Arctic challengers had close encounter with furry predator

AN ADVENTURER from the Lothians who came second in one of the world's toughest ultra-endurance races has said he would have won the event if he hadn't been attacked by a polar bear.

• Michael Sugden (in black boots) with Andrew Peake and their sledges.

Lasswade-born advertising agency boss Michael Sugden, 37, and his team-mate Andrew Peake finished second in the Polar Challenge, a 500-mile journey, on skis, across northern Canada and the Arctic Ocean to the Magnetic North Pole.

They were one of eight teams from around the world competed in the challenge. They had to ski from Little Cornwallis Island in northern Canada to the Pole, navigating through sea ice along the way.

The pair finished the race in 11 days and 18 hours, smashing their target of 15 days. The challenge took the winning team nine days and 19 hours to complete.

Mr Sugden and Mr Peake took on the challenge to raise awareness of a charity called 10:10, which is encouraging individuals and companies to cut their carbon emissions by 10 per cent in 2010.

Mr Sugden, who now lives in London, said: "We got attacked by a polar bear which slowed us down quite a lot, and then we got caught in a gale force storm and we were trapped in our tent for a day and a half, so those things conspired against us."

"We had been walking for about 15 hours one day and I looked over my right shoulder. Thirty metres away I saw a polar bear charging at us. It was absolutely terrifying.

"Andrew started shouting and screaming and clacking his skis together to make as much noise as possible.

"I grabbed the shotgun on my sledge and fired a warning shot over its head, but it kept running."

After two further warning shots, the polar bear continued to advance. With his penultimate bullet, Mr Sugden fired the shotgun into the snow immediately in front of the polar bear's paws, and that was enough to scare it off, but it had come within just six steps of the petrified pair.

"If I had seen it a few seconds later I think it would have been curtains for the two of us. I will be happy if I never see a polar bear again in my life."

Mr Sugden added: "My son Harry, 3, thinks it's hilarious that his daddy nearly got eaten by a polar bear for breakfast, he's been telling all his friends.

"I'm glad he thinks it's funny, I have never been so terrified in my life - that was the closest I have been to meeting the guy upstairs."