Canada to the North Pole

2010-04-24T06:19:00.004+01:00

This is SOOO... special it deserves to go up on my Blog! From pupils in a class at a school in Brooks, Alberta, Canada; Here goes.....

A Tribute to Howard

If you are very adventursome this is actually written to be sung as a rap song...have fun with it!

A Tribute to Howard

There was a guy who had a crazy dream
To be cold and frozen with his four man team
They walked and skied through the northern extreme
They did it all under their own steam.

They had a few mishaps along the way
The ice cracked apart and caused a delay
A polar bear print made for a nervous day
The drop from the airplane broke your sleigh.

Food was plentiful but not always fresh
The pemmican was sour and not at its best.
The kerosene leak contaminated most of the rest
Thank goodness there was still something to digest

April 14th arrived at long last
Unfortunately with a very cold blast
You have finally made it, the top of your class
An experience that may never be surpassed.
Yay, Team North Pole

From the North Pole...!

2010-04-16T18:50:00.010+01:00

Indinda and I at the end of the journey...The North Pole!

I know the news is out...We made it! 9h05 EST, 14 April 2010! (Sorry, PDA started playing up after my swim, and also a shortage of sleep, has delayed this communication, but hopefully not its significance!)

Somehow, the PDA is working again, and I write this as I sit on the Russian jet that took off from the ice at the North Pole (Barneo station) to take us back to the real world of Longyerbyen, Svalbard. Gee, what an amazing birthday... Due to the bad weather the helicopter couldn't come out to pick us up yesterday, so we camped out at 'The Pole' and waited till 3pm for the pickup. (Drifting 8 miles from the Pole as we waited!) As the helicopter came into view, on a perfect arctic day, it was very emotional packing up the tent for the last time. Then for the most amazing surprise birthday present... Ruth stepped out of the big helicopter and I was just blown away...!! With me doing the expedition and her adventurous personality, she had decided to join a 6-10 day, 2 person 'Last degree' expedition and then meet me at The Pole. With our, much earlier than planned, arrival, I had accepted we would miss each other, and I would wait in Svalbard till around 22 April, when she finished, but here she was at the Pole on my birthday... The stuff dreams are made of...! I have to thank Victor, in charge of the Russian Barneo operation for his wonderful birthday present in 'bringing her to me'. Our time together was short but packed with emotions, as Ruth's expedition flew out to 89 degrees an hour after our helicopter touched down at Barneo'! I'll see her again in 7-10 days!

The Team in front of the Russian helicopter that came to pick us up at The Pole...emotional stuff!

Thank you ALL for the amazing support and birthday wishes, it's been truly overwhelming, and I'll deal with each personally over the next week.

The last two days of the expedition were REAL difficult, and the last session of 9 miles was as per a classic Polar adventure / expedition drama... 45 knot blizzard, whiteout and 4 crazy 'explorers' barely visible fighting the conditions to reach the highly prized, 'nowhere'... nobody to meet you, no obvious landmark, no special compass, clock behaviour etc, 'Just' knowing it's the top of the world and whichever way you walk you go south! I thought I might even get dizzy, because for the 1st time in my 52 years and 364 days of life I was stationary and not spinning around the world! But, hey it felt just the same...! (Many times in the lead up to my decision to do this expedition I had thought through this, but now it was actual reality, and the thinking turned to the great explorers who were driven to 'find out' what was there. Having Richard right in front of me also made me think of the enormity of what him and Mikhail did... I couldn't imagine, turning around soon, and marching all the way back to Canada, and unsupported!

Interestingly, in the last day when things were real tough, I started questioning why I was needing to get to this 'nowhere' and concluded I didn't 'anymore', I had experienced more than I could have ever imagined, on the 41 days, that the relevance of the journey made the specific end point fade into insignificance, other than its delivery of the relief of the unavoidable and necessary suffering involved. As we reached the end point, emotions hit break point and we each turned to each other one by one and shook hands, exchanged individually intimate 'one liners' of our own relevance and appreciation of the team effort to 'get us here'. The specialness of Richard leadership and the Tessum's, Father / Son achievement, was something special to witness... Tears flowed in a way that's hard to describe.

One tired, but happy birthday boy! Inside our tent on 15th April 2010, waiting to be picked up by helicopter...Mission accomplished!

