Laurynas Balchunas

Laurynas Balchunas (born September 5th, 1860) is a Liotainian surveyor, adventurer, writer, and Arctic explorer, most famous for leading the first successful trip to the North Pole.

### Early Life

Balchunas was born in the treaty port of Rskir, in Prem-Bol, where his parents both worked in railway construction. His father Adomas was a surveyor and engineer for the Bolish Seaboard Railway, while his mother worked in bookkeeping.

During his early years in Prem-Bol, Balchunas became fascinated with dog-sledging. In 1874, at the age of fourteen, he accompanied his father on a survey expedition into northern Prem-Bol, where he assisted his father as an apprentice surveyor. During this expedition, he was attacked by a polar bear, which he shot.

### Surveyor

By 1879, Balchunas was a licensed surveyor, although his fascination with dog-sledging and the far north took him further afield. In 1881, along with his father, he surveyed a railway route from Somal to Dakuat, although the proposed railway remained unbuilt.

Balchunas, on the advice of his father, wrote a set of serial articles for the Neris News-Courier and several other papers, detailing his adventures in the north. The articles were eventually collected into a book published in 1885 called *Journey to Dakuat*, which helped spark an interest in the Arctic.

### Exploration

Between 1886 and 1889, Balchunas jointed three expeditions to Kanqaamiut, organized by the Liotainian Institute of Science and lead by the noted explorer Gintaras Fomenka. Fomenka initially viewed Balchunas as a friend and possible protege, although on the Third Expedition, the two men had a falling out. According to observers, the two began viewing each other as rivals and competitors rather than co-workers.

The three Kanqaamiut expeditions proved extremely important for Balchunas's career as an explorer. He developed a reputation as a sledging expert and furthered his skills as a surveyor. He also developed a large number of friendships with local Kanqaa hunters and chieftains, learning their language and studying their way of life. He continued writing detailed accounts of his Arctic travels, which were received eagerly by Liotainian readers.

In 1888, between the Second and Third Kanqaamiut Expeditions, Balchunas married a local Kanqaa girl named Arnaq.

### Expedition Leader

Beginning in 1890, Balchunas began serving as an expedition leader associated with the Liotainian Institute of Science.

#### First Liotainian Arctic Expedition (1890-1891)

Balchunas was hired as the expedition leader to prove or disprove the theory that Akaina was an island. Balchunas led an expedition that started in Kuagaaruk and headed north. The expedition proved that Akaina was larger than anticipated, being connected at least to Kanqaamiut.

The expedition was disrupted in the summer of 1890 when Zakiri pirates from Tok Bara seized one of the two expedition ships, the *Margarita*. Balchunas returned to find the *Margarita* and negotiated its release with a modest ransom. The ship's capture eventually resulted in the Occupation of Tok Bara (1892).

#### Second Liotainian Arctic Expedition (1893-1894)

The Second Arctic Expedition was a follow-on expedition to the First, which strongly indicated that Akaina and Zamoroziet might be connected by a land bridge. Balchunas started in Dakuat and headed north along the eastern shore of Zamoroziet, eventually reaching far enough north that he was satisfied the two continents connected. He then crossed the land bridge and followed the western coast down into Nunat.

#### First Polar Expedition (1901)

In the early summer of 1901, Balchunas made an attempt to reach the North Pole. Prior to his actual attempt, Balchunas and two companions spent two months building a stockpile of supplies and conducting initial reconnaissance of the route he wished to take, which came to be called the *Low Ground Route*.

In June, Balchunas, his longtime companion Henrikas Kazlauskas, and four Kanqaa hunters set out for the Pole. However, the party halted at the base of the escarpment leading to the Polar Plateau, which was too steep for the dog-sledges.

Kazlauskas and one of the Kanqaa hunters climbed the escarpment to take sightings, but on their return, triggered a rock-fall. Both were severely injured, and Balchunas immediately abandoned the attempt on the Pole in order to return them to Sarfangnuit. Ultimately, both men died on the return journey, and were buried in a stone cairn at the head of White Bear Bay.

In spite of the expedition's failure, Balchunas held the verified record for "Furthest North" between 1901 and 1907. Another expedition claimed in 1902 to have reached a point further north, but their claim was rejected due to mathematical errors found in their navigational calculations.

The death of his friend Kazlauskas severely shook Balchunas, who returned to Liotain for most of 1902, living in a state of depression and working as a railway porter. He did not return to the Arctic until 1903, and stopped writing for nearly the entire time. In 1904, he wrote the book Death in the North, discussing the experiences of the 1901 expedition and talking about his subsequent depression.

#### Third Liotainian Arctic Expedition (1903-1905)

In the spring of 1903, Balchunas returned to the Arctic with the expedition ship *Jurininkas*. The ship was trapped in ice beginning in 1903, eventually drifting free in summer of 1905.

In the late summer of 1903, Balchunas and two companions left the ship and traveled back to the Polar Plateau, where Balchunas made several weeks of surveys, and found a possible route up the escarpment. This survey was not on the ship's official agenda, and technically was a violation of his orders.

Even though their ship was iced in, the expedition nevertheless spent the summers of 1903, 1904, and 1905 mapping the western coast of Gjoa, a sparsely-inhabited land eventually claimed as a joint condominium by Liotain and Fusou.

#### Gjoa Expedition (1906)

In the summer of 1906, Balchunas led a team which surveyed large portions of Gjoa, including the eventual route of the Gjoa Cableway.

#### Second Polar Expedition (1907)

After several years unable to pursue his dream of reaching the North Pole, Balchunas returned to Kanqaamiut along with Captain Voldemaras Mazeika in order to make another attempt. In early spring, Balchunas began shuttling supplies to Sarfangnuit in preparation for departure.

Balchunas's team included Mazeika, as well as *Kaskae* (Chief) Tikaani Siku and his brother Amak-Miska, of the Yaktag tribe of the Kanqaa. Tikaani Siku was an experienced Arctic hunter and friend of Balchunas.

The party of four successfully used the defile (named the *Yaktag Defile*), first spotted by Balchunas in his 1903 trip, to reach the top of the Polar Plateau. Having successfully found this route, they reached the Pole on June 25th, 1907.

### Books

* *Journey to Dakuat* (1885)
* *Kanqaamiut - Frozen Frontier* (1890)
* *Blows the Arctic Wind* (1893)
* *Zamoroziet* (1895)
* *Travels in Matinsoq and Kuagaaruk* (1895)
* *Sledge Dogs of the Arctic* (1899)
* *Stories of the Kinguyakklii* (1900)
* *Longest Day, Longest Night* (1901)
* *Death in the North* (1904)
* *Letters to Siqiniq* (1905)

### Personal Life

In 1888, Balchunas married Arnaq, a girl from the Kinguyakklii ("Northern Lights") tribe of the Kanqaa. They have one daughter named Siqiniq ("Sun") who was born in 1889.

### Trivia

* As a result of frostbite injuries over the years, Balchunas has lost two of his fingers and one of his toes.
* Balchunas horrified the Liotainian Dog Club in a 1902 speach when he said "My dogs are not pets; they are beasts. They heed me because I lead their pack. I give them feasts for obedience and justice for misbehavior."
* Although Liotainian, Balchunas claims he has spent less than three years of his life actually in Liotain itself.