New Delhi, July 11 -- For centuries, the Arctic has lingered in the global imagination as a mythical, almost otherworldly place. The Greeks believed that beyond the cold northern winds lived the Hyperboreans, a people blessed with eternal spring, perfect happiness, and extraordinary longevity. This myth gives us Boreas, the god of the North Wind, and the root of Aurora Borealis, or the now Instagram-famous Northern Lights. The Arctic is supposedly also home to Santa Claus and his Elves, and even to Superman.

In reality, the Arctic is an empty, frozen wilderness that tests the limits of survival, inhabited only by lurking polar bears, intrepid explorers and ancient Inuit communities. As with all past explorers, my first experience of the ...