Going back to the last two days:

I know you know I had a REAL swim, as I asked Ruth to post something on the Blog, but because of it's significance on my last day's experience I'd like to share it with you...

Firstly, the last day, wasn't really 'a day' it was a tough 36 hours of hullucination and dealing with excitement, disappointment, patience, suffering, physical discomfort, and an 'un-manageable' mind, then dealing with the reality and significant conflicts of the Pole, I talk about above...!

My last Post was from the morning before these 36 hours and we had 19 miles to go... so from that point...:

A peek out the tent revealed whiteout conditions and a westerly, but slightly stronger wind still blowing… hmm, a sombre atmosphere over breakfast as we all dealt with the harsh realities of the marches ahead. Well, within 2 hours we were presented with a lead that wasn't open water, but newly frozen, and marginal thin ice. (For us snowshoe-ers vs. skiers) Richard tested a crossing on ski's and suggested David and I take our snow shoes off and rather walk on 'just boots', to avoid the snow shoe stressing the thin ice. I was excited by this, and while the skiers changed layers, I pushed Richard to let David and I go ahead and cross. Hmmm, those of you that know me well, will say "typical"! So excitedly I left, leading David and cautiously testing the ice. About 90% across with absolutely no warning, a 'next step', broke the thin ice, and I went down with my backpack on, and sled attached, in the water up to my navel. Hmm... icy cold water, slowly penetrating my warm and absorbent fleece wear! As I tried to get out the ice edge broke more, creating a sizeable pool and the icy water penetrated further... eventually backtracking led me to thicker ice creating a strong ledge which helped me 'help myself' out. I felt disappointed with myself that I had abused Richard's trust in me, and now was for the 1st time on the expedition, at a critical 'record, or no record’ time too. At the same time, I had this 'Ulysses' factor' excitement that said I was truly experiencing the Arctic! From previous discussions with Richard I knew I must roll in snow, as deep as possible, as it soaks up the water, so I did this, and then when he reached me he assisted by forcing fresh snow into my boots to absorb the water...!

Determined to minimize team delay, I urged the expedition on so I could start warming up, and hopefully avoid a total 'bottom half' freeze up. I could feel my boots were 'slushily’, warm, and twice the weight they were, and my polar fleece pants also weighed a lot more… all not good, and a bit scary... new territory! A stop to add another warm top proved critical. Over the next two hours marching after a difficult physical and mental struggle I knew I had gone to the brink of the frostbite line, but won!

A half hour later, I removed the layer that had saved me and was back too feeling like a 'normal' march, team member. Hmm, until felt short of my normal speed capacity, and realized I was short on calories, as the swim and cold had drained me. Few chocolate bars, and I felt 100% to the point where I took some fuel load from the slowest team member's sled to try and optimize our overall speed. This went amazingly well, and the team was now at full potential towards the goal, The Pole! At breaks or when we stopped, I did realize my boots were a fragile balance between being 'slushily' warm, and a dangerous encased ice prison,... I needed to keep moving, but what would happen for the relatively inactive hour at the end of the marching day, when we build our home? Meantime, the wind had strengthened, and we were back in full 'whiteout', with increasing -ve ice drift, as we edge northwards. Fatigue and disillusionment with the fact that the 19 miles would take us a lot longer than 'we' had wished, we conclude that the Pole would not be possible without us having a rest. Rest means, setting up and taking down camp, and all that goes with that... A minimum of 5 hours, including only 2 for sleep, with 0.5 knot backward ice drift as we rest! This is part of the very intriguing game of an arctic expedition like ours, it's a continuous struggle to 'beat the arctic’, and that game has drawn Richard back, and I can see what a master at it, he is. So a decision was made to rest at '9 miles to go', for two hours sleep, and then set off for that 'final' set of marches! With this interim goal the team motivation was high, and the 'nine miles to go' milestone came up at about 18h30 (EST) on the 13th. The wind was up to at least 40 knots, and the arctic had this 'dry ice' look with the blown surface snow looking subliming carbon dioxide, in the now dull sunlight.

