"one of the world's last great firsts"

They're calling it the Arctic Row. Four men with a profound love of adventure are setting out to do something dangerous and unprecedented -- something they could not have done before the ice covering the top of the world began to melt in earnest.

They are going to row across the Arctic Ocean, nonstop and without support.

It's just four U.S. men in a narrow rowboat -- but they have a gigantic issue before them: what the melting of the Arctic means for the world. Obviously, they won't come away with all the answers. What they say they're looking for, at the very least, is to raise a little more awareness about the changes underway in the Arctic.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-arctic-row-20120704,0,1854635.story