CORONA DEL MAR : At 87, Explorer Still on Bottom of World

Norman D. Vaughan was the first man from the United States to drive a dog team across Antarctica 65 years ago. Now, he’s set to be the last.

The 87-year-old Alaskan told of his planned expedition Friday in an auditorium filled with fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students at Lincoln Elementary School.

Vaughan said he plans to spend his 88th birthday climbing Mt. Norman Vaughan, a 10,302-foot peak which is named after him, after mushing about 1,000 miles by dog sled across Antarctica.

Because of the Antarctic Agreement, an international treaty that prohibits non-indigenous animals, such as dogs, for the next 50 years, the octogenarian will make history again.

Vaughan was the chief dog sledder on Adm. Richard E. Byrd’s historic mission to the South Pole in 1928.

“I did not know Admiral Byrd, but I read about his expedition in the newspaper and I said, ‘I got to go,’ ” Vaughan said.

“The next morning, I was at Admiral Byrd’s place,” he said. “I promised to work for free for a whole year if he would take me on the expedition, and I did.”

Vaughan said that when Byrd accepted him, he dropped everything, including school, to pursue his dream. He was a 22-year-old junior at Harvard at the time.

His message for the Lincoln students was to encourage them to go for their goals and believe that no dream is impossible.

“I’ve been enthusiastic about my dreams all my life,” Vaughan said later in an interview. “It’s part of my soul, and I wanted these children to get enthusiastic too.”

Vaughan said he also wants children to get interested in the Antarctic region and start reading and learning about how “pivotal it is to the global environment, the health of the planet and the survival of the human species.”

Vaughan will dog sled across the frozen continent with a team of 11 people, including his wife, Carolyn, and several veterinarians for his 20 huskies.

Carolyn Vaughan, 50, dressed fifth-grade teacher Jeanne Johnson in layer upon layer of clothing that the team will use.

She told the Lincoln students that expedition members will sleep in their clothes to keep from freezing in the subzero weather.

“They’re fulfilling their dreams,” 9-year-old Katie Alston said about the Vaughans. “I think they’re really neat.”

Vaughan’s expedition begins Oct. 25 and is scheduled to end Dec. 19--his birthday--when he reaches the top of Mt. Vaughan, he said.

Vaughan has a long list of achievements, which include finishing the 1,151-mile Iditarod dog sled race in 1990, teaching Pope John Paul II to drive a dog team in 1981 and recovering a P-38 fighter plane that crash-landed during World War II in Greenland.

“He’s a living legend,” said Principal Bruce Crockard.

Through the efforts of Kathleen Bernauer, a Lincoln parent and friend of the Vaughans, the school has become the first to participate in an educational program that will allow students to send and receive messages from the Vaughans during the expedition.

“We’re going to be able to track the trip and celebrate it with (the Vaughans),” Crockard said. “That’s exciting.”

Norman Vaughan “is not like a normal person,” Sarah Hale, 10, said. “He’s trying to climb a mountain named after him on his 88th birthday. That’s different and cool. I’ve never known anybody like that.”