As predicted, tent building provided a challenge to my soaked boots, and on entering the tent and removing my boots / socks, my frozen frost bitten toes were discovered! I was severely disappointed with myself, that I had largely managed the cold up to the last day, and now a silly mistake had delivered this blow. This news and the wet condition of all my gear changed the focus of the rest stop, to one where it was almost all about getting me back into condition to be able to complete the last 9 miles (plus drift as we camped). My team mates were amazing, David 'lending' me his warm armpits to thaw my frost bitten toes (the right foot big toe was the worst) As thawing started and blood circulation returned, the pain was horrendous, but no time for crying now! Richard helped pull my boots apart, so they could be dried above the stoves. This was a huge job as the 3 layers were completely frozen as one. Those that know me well will know I find it difficult to accept help, and this 'injured, needy, patient' position I was in was something I hate! The amazing friendship and unselfish help I received from my team mates was a humbling experience, and a huge human relationship, 'teaching moment' for me. Given his leadership role and draining whiteout, navigation activity on the marches Richard was particularly tired and needing off a nap, but instead helped me. Eventually my 3 team mates did manage a catnap, as I continued to de-ice and dry my gear.

At around 21h30 (EST) we were all packed up and back marching for our final assault on The Pole. Well the next 12 hours are close to..., if not THE hardest 12 hours I have EVER had to manage in my life! Weather conditions were shocking, the worst to date, true blizzard, and south drift peaked at 0.5 knots, discounting our forward efforts, my frostbitten toes were paining, and for some strange reason relating to their icing up, my trusted boots now created huge heal blisters from a new chafe. At one of the march breaks I even stripped down to bare feet to add vaseline at -40 deg C... hmm, not fun! Eventually, I succumbed to painkillers, the 1st time on the trip for me! Through all this, I have to admire Richard's leadership and navigation ability, as mile by painful mile we reeled in the Pole.

Almost 12 hours of marching brought The Pole, and the end of a TRULY amazing journey. The rest is history, but in the next week or so, I'll probably put out one last 'Reflections' Post!

Saying goodbye to The Pole, the Arctic and Barneo...about to climb into the Russian jet and leave the ice for Longyearbyen, Svalbard.

I am confident that I will have a full recovery from the frosbite, but a visit to the doctor in Svalbard will hopefully confirm that! At the moment it's very swollen and painful, but at least not black!

Now for indulging in the normal comforts and re-entering 'normal life'...

Thanks again, for all your support, I enjoyed having you along!

The South African flag at the Pole (Thanks Martin and Jean)

Position: 90 Degrees North!

2010-04-14T17:12:00.002+01:00

Howard arrived at the North Pole at approximately 1500 GMT today, 14 April 2010! Probably the first South African and the oldest ever (at 52 years, 364 days) on this route.

The journey over the last 24 hours has not been easy, and perhaps the MOST challenging. In the last 24 hours Howard fell, fully clothed and without drysuit, through the thin ice and was more or less fully submerged. With some difficulty extracting himself over the thin ice, he got out, rolled in the snow to dry himself as much as possible, put on all his spare clothes and got moving to warm himself. He eventually got comfortable, but when they stopped to put up the tent, the very strong wind chilled him and has created frostbite damage on his toes. This was the condition he was in when after 2 hours sleep they set off for their final 10nm to bag the North Pole. As I talked to him when he called with the good news, he drifted off to sleep!

The team is now awaiting evacuation by helicopter to Barneo, the Russian ice base at around 89 Degrees North, expected in the morning (GMT time) where they will board an Antonov-74 for the 2.5 hour flight to Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Norway. There, Howard will have his frostbite seen to and begin the recovery process.

Happy Birthday Howard! I know all bloggers will join me in sending love, congratulations, fast recovery and thanks for sharing and taking us with you on yet another amazing and special journey.

RUTH

ps Howard will be updating the blog in his own words as soon as he's able, so stand by!

Still struggling to the pole in very challenging conditions

2010-04-14T08:00:00.000+01:00

A report from Howard this morning, they are 89.5 N 48 E and drift and bad stormy conditions are challenging their final steps to the pole. Howard reports some frostbite on his feet and is hoping for a quick evacuation on arrival to the pole.

Strong winds may delay this.

Stay tuned for further updates!

