any a polar explorer has risked life and limb in an attempt to reach the top of the world, These days, the tourist of means can get to the North Pole in five star luxury - aboard a nuclear- powered Russian icebreaker. Since the end of the cold war all sorts of Russian hardware has become available for hire. The punter-with-bottomless-pockets can dive on the Titanic by MIR submersible; fly in a MIG fighter to 83,000 feet; play at being an astronaut at Star City; or join the working crew of a ship bound for the ends of the earth. The icebreakers, operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company and owned by the Russian Government, have been carrying tourists to the North Pole since 1990.
shadow of the bow falls across vast tracts of ice. The Yamal, a Siberian Nenets word meaning 'the end of the earth', is one of a number of vessels built since the first nuclear icebreaker, the Lenin, began operation in 1959. In 2007 the latest addition to the fleet, the 50 Years of Victory, came into operation.
orging through the frozen seas: an aerial view from one of the ship's helicopters. Blocks of ice up to ten feet thick were tossed aside like child's building blocks, and great cracks sprinted off to the horizon. Helicopters are used for ice reconnaissance, to find the best way through the ice, or in this case for the passengers to gain a better view.
ll eyes are trained on the Global Positioning System display on the bridge as it changes from 89 degrees and 59 minutes latitude to 90 degrees - the North Pole. As it turned out the location was in fact open water. Pack ice is always shifting and areas of open water, or polynas, constantly appear and disappear. The crew did point out however that ice conditions are not as hard as they were, first hand evidence of a changing climate.
fter some time, we finally find a parking spot in the ice, some 14 miles from the North Pole. This was as close as we could get to the holy grail of polar explorers. The huge scarlet ship looms out of the mist, while tourists and crew enjoy a few hours on top of the world. Some are content simply to take photographs; others insist on planting flags. Armed guards stand by to fend off the ever present threat of polar bears.
he crew savour their last moments at the Pole recording the scene, before reboarding the ship for the return journey. The voyage was ten days from Spitzbergen to the North Pole and back to Murmansk and the 'Atomflot' base of Yamal.
eaving only our footprints on the ice, as we depart for home. The rest of the voyage took in Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. But it ended on a distinctly sombre note, as news came through of the loss of the Russian submarine the Kursk nearby. 
