiking at the Grand Canyon and Mount Charleston.

To further prepare himself for the Polar Challenge, Weingarten and his teammates will undergo a week of training this February in Norway that includes diving into holes cut in frozen lakes and avoiding polar bears.

"They are the only mammal that will hunt a human, "Weingarten said. "You are skiing in the wind, and polar bears are behind you. They can smell you for miles, so you have to constantly check behind you. They give us a shotgun. We don't want to use it, but if it came between me and the bear."

Weingarten he has had friends ask why he would want to embark on such an extreme adventure.

"This will be the hardest job I've done in my life," he said. "But you have to have the mind set. It's amazing what your body can do when you push yourself. Not everyone wants to push themselves that much. But when you're an adventure guy like me, you just do it."

Christopher Drexel can be reached at 990-8929 or [email protected].