Team to Test Peary’s North Pole Claim : Arctic: Traveling by dog sled, four will retrace the American admiral’s disputed 1909 journey to see if his expedition could made the trek without being resupplied.

A small team of polar explorers will attempt to shed new light on the greatest mystery of Arctic exploration--whether American Adm. Robert Peary was the first to reach the North Pole.

Two Canadians, an American and a Russian will leave Canada’s high Arctic in March to ski 1,000 miles to and from the North Pole without being resupplied.

In the process, they hope to answer nagging questions over the 1909 voyage by the Navy surveyor who is generally credited with being the first to reach the pole.

Peary’s claim is still disputed in scientific circles, with questions raised over journal entries, the absence of witnesses, the ability of the early explorers to hit such a difficult target and the speed with which the admiral said he made the final 135-mile sprint to the pole.

“One of the contentions of the anti-Peary people is that we are in 1991 and still no one has gone to the pole and back unaided,” said Richard Weber, co-leader of the Weber Malakhov Polar Expedition.

“We will try to travel the same number of hours, and in the same number of days we should be back at about the same point. It still won’t prove if Peary did or didn’t, but at least it proves that it is possible,” Weber said.

Engineer and cross-country skier Weber, Russian physician Mikhail Malakhov, Canadian expedition trainer John Mordhorst and veteran American polar explorer Bob Mantell will be aided by support staff and a radio operator.

Financed by corporate sources and backed by patrons such as the speaker of Canada’s lower house in Parliament, John Fraser, and Minnesota Gov. Rudy Perpich, the group plans to be as self-sufficient as possible.

“I want to navigate with a sextant because one of the big controversies about Peary is the manner in which he navigated,” Weber said.

Part of that controversy is over whether Peary checked adequately to see if he was heading straight north in a region of shifting ice and crosswinds and whether he actually reached the pole.

“There is a very easy way to check that, and we don’t know if Peary did use those methods or not. I feel if we can navigate with the sextant, it will at least prove that it is possible,” Weber said.

Frederick A. Cook, a surgeon colleague of Peary’s on an earlier expedition, said he reached the pole in 1908, but that claim has generally been discredited.

Although the Peary expedition used dog sleds, the present-day group plans to ski the 1,000-mile round-trip journey in about 100 days, carrying loads of about 350 pounds each on small reinforced children’s sleds and in backpacks.

They plan to follow their tracks back from the pole to their starting place on Ellesmere Island in Canada’s high Arctic.

Peary completed his round trip in 10 days following the trail broken by other members of his expedition.

“The point is, can you follow a trail that is 10 days old? That is what I am really questioning. In my experience the ice moves around so much, how the heck can you follow it?” asked Weber, who has been to the North Pole twice on dog-sled or skiing expeditions.

But he added that he was not sure that his team would ever be able to prove Peary’s claim beyond question.