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November 2026 – Volume Thirty-Two, Number Eleven
Celebrating our 32th year!
EXPEDITION NEWS, founded in 1994, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects, and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate, and educate.
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FIELD RESEARCHERS ENSURE VICTIMS OF
“FORGOTTEN” KOREAN WAR ARE REMEMBERED
It was known as The Forgotten War. On June 25, 1950, approximately 75,000 soldiers of the North Korean People's Army (KPA) launched a coordinated, full-scale invasion across the 38th parallel into South Korea.
The Korean War (1950-1953) resulted in massive loss of life, with total casualties estimated between 2.5 million and 4 million deaths across military personnel and civilians; 36,574 American service members died.
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The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North Korea from the South
is 2.5 miles wide and stretches for 150 miles.
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Technology often used by explorers to study ancient civilizations, shipwreck remains, and Roman artifacts, are today employed to recover and identify the remains of U.S. and South Korean forces.
The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) maintains a massive, ongoing search for Korean War cases. DPAA seeks, recovers and identifies missing Americans, in partnership with the South Koreans.
The DPAA has been systematically exhuming hundreds of "unknown" Korean War remains that were buried decades ago. Military teams and specialized excavation units regularly search former fierce battle sites (such as the 150-mile DMZ and various mountainous provinces) for fallen soldiers.
To this day, excavations along historic front lines continue to unearth human remains, military equipment, personal effects, and body armor from intense battles fought during the conflict.
DPAA scientists identify the fallen using advanced forensic, skeletal, and dental analysis, chest radiograph comparisons, and mitochondrial studies. Comparisons are made to DNA samples from family members to match genetic profiles, identify the dead, and return remains for burial with military honors.
Last August, during the annual Korean/Cold War Government Briefing held this year in Omaha, home of the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, the agency marked its 800th Korean War identification from past cases and repatriations.
DPAA possesses DNA samples from 94% of the roughly 7,400 American service members still listed as missing from the Korean War, according to the story in Military Times by Claire Barrett (Sept. 18).
Joint excavation operations inside North Korea have faced severe geopolitical roadblocks. Though North Korea repatriated 55 boxes of remains in 2018, subsequent diplomatic breakdowns and a lack of responsiveness from Pyongyang have stalled joint U.S.–North Korean field recovery operations inside
the North, according to DPAA.
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View of North Korean Mount Kumgang region from the vicinity of the Goseong Unification Observation Tower situated on a high coastal ridge just south of the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). North Korea begins just
beyond the spit of land located above center.
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Tourists Welcome
When EN visited the Goseong Unification Observation Tower situated on a high ridge overlooking the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the northernmost observatory located on the east coast of South Korea, we were struck by its lure as a major tourist destination. It attracts over 1.5 million domestic and foreign tourists each year, according to Trip.com.
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Tourists in late October pose below the
Goseong Unification Observation Tower located near the DMZ.
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Cruise ships calling on the South Korean port of Sokcho offer excursions to the site; there are gift shops selling t-shirts, ice cream, and ROK Korean military garments for children; museums; and Instagram-ready photo opps.
Visitors are warned not to provoke the North Korean army – especially with drones, musical instruments, balloons, or lasers.
In stark contrast, visitation to North Korea’s DMZ border by North Koreans is strictly controlled, organized by the state, and emphasizes political education and patriotism. Highlights for North Korean tourists is Panmunjom, the Joint Security Area near the western end of the heavily militarized region, reports DMZInsiderTour.com.
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Until 2004, the South conducted psychological warfare against North Korea using now-discontinued speakers such as this one installed around the
troubled border skirting the 38th parallel.
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The two countries are still officially at war. Sadly, last September three South Korean soldiers were injured in landmine explosions south of the Military Demarcation Line inside the Korean Demilitarized Zone. North Korea denied involvement.
Forensic expeditions to remote battlegrounds honor the fallen and offer closure to family members, while South Koreans dream of reconciliation and unification. The DMZ Museum displays a Berlin Wall panel to emphasize that, as with the unification of Germany, a united Korea is someday possible.