20 Miles to go. What a day!

2010-04-14T07:58:00.000+01:00

When I wrote my last Post, I didn't think it could get more difficult, but today was VERY challenging. It's now 1am 13th April as I write this: We are just having a well deserved dinner and relaxation after a tough 14 marching day, which wasn't as productive as we would have liked… only 12 miles north achieved, but a lot of work done!
The lead we had to cross 1st thing this morning turned out to almost be the easiest thing of the day! The Arctic decided to help and did it's work for us overnight....In 8 hours a 200 metre wide and 'endless east / west extent 100% open water lead froze over, and then wind forced the two sides together just near our tent, creating a nature made bridge for us of smashed up ice blocks. So all our planning on how we would wake up and swim the 200m was not needed, and we were back in the hunt for the record. The wind continued to blow west / south west at 20 - 30 knots the whole day...not fun! Within 2 hours of starting we hit another wider open water lead....hmmm, now I know why I can't see that pole at The Pole I mentioned in yesterday's Post, it's a buoy too low in tye water! Gee, we saw lo6s of cracks and water today! We had to don drysuits once for an 80 metre real swim. Fortunately my sled has no cracks and is the only one still watertight and usable for water crossings. We shuttled all the stuff with the one, which took time and we all got really cold in the process, but at least made the only 'escape' crossing.'

An hour later produced another big lead, which forced a large detour and another 'swim'.....well we used the now named 'H' bridge....after me, as I designed it the day before. Basically we used the insulating mattresses laid out on very thin ice, and we 'leopard crawl' across the mattresses which spread our weight. This saved using the dreaded drysuits, which take lots of time. Needless to say the designer had to bee the first to cross, in case it didn't work! All went safely, but it was like crawling on a dry liquid screen!

Rest of the day was whiteout and wind until the last hour when a midnight sun appeared....directly ahead 30 degrees up from the horizon and directly north.

Gee, I am exhausted....'

Pole by Wednesday, and probably no Record, but we get up in 3 hours and march 'till we drop'....

30 Miles to go, but the Arctic still challenges and teases us...

2010-04-12T19:12:00.001+01:00

It's 8am EST, on Day 41, and we are at 89 29.1N and 75 0.0W, the closest I have ever been to The Pole. In fact if there was a 'pole; at The Pole I would be almost bee able to see it from here!

Yesterday we had a huge 14 hour march day (including breaks), and made 17 miles north mileage. It was a miserable, tough day, with poor visibility, a bitterly cold, 25-30 knot, SW wind, two difficult to cross thin ice, leads, and one requiring drysuits. Tessum as the 'guinea pig' once again fell through the thin ice on skis. I cautiously leopard crawled across the short 60 metres in my drysuit, without breaking the ice. It was bitterly cold with the wind chill, and one of the guys had serious face frostbite, which miraculously didn't turn out into more serious facial damage. I struggled with the cold and recovering body heat after the march breaks. Finally with me leading the last 90 min march, which was supposed to end at midnight, at 23h30 I was presented with a wide, total open water lead crossing our path to the Pole. A serious obstacle, with no apparent solution other than a 200m swim ahead.

Got to bed at 3 am, up 7am, and now having breakfast, before setting out to deal with the lead crossing, which could dash our record hopes!

I am feeling ABSOLUTELY exhausted, and leading the march last night took all I had in me, and I had to dig REAL deep! A sleep and breakfast restores a lot, but we all just want it to end now! This is the difficult mind management time, I have been here before, but it's not nice or easy....I guess nothing of value comes easy!

Today we will do another 14 hours, and at the end of the day (24 hours daylight!) we should be in the 'teens' of miles to go!

Let’s see what the Arctic allows us to do today....

Day 39

2010-04-12T19:04:00.002+01:00

Sunday morning 8 am EST, and we are just 49 miles to the Pole!

We only just 'escaped' from our floating island of two days ago, with Tessum having a Dry suit swim after falling through thin ice with his ski's on! I managed to 'leopard crawl' in my drysuit the 25 metres of slush! In the process my drysuit leaked sea water onto my camera which is now not working.

Tessum taking the last step escaping from out floating island... Now called Tessum's island... He found the escape route and then swam to the next island he is stepping onto!!

Day 38: The Arctic shows us it's Wild Side, and challenges us...

2010-04-09T16:05:00.004+01:00

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 38: End of Day Position: 88 41.6 N, 89 18.0 W
Distance covered since the start: 343.6 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 50.7 nm
Distance to The Pole: 78.4 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +2.0 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 16 April, + / - 2 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 10.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -25 / -10 deg C

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

I am so relieved that the last 5 days are behind me, but also so glad I experienced them... The Arctic has become wild since the last Post: Weather wild, ice wild, and terrain challenging. I guess we should have guessed that would happen after getting a bit too comfortable and maybe even complacent.

