Got an observation of my own that I'll pass on if thats ok- (as I already mentioned, I'm a fan of the work), ...
"Dogs and sleds? Miss Wilcox my dear, we'd all probably freeze if we had only brought alone dogs and sleds. Who knows just how far the North Pole truly is, as it could possibly take days or weeks until we would see it and we might possibly be the sled dogs by the time we're at our return journey if we're lucky."
Every naval officer of any nation at that point would be able to pinpoint with very precise accuracy by means of compass and artificial horizon exactly how far north they were, and would know how far the pole was to within a mile (and if they had a watch too, exactly how far east or west they were). And the most successful voyages, were dog and sled.
On foot they would have had the difficulty of pack drift to cover though, meaning that the ice cap isnt fixed to anything and moves, so if they walked say 20 miles in a day, the pack could actually move 20 miles in the other direction, leaving them exactly where they started. (or they could get lucky and cover 40 miles for walking 20 if it moved in the other direction)
Unexplainable should maybe be inexplicable.
I've got a fair idea of the answer, but going to ask the question anyway - its an excellent work, but why not post it on a non-erotic site?