For more information:
www.dpaa.mil
EXPEDITION UPDATE
| | Returning members of the Steger North Pole Expedition take the stage in St. Paul. (L-R) Will Steger, Paul Schurke, Bob Mantell, Richard Weber, Geoff Carroll, and Ann Bancroft. | | |
Steger North Pole Expedition Celebrates 40th Reunion
Team members, friends and family, and hundreds of Minnesotans attended a sold-out reunion of the historic Steger North Pole Expedition in St. Paul on Oct. 8, 2026.
There were plenty of tears, warm hugs, and high fives when six of the original eight team members took the stage to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the day – March 8, 1986 – when the Steger North Polar Expedition set out on the first confirmed and unsupported dogsled expedition to the North Pole.
The seven men and one woman crossed over 1,000 miles of shifting sea ice without resupply. Along with 49 sled dogs, the team spent 55 days recreating the same journey American explorer Robert Peary (1856-1920) braved in 1909. They learned of their position at the top of the world thanks to an old-fashioned sextant, like one Peary used back in the day.
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Steger team members pose outside the Ely (Minnesota) Historic State Theater
on Oct. 9, 2026, for a second reunion presentation.
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“In 1909, Admiral Peary led a dogsled expedition to the North Pole without resupply. Over the years, many began to question whether he indeed reached the Pole because there had been no way to prove it," said Jennifer Gasperini, the reunion emcee and lead publicist at the time.
“Seventy-seven years later, Will Steger and Paul Schurke set out to replicate the mission and to prove it could be done, in part to restore Peary’s legacy.”
| | Sample of expedition press coverage; the world followed along. | | |
Major sponsor was DuPont which invested $250,000 and outfitting the team in a multi-layered clothing system and sleeping bags. The company received 240 million media impressions for its brands, the equivalent of $6.7 million if purchased as advertising ($20.6 million in 2026 dollars) – considered a successful return on their investment.
This was even more astounding considering the publicity predates cellphones, the internet or laptops. Radio telephones, typewriters, fax and telex machines were the main forms of communications.
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In the classic 1989 stop-motion animated short A Grand Day Out, inventor Wallace and his intelligent dog Gromit travel to the moon in a homemade rocket ship because they ran out of cheese and believed, "everyone knows the moon's made of cheese.”
Silly? Yes of course. But a great way to introduce children to a possible career in space.
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Over the Moon
NASA is looking for explorers to help write the next chapter of human spaceflight. Applications are now open for the agency’s next class of astronauts, who will join NASA as America returns to the Moon, builds the Moon Base, and lays the groundwork for the first crewed missions to Mars.
The next generation of astronauts will train to operate on the lunar surface, live and work beyond Earth, and take on missions that will push the boundaries of human exploration farther than ever before.
Read the announcement:
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-seeks-next-generation-of-explorers-to-join-astronaut-corps/
Deadline for U.S. citizens to apply is December 3, 2026.
Aspiring astros can log on here:
https://go.nasa.gov/3WyvlQi
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Reel Rock Film Tour Announced
For two decades, Reel Rock has been sharing the biggest stories from the world of climbing, celebrating the human side behind the sport's greatest adventures and achievements.
Every year, Reel Rock brings a new selection of the best climbing films on a 150-stop worldwide tour, and through its new streaming platform, Reel Rock Unlimited.
Founded in 2005 by Josh Lowell, Peter Mortimer, and Nick Rosen – creators of the iconic feature documentaries Valley Uprising, The Dawn Wall and The Alpinist - Reel Rock has grown into a global platform for award-winning climbing films.
See the tour schedule here:
https://tinyurl.com/ReelRock20
Watch the new trailer here:
https://youtu.be/KJ345dGPHJk?si=s095UtH2tp3eb8G5
Interestingly (get ready for one of EN’s famed sidebars), by inserting the word “tour” in the URL ReelRockTour.com, the lads behind this popular film series save themselves $594,888 – the cost to purchase simply ReelRock.com, according to the opportunists at DomainMarket.com.