This Post will have mixed tenses, and order of days... sorry! As I have written it over a few days, and the current situation (described below is consuming us).

Night of Day 37: I sit here in our tent on a small floating ice floe (probably 800 metres at its longest point). Beautiful sea views, and lovely sunset! We are sort of marooned here, as we thought it was a bridge across a huge piece of open ocean but it's turned out to be a peninsula going nowhere! As our GPS says we are drifting at 0.5 knots, and just before coming into the tent we hit a smaller island floe, and it's now connected to us! With our drift the peninsula has probably now disconnected at the small ice bridge we used to get onto it, so we are truly a small floating ice island. It was the end of a long day and we had no option but to camp here. The good thing is we are drifting north and if this continues through the night we should cross the open ocean we desperately were wanting to go to, but probably by colliding with the other side ice tomorrow! It's pretty exciting, a bit scary too... I must say I was amazed today at the extent of the open water. It has looked like real open ocean with sea to the horizon in places. For the first time I truly 'believed' I am on a 'water ocean', rather than just 'land of ice', with a bit of water. Today felt that the ice was secondary to the ocean water...hmmm, scary stuff. Richard is also amazed and shared with us that in 7 trips to the Pole he has never seen open water like this for this time of the year and this far North. Hmmm, things REALLY are 'a changing' in the world, hey!

Sunset from our marooned island‏.

Today was probably the most interesting day of the expedition. It started with whiteout conditions and snowing, and us having to cross a maze of cracks, some of which were disguised with covered snow! Within the hour I had put my boot in hidden slush, and two sleds got dumped. Visibility improved, then we hit a huge east / west lead that took 3 hours to navigate around, with some tricky ice and crossings (beautiful scenery though). Just after 'conquering' that one, huge dark low level strata cloud almost reaching to sea level pointed to probably massive open water...and that's where we are now! Trying to get around this water was really challenging, but took us through the best Arctic scenery yet. It's clear there has been very recent huge ice destruction, and with the strong Easterly wind, there was lots of grinding and gnashing, all set behind a stage of REAL ocean, waves and all. I was fortunate to lead the last hour march which ended up being 3 hours, with a section where we walked metres from the ocean along the ice 'floe' edge with a beautiful golden sunset on the water. I guess one may conclude I led us to our current dilemma... haha, it was in consultation with Richard, and the whole team agreed at the time there was no dead end! It's all part of the navigation game that I can see draws Richard back! The South Pole does not offer this. We managed 9 miles today.

With less than 80 miles to go, after today, it's still not certain we will even get there! I guess we don't really believe that, but it would seem that in years to come, the open ocean water barrier will prevent people doing what we are doing.

I found this amazing: Open water showing the process of freezing, showing the clear line between newly frozen water, and open water.‏

It's Day 35, I have been living on the ice for 5 weeks now, and the Arctic has decided to show me a dimension I hadn't experienced yet... A moderate blizzard! Since 8pm yesterday it's been blowing 25 - 35 knots, with pretty heavy snow, and virtually white conditions. As the wind slowly strengthened we took the precaution of building a snow block wall around the windward side. Using a snow saw, we cut blocks of hard snow, placed them on a cleared foundation, and then plastered the gaps with soft snow. I can see I have a few more hours training to go before I can get awarded qualify for my Arctic Igloo builder diploma! After a blustery night in the tent, we awoke to absolutely miserable conditions, a new bit of open water a short distance off, and a unanimous vote of 'yes' to a rest day was accepted! Gee, how nice it's been sleeping in till midday, and just generally consolidating. We are all REALLY tired and this rest day will pay off nicely in the days ahead.

I am writing this inside the shaking and rattling tent, 30 knots outside, we are drifting west at 0.4 miles / hour, and have just gone outside to check out our barricade wall, and fill a few gaps. The barometer has dropped 20 bars in 20 hours, and is at a new low, so probably worse to come. It’s pretty warm though, and we have all committed to ‘marching tomorrow, no matter what'... I went to bed wondering what would happen if the tent got ripped up in the wind... After a few minutes of thinking, I had a plan, so fell asleep!

