Arctic explorer Eric Larsen captivated students Monday night at the Weasler Auditorium with tales of his 62-day long journey across the Arctic Ocean. In 2006, Larsen and his traveling partner, Lonnie Dupre, were the first to travel to the North Pole during the summer.

"We call it the One World Expedition because we were trying to get to the North Pole, the one place where all the longitudinal lines meet," Larsen said.

They embarked on this expedition to raise awareness about global warming and to help get the polar bear on the endangered species list.

After four years of training and preparation in Northern Minnesota, Larsen and Dupre left from Russia in 2005. However, after three weeks, they could not continue on with this trip because navigating was too hard.

"It was a hard decision to make, but it was a safe decision," Larsen said. "I was depressed; I felt like a huge failure. But it's easy to look at something and say it's impossible; at least we had tried."

They tried again in 2006, leaving from North America this time.

"I wanted to stop talking about this stupid trip and start doing it," Larsen said.

According to Larsen, the Arctic Ocean is 8.5 million square miles and 14,000 feet deep. It is covered with a thin layer of ice which easily breaks apart during summer.

"There's two basic things: ice and water. There's no land, no people," Larsen said. "The only thing you'll see that's remotely human is your own shadow."

During the expedition, Larsen and Dupre had a daily routine. They traveled for 10 hours a day, then set up their tent and slept for about eight hours after checking e-mails, measuring snow levels and preparing meals consisting of oatmeal and noodles.

"Our tent was not much bigger than a dining room table, but it was like a hotel to us," Larsen said.

While traveling, the two men had 220-pound canoes filled with equipment that they pulled behind them. They used skis and snowshoes to travel through the ice, and used the canoes to cross open water.

"The real stress and the real danger was when we had to cross open water," Larsen said. "I was gripped with what I could only describe as intense fear."

Throughout the expedition, Larsen, 35, struggled with physical and mental difficulties.

"I had a really hard time and I wondered if I could go on," Larsen said. "If I just took it one step at a time I could just worry about the next minute or the next hour."

After 62 days of traveling, the two men reached the North Pole on July 1, 2006.

"We got to the North Pole in what was the biggest moment of anticlimax I had ever experienced," Larsen said. "We went to sleep because we were so sick and tired of all that snow, ice and water."

Although the ending was anticlimactic, Larsen and Dupre achieved their goal of raising awareness. They are currently making a documentary and writing a book.

"On this expedition we wanted to use the ice breaking under our feet to talk about global warming," Larsen said. "Humans have a great ability to affect our environment. The main contributor is the human phenomenon of humans burning fossil fuels."

Students for an Environmentally Active Campus co-sponsored the presentation with Marquette Student Government.

"I hope they'll be interested because it's a fascinating topic," said Sadie Tuescher, president of Students for an Environmentally Active Campus. "If not for the global warming aspect, I think it will be interesting for outdoorsy people."

Anthony Avallone, a freshman in the College of Engineering, enjoyed Larsen's multimedia presentation.

"I thought it was captivating," Avallone said. "I liked all the videos and pictures. It wasn't 'hippie' environmentalism, it had a purpose."