Lacy underwear secret tool of polar expedition

Arctic explorer Pen Hadow and his team are relying on a pair of lady's knickers to navigate their way to the North Pole after compasses failed. The Catlin Arctic Survey are trekking 700 miles to the North Pole to measure the thickness of the shrinking Arctic icecap.

However due to the proximity to magnetic north the compasses are "going haywire". The freezing conditions also mean the latest global positioning satellite or GPS equipment will not work.

Therefore the team have to rely on navigating using the position of the sun. When it is cloudy they rely on following the direction of the wind helpfully indicated by a pair of lacy knickers shredded and stuck to the end of a ski pole.



Mr Hadow, who was the first person to trek solo to the North Pole, said the knickers were kindly donated by a supporter of the expedition.

Speaking from the Arctic via satellite phone, he said: "It an entirely genuine situation. If you can get gossamer thin material and attach it your ski pole it is particularly useful for this project because we can cannot use the compass as we are so close to magnetic north and it is too cold to use the GPS. The knickers have taken up a whole new value operationally."

Navigator Ann Daniels explained why the knickers were so useful. She said: "Due to our proximity to the Magnetic North Pole, our compasses are currently going haywire. The earth's strong magnetic field on this part of the ocean means that the compass needle simply spins uselessly in its housing. As such, we're currently relying on more traditional methods for day-to-day navigation, using the sun (for those few precious hours each day when it graces us with its presence), and using wind direction, as indicated by the panties…"