Surprise, surprise, after a restful 'blizzard day' off, and early to bed we woke on Day 36 an hour earlier at 5am, to a clear windless day... A good day to start marching again, but it didn't last long. It was soon dark blue / gray sky, westerly wind, snow, then our favourite northerly headwind. There was lots of fractured ice around, obviously from the strong winds of the day before. It was truly amazing seeing all this destruction and watching huge ice floes moving fast relative to each other. Lots of open water but until the last two hours of our marching it fortunately didn't affect us. We covered an amazing 16.4 miles to the Pole. I led the last 2 hours in initially whiteout conditions then literally a maze of open water fissures, with better visibility. I was dead tired at the end of the 11.3 hour day. The Pole is now only 87 miles away.

The only person we have met along the way! 'He' showed us the road to the Highway to the Pole!‏
On Day 33, we woke as expected to the news that we had drifted south 2 miles, the north wind was still blowing and it was 'whiteout' outside... hmmm, one has to dig deep knowing we were going out for 10 hours in this. Somehow I still started the day full of hope and excitement! Within hours it changed to a beautiful dark blue grey sky, with contrasting pure white snow ocean, and then the sun came out, there was no wind basically perfect weather. At the break before our last march that day we sat on our packs almost sunbathing, and sharing how "lucky we are"! We are always trying to dry gear out, and now it was so warm (relatively now!) with strongish direct sunlight I removed my iced up face mask and attached it sun-facing to my sled, so it could start thawing out before I got to camp!

A challenge for that same day was coming across this huge almost black ice lead... probably 500 meters wide and running NE / SW, almost directly across our path. Coming across it was like just arriving at an undiscovered sea. No chance of skiing across it and too far to swim... 2 hours of north easterly walking produced the hoped for ice bridge... phew, saved again, and with a 12.4 mile day (North component distance) we thought we had been forgiven for premature thinking about records, and 'only 9 days left’, and the arctic was back on our on our side!

Part of the Black Ice, big lead of Day 33. Pretty cool with the 'Iceberg' caught in it.‏

Well, Day 34 proved that the Arctic was playing with us... shocker, the worst to date! Whiteout conditions, the largest black ice and open water lead we have seen, 1 km across in places, running almost east west and no sign of any 'bridges' where we can cross. In desperation Richard climbed a 'little mountain view point looking for the crossing point "that always exists"! Nothing...

Richard up the highest point telling us the bad news that he can't see the end of the open water and the big walk east in hope of finding a 'bridge' is about to begin!‏

With no options other than whether we walk east or west, the mood was somber, as we set off east. Well, the weather deteriorated to snow and whiteout, and to share the load I led for 90 mins... ooh, challenging stuff, stumbling over little humps and sliding down slippery snow caked I couldn't see, I felt like I was a blind person leading the slightly less blind! Anyway, after 6 hours of virtually easterly progress we found what looked like a patch of greyer ice going north / south across the lead, and an apparent break in the open water. Richard went out to test it, and an excited shout back to us to put on ski's to cross was just the news we needed. The ice crossing was quite good, but needed urgency as the crack was in the process of opening again as we crossed. Although we probably walked 16 miles, we were thankful that we could claim 10 miles north progress.

Happiness... the trail of our sleds leaving the crossing point of the big, bad, 6 hour delaying lead! Sorry no picture of the actual crossing point as it was pretty hairy and no time for stopping for photos!‏

I must say as the Pole gets 'close' and fatigue sets in, I am finding it more difficult to not focus on the luxury of relaxing in Barneo, and 'normal' comforts. This is the difficult phase of a long endurance trip... managing the mind, when it wants to 'escape' to paradise, and leave the body behind! The two have to work closely together over the next tough 5-7 days to 'the end'.

Continuing the 'day in my life out here'.

Breakfast now done, pack up time. Firstly all the 'washing' to be taken off the drying line. Then stoves off and the chill down begins. All gear is moved out of the tent and I am left in a cold empty tent to fill the 3 stove fuel bottles from the sled fuel cans... hmm, a delicate job! Once that's done I join the guys outside doing personal stuff, basically packing backpacks and sleds. Last job is pulling the tent down, and then manually breaking off ice crusts on the lower tent walls, a pain of a job that takes 20 minutes. I'm the quality controller here, as I carry the tent in my sled, and ice is excess weight! Finally, we are all packed up skis / snowshoes on and the march begins... (Now around 9am EST)

I must 'run' now....we have a busy and probably 'big swim' day ahead.

