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About 90 kilometres short of the North Pole, Paul Hubner began seriously questioning his choice of family holiday destination.

He and his two sons, Mark and Brent, were one day into a -30 C ski trip to the pole when they came upon a small ice fissure. Paul and Mark managed to cross without incident, but before Brent could do the same, the fissure widened into a chasm and, pretty soon, a full-blown inlet. As the Arctic Ocean opened up between 17-year-old Brent and the rest of the group, Dad acted quickly, shoving a tethered kayak toward his son and letting out coil after coil of slack.

"It makes you think twice about the whole thing," Mr. Hubner said later by satellite phone from the Pole. "I mean, there was my teen son stuck with 3,000 feet of freezing Arctic Ocean beneath him. It was a hairy situation."

Brent finally boarded the kayak in time for Mr. Hubner to tug him safely across, but the potential for disaster gave Mr. Hubner, president of Ontario-based Baffin Inc., a cold-weather boot company, a moment to ponder why he hadn't opted for Hawaii or Cuba rather than the giant, melting ice cube bobbing across the top of the world.

Scores of travellers have probably wondered the same thing recently. Once a barren icescape as inaccessible as Mars, the North Pole has been the scene of an international cricket match, a getaway for Russian teens and the Beijing Olympic torch relay. And that's all in the past month.

"It's more crowded than ever," said Russell Gibbons, executive director of The Frederick A. Cook Society, named for the explorer who stabbed an American flag into the top of the world just over 100 years ago, after becoming the first person to reach the pole - at least according to the dubious tale Dr. Cook fed newspapers of the day. A century on, the pole is a more popular destination than ever as adventurers try to get there before it melts.

This spring alone, the number and character of visitors have given the place a carnival-like atmosphere. A Norwegian carrying a Tibetan flag paid a visit in early April. He was followed by a priest who conducted the pole's first Russian Orthodox church service. Then came a group of seven Russian teens, a 15-year-old Briton (who became the youngest person ever to reach the pole) and an Indian Navy expedition that engaged a group of Britons in a -30 C cricket match.

So what keeps seemingly rational people flocking to the North Pole so long after the historical lustre of discovery has faded?

Mainly, it's the relative ease. Many modern adventurers fly to Barneo, an icebound Russian base, and ski the remaining 100 kilometres, or one degree of latitude, to the pole. Others fly the whole way.

"The last time I guided a trip up there it was a bunch of socialite ladies from London," says Richard Weber, one of the world's most experienced polar guides, who's spent a total of 600 days on the Arctic Ocean. "As long as you can walk five or six hours a day, carry a bit of stuff and follow instructions it's fairly easy."

It wasn't so simple a century ago. Dr. Cook and his rival Robert Peary both nearly died during their separate quests. While modern adventurers find the desolate patch of ice easily using handheld GPS units, Mr. Peary and Dr. Cook navigated using complex, and often false, measurements of the cosmos. When they returned to New York five days apart, both claiming to be the first man to have reached the pole, the ensuing controversy made headlines for months.

"It was like an astronaut and a cosmonaut coming back and each saying he'd been to the moon before the other guy," Mr. Gibbons says.

Some trekkers still attempt the difficult trails blazed by early explorers. Earlier this spring, two explorers separately tried to ski 770 kilometres from Canada's northerly Hunt Ward Island to the North Pole, but both Hannah McKeand and Ben Saunders had to call rescue helicopters mere days into their respective expeditions.

The Hubner family expedition seems downright pedestrian by comparison. And that's factoring in the ornamented torch that Doug Stoup, the leader of the group, carried in his luggage as part of the controversial Beijing Olympic relay.

Despite the increasing ease of travel, the North Pole hasn't lost much of its final-frontier status over the past century. Travellers are willing to spend between $20,000 and $200,000 to reach the "dead world of ice," as Dr. Cook referred to it. Contrast that with conquering Mount Everest, a far more death-defying feat that has become something of an adventuring cliché and can cost as little as $13,000.

But for some serious adventurers, the allure of the pole is equally shopworn. "I don't go there," said experienced polar trekker Jerry Kobalenko, who's trudged over much of the Arctic. "It's not a particularly interesting route if you want to see scenery or wildlife. There's nothing at the pole. It's floating ice. But it still has the sizzle that draws people."

Mr. Hubner, who also visited the South Pole earlier this year, doesn't much care about the fading historical significance of polar treks. For him, the trip's value was priceless for other reasons.

"I know anyone can get here. But spending a dozen days on the ice in a small tent with two of your sons, now that's a bonding experience not everyone gets."

Before long, the experience may be rare indeed. When Mr. Weber first reached the pole two decades ago, the ice was twice as thick as it is today. Last week, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that the North Pole could be ice-free this summer.

"If you want to reach an icon," Mr. Kobalenko said, "the time is limited."

The path to the pole

Want to see the "dead world of ice" at the North Pole? It's all a matter of price. Here are the four most popular routes:

1. Board a "champagne flight" starting in Longyearbyen,

Norway, for $19,000.

PolarExplorers.com

2. Cruise aboard a Russian

nuclear-powered icebreaker for a little over $20,000.

QuarkExpeditions.com

3. Ski one degree of latitude (100 kilometres) from Barneo, an icebound Russian research station, for around $33,000.

Ousland.com

4. Expert adventurers can join Richard Weber, the world's most experienced polar traveller, for a 50-day ski and snowshoe trek from Ward Hunt Island in 2009. Price is yet to be set.

CanadianArcticHolidays.ca

Patrick White