The reel rockers would have to sell a lot of box office tickets to make that pay off. Makes us glad we registered ExpeditionNews.com, oh so many years ago.
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The Write Stuff
Letters to a Pre-Scientist (LPS) is seeking mission-aligned companies and science professionals to support its unique pen-pal program (remember those?) that encourages students considering a STEM career.
According to the nonprofit LPS based in the U.S., volunteers from the scientific community can enjoy a high-impact, remote volunteer opportunity with a low and flexible time commitment (10 hours/year).
Volunteers exchange eight snailmail letters with a student pen-pal – one-on-one – and discuss higher education, STEM career journeys, and overcoming obstacles.
All sponsors are featured on the LPS website, social media, and in its newsletter, which together reaches over 20,000 people.
“Using the power of human connection, we demystify STEM careers and empower all students to see themselves as future scientists,” writes Lucy Madden, CEO of the program founded in rural North Carolina in 2010.
This year the group is partnering with 75 teachers and their 4,500 students in 23 states.
Contact: Lucy Madden, lucy.madden@prescientist.org, www.prescientist.org
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe.”
– Ronald John "Ron" Garan Jr. (1961– ), retired United States Air Force Colonel, former NASA astronaut, test pilot, and author.
MEDIA MATTERS
| | "Lights Out" Brad Lidge is shining a spotlight on ancient history. | |
Brad Lidge Transitions from Baseball to Archaeology
When baseball reliever Brad Lidge joined the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008, two experiences would change his life.
The most famous came that October, when he closed out Game 5 of the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, completing a perfect postseason in relief and delivering the Phillies’ first world championship since 1980.
The other came earlier that year, when he enrolled in online classes at Regis University, hoping to finish his undergraduate degree in religious studies, according to Rustin Dodd, writing in the New York Times (Sept. 23).
The coursework piqued a long-held interest in religion and history, and when he threw his last pitch in 2012, he decided to do something incredibly rare for a former major leaguer, Dodd writes.
He became an archaeologist.
| | Brad Lidge addresses Explorers Club members in Boulder, Colorado, in May 2026. | | |
He’s now a consulting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology – and for the past five years, a supervisor at two different excavation sites in Italy, where he studies the ancient Etruscan civilization (he’s also completing a Ph.D. program on ancient Etruscan symbols at the University of Colorado).
Lidge says, “The real stories of history were much more fascinating than what I had pictured in my mind. And I’m also kind of a curious person – I want to know where things come from. I want to know where ancient religions come from, for example.
"And so, I always had these burning questions, and even through baseball I’d always try and learn about this.
“For me, it’s when you’re out in the field; there is always this feeling that you are maybe just minutes away from something very exciting and important being found. And whether that is a small artifact or a large feature, it can redefine the way people have looked at the Etruscans or a certain culture, says Lidge, the baseball closer nicknamed, “Lights Out Lidge.”
Read the Times story here:
https://tinyurl.com/BradLidge
EXPEDITION FUNDING
| | Chubby pika is a four-legged money machine. (Photo: Dan Brown, @dgo.dan) | | |
In a Pickle About Raising Funds? Enlist a Cute Animal
Last month, we wrote about a research institute that raised funds by posting marmots on OnlyFans (@onlymarms).
Obviously, employing cute animals for fundraising has become a thing.
The Mountain Institute in Silverton, Colorado, announced the winner of its Fat Pika Week, crowning Pickles, an uber cute chubby mountain-dwelling mammal, as the fattest in the San Juan Mountain range.
Twenty-eight hundred votes were received, generating strong interest in the facility’s high-alpine research and conservation work in delicate alpine ecosystems.
Learn more:
https://www.mountainstudies.org/events/fat-pika-week
| | Start your search for RGS funding here. | | |
Looking for Dosh? Dash Over to the RGS Website
The Royal Geographical Society, a registered charity based in the U.K., supports nearly 100 field research projects and expeditions through its grants for students, academics, explorers and teachers. The famed exploration society, founded in 1830, is accepting applications for its 2027 funding cycle, with deadlines in November and January.