Day 35: An Unexpected Rest Day and Real North Pole Conditions

2010-04-06T15:00:00.008+01:00

Position: 88 11 N (over the 88th!)

Howard has checked in today with news of an unexpected rest day. Yesterday they encountered strong winds, snow and white-out conditions. Having to navigate around a large lead took them East and although they walked ca 16 miles, they only covered 10 miles in the right direction. The going was rough - deep snow, ridges, low/no visibility meant many spills and frustration with the sled getting stuck. Howard led the way for some of the day and identified the passage across the big lead (hurrah!).

The challenge of the extreme North Pole conditions continues today as the team is forced to spend the day in their tent and sleeping bags (conserving fuel, so no stoves on). They've built an ice wall around the tent in order that it withstands the strong winds.

Howard reports ... it's "&*%$ing" difficult (school kids look away!). So, knowing Howard, to report that, it MUST be DIFFICULT! He's also tired and eating 8,500 calories a day and still losing weight.

I'll keep you posted, and I'll continue to pass your comments to Howard, so keep 'em coming! Thanks all, RUTH

Day 32: Blistering pace, Full moon behind us, thoughts of a record spur us on...

2010-04-04T17:37:00.007+01:00

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 32: End of Day Position: 87 50.9 N, 85 45.0 W
Distance covered since the start: 292.9 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 80.2 nm
Distance to The Pole: 129.1 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +2.5 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 16 April, + / - 2 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 10.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -35 / -20 deg C

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

Firstly apologies for the late last Post; I had satphone ISP problems sending the content... oh for 'home broadband' hey!

Me looking 'better'... I think! Finger is almost healed too.

As you see from the progress stats above we are even surprising ourselves with our pace since my last Post... 1 more day and we will be in the 88 latitude numbers! The pace on the marches is relentless, and almost each day brings a new record. Yesterday we managed 14.4 miles. At that pace it's just over four days per degree! Today (Day 32), we had a bit more sobering news, as we only did 12.4 miles, and the dreaded 'wind on the nose' has kicked in… northerly and yes, it's started pushing the ice south. After days of virtually no drift, we are now drifting south at 0.2 knots as I type this.

So by the time we start marching tomorrow we could be 2 miles further from the Pole than we are now! We are acutely aware that the weather and drift has largely been on our side, and a few days of blizzard stuff could set us back a lot! (Mentally and progress wise). The big risk of bad ice conditions and open water associated with the perigee full moon tides is now behind us. It appears that the strongish easterly cross wind we had for 4 days over that time locked up the ice and made conditions largely favourable. All of this has made the possibility of us breaking the 49 day, fastest ever, Canada to North Pole expedition. We have now taken on this challenge seriously, and have implemented many strategies to help us go faster. Weight of the sleds is one of the keys, and we have dumped some food, and all excess clothing. One sleeping bag has been dumped, and we decided rather than dump all excess food we have increase daily rations so we can push harder on the marches. We have dumped some food, more soon, and then even some fuel will go.

Indinda alive and well, transforming into an Arctic Giraffe!

I am currently consuming around 8500 kcal per day... gee that's a huge amount of what we would normally call 'bad food'... lots and lots of fat! I have even taught myself to think butter is chocolate, so happily bite off half a block of -30 deg C butter with a mouthful of delicious fruit cake… yummy, and I mean it! In two days time we plan to increase march times by one hour a day until we get to 12 hours a day, then stay at that for our 'record achieving' Push to the Pole! These extra calories will come in handy for that...

As things are unfolding our expedition could be very 'historic', with Tessum being the youngest ever to do this, Richard and Tessum being the first father and son team to do it, and Richard vowing that this is his last! (I have been also told I will be the oldest ever to do it... hmmm, not sure I like that... I still think I'm a teenager!).

Richard and Tessum power napping during a 10 minute break. Amazing, a technique I still have to learn!

I just love this 'race / go as fast as we can' mindset, I wanted that from the beginning and now have it; it just makes the whole thing that much more challenging and exciting. It has caused some stress in the team, with not all individual goals aligned, but after a little hiccup Richard's leadership has all members totally committed to the goal.

A particularly challenging lead crossing. The ice island had a large ice ridge that made it difficult to get the sled past. All got through safely!

