London - A British explorer marooned on an ice floe near the North Pole said he was racing against time to build a runway - or face possible death.
Dave Mill hopes to carve a landing strip out of the ice before seasonal changes leave him cut off from a rescue plane which he hopes his organisers will send.
Mill, who was attempting to become the first man to make the 600km trek from Canada to the pole alone and unaided, wrote on his website that he has about a week to find some flat ice to build a runway.
"Today, I am feeling fit and fine, but I am all too aware of just how much effort and strength it is going to take to build a 400 metre runway in time for the rescue aircraft.
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'I sleep with one eye open and I have a rifle close at hand' "Now is not the best time to be an unaided and unsupported explorer."
Since leaving Ward Hunt Island, Canada's northern-most point in March, Mill has trudged 293km across the Arctic ice towards the North Pole. He must now make a 100km trek to find ice stable enough for a ski-plane to land on, assuming the weather permits a rescue bid.
As if dicing with the weather is not enough, the explorer was also being stalked by a polar bear.
"I am sleeping fitfully, partly because I know what lies ahead - and partly because of that brief encounter with polar bear tracks a few days back," Mill wrote.
He told Sky News his biggest fear was not the bear, which he hoped had lost his scent, but isolation.
"I sleep with one eye open and I have a rifle close at hand. But I only have what I have." he said. - Reuters
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