Opportunities include:
• RGS Explore Grants: £5,000 (approx. $6,627) for teams embarking on their first expedition.
• Kensington Fieldwork Grant – Four awards of up to £25,000 for experienced researchers, explorers and storytellers to support impactful field research and expeditions.
• Neville Shulman Challenge Award – Two separate awards of up to £10,000 for individuals or teams planning intellectually or physically challenging research projects or expeditions.
• Ran and Ginny Fiennes Award – £2,000-£5,000 to support the next generation of emerging explorers and expeditioners.
• Gino Watkins Fund Awards – Up to £4,000 towards expeditions that aim to improve the knowledge of the polar regions.
For more information:
grants@rgs.org, https://www.rgs.org/exploration/grants
EXPEDITION INK
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Erik Weihenmayer Launches Children’s Book
For 25 years, we’ve followed the career of Coloradan Erik Weihenmayer, 58, an American athlete, adventurer, author, activist and motivational speaker. He was the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest (2001), a feat featured on the cover of Time magazine. He also is the only blind climber to complete the Seven Summits (2002).
A former middle-school English teacher, he now has a new children’s book titled Touching Everest (National Braille Press), published in both print and braille, with visual and tactile graphics, designed to be read by blind and sighted readers alike.
It combines braille, print, and tactile illustrations, empowering blind, visually impaired, and sighted children, families, and classmates to be able to sit side by side to experience the adventure together.
For more information:
https://shop.nbp.org/products/touching-everest
ON THE HORIZON
| | Adam Maire and Christine West are two of the speakers scheduled to present at The Explorers Club Sea Stories, Nov. 14, 2026, at Club HQ in New York. Their talk focuses on From the Arctic to Antarctica: Using Exploratory Diving to Connect the Five Oceans. | |
Sea Stories, The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th, New York, November 14, 2026
Sea Stories is a day focused on exploration, conservation, scuba diving, shipwrecks and marine life. Presenters will also discuss caves, underwater aircraft recovery, and the educational role played by aquariums.
Tickets are $100 and will not be sold at the door. Use the link below.
https://www.explorers.org/calendar-of-events/sea-stories-2026/
For questions: reservations@explorers.org
| | Travel With Purpose, A Field Guide to Voluntourism (Rowman & Littlefield) by Jeff Blumenfeld – People are traveling in record numbers and many include voluntourists. Be ready to lend a hand wherever you go. How to travel and make a difference while you see the world? Read excerpts and “Look Inside” at: tinyurl.com/voluntourismbook | | |
Get Sponsored! – Need money for your next project? Read about proven techniques that will help you find both cash and in-kind sponsors. If the trip is bigger than you, and is designed to help others, well, that’s half the game right there. Read Jeff Blumenfeld’s Get Sponsored: A Funding Guide for Explorers, Adventurers and Would Be World Travelers.(Skyhorse Publishing).
Purchase it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Sponsored-Explorers-Adventurers-Travelers-ebook/dp/B00H12FLH2
Advertise in Expedition News – For more information: blumassoc@aol.com
EXPEDITION NEWS is published by Blumenfeld and Associates, LLC, 290 Laramie Blvd., Boulder, CO 80304 USA. Tel. 203 326 1200, editor@expeditionnews.com. Editor/publisher: Jeff Blumenfeld. Research editor: Lee Kovel. ©2026 Blumenfeld and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1526-8977. Subscriptions: US$36/yr. available by e-mail only. Credit card payments accepted through Venmo - jeffryalan-blumenfeld, 203 326 1200. Read EXPEDITION NEWS at www.expeditionnews.com.
Research past issues of Expedition News dating back to May 1995 courtesy of the Utah State University Outdoor Recreation Archive. Access is free at: https://tinyurl.com/ENArchivesUSU
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