Some highlights from the past few days:

I came VERY close to taking a total swim! Richard on skis tested the ice across a frozen lead, and we all agreed it was good. He skied across with his sled, and after he was on real terra firma, I then set off tentatively in my snow shoes (less area than skis and a crampon underneath. About 3/4 the way across, my step suddenly felt insecure and on slushy ice, so I treaded more carefully, continuing forward and lifting my foot to see the ice had opened a hole the size of my snowshoe. I literally left water holes behind each of the two steps to terra firma, but my sled got dumped. Here is a photo of the spot with the hole and open water, 2 minutes after I had got to the side! Close call to full swim! We have discussed the procedure for anyone of us taking a full swim, and it's not pleasant and will require a one day delay as we have to set up tent and run the stoves for 6-8 hours to dry all the wet (then frozen) gear.

Here is the lead crossing where I almost swam. That pool of water was made by my snowshoe! Tessum and David waiting to cross, now via another route.

Day 29 saw us spending most of the day on a huge flat ice pan. It stretched to all horizons and reminded me of when the 'real sea' is becalmed and essentially flat and glimmering for as far as one could see. Unlike the 'real sea' which can change as the wind comes up, this is 'frozen calm', only waiting foot underwater disturbance to fracture the ice and disturb the peace. Although to many walking in this 'nothingness' would see boring the feeling of flat vastness was very special for me… for one day at least… The fact that this terrain allowed us to travel fast also added to the positive day.

A lovely arctic aquamarine sea!

Day 27: Pemmican OK, into the 86th Degree, The days are long and hard....

2010-04-01T15:37:00.007+01:00

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 27: End of Day Position: 86 30.1 N, 82 53.6 W
Distance covered since the start: 212 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 40.7 nm
Distance to The Pole: 210 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +1.3 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 21 April, + / - 2 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 10.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -45 / -28 deg C

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

Phew, on Day 24 we finally crossed the 86th parallel, and are back powering ahead. The combination of the big drift and our ‘lost’ two days for the resupply made this degree seem to last forever.

By the way, if anyone is wondering why we have been going slightly west from Day 1, it's on purpose as apparently there is a good chance of easterly drift as we approach the Pole.

Things are changing quickly now, sun is stronger, temperature warmer, our gear is dryer, and we have had a 15-18 knot easterly wind which appears to bee locking up the ice pans, and reducing open water we expected with the super tides of perigee.

The good news on the pemmican is that we have been given the "It's OK to eat" by a food hygiene expert. It tastes pretty sour, but 'the expert' says it's not going to affect us, other than any fussy eaters who don't like pemmican which tastes like sauerkraut! One of our team can't believe the taste of pemmican could get worse! Haha! While the crisis does seem to be behind us, we are treading cautiously for the next week, watching for any bad reactions. Getting this "OK" has been a real relief, as we were all a bit hyper on 'funny' tastes and slightly abnormal body functions!

As I commented before: Isn’t it amazing how the human mind and body adjusts to new challenges?... Our heavy sleds now feel 'normal', and we are back to +10 mile days. OK, we have also increased the day's march time by an hour, so the march day typically goes from 9 30am to 7 30pm. (Eastern Standard Time)

We were confused on Day 23 by remarkably warm weather, maybe even as warm as -20! I stopped in the middle of a march and removed all my layers except long underwear pants and top, plus the thin wind suit pants... real light clothing. I was so touched by this change in temperature and the sun was out, that I started singing that well known song "Summertime, and the living is easy"! I should have realized that singing that song in the Arctic is like whistling at sea... it calls the wind! A day later and we were dealing with -45, chilly head wind, and frozen whiskey! I had a difficult Day 24 as I was dressed for summer, and never quite got warm, definitely adding to my finger damage. The choice of clothing layers when we set out in the morning is critical, as major layer changes are very difficult to do on the march, and if one leaves an increase in layers a bit late, it can be quite scary. As you are changing everything is freezing more and your manual dexterity reduces dramatically to the point you can't do the very thing you NEED to do to help you warm up. Layering down is 'pleasant', but takes a lot of time, if one is dropping primary layers. It then includes taking off my boots, which is not fun even at -20!

David at step 3 of a 5 step process of getting down from the top of a 4m pressure ridge.

It does feel more like summertime, as there is almost 24 hours light, with sunset around 9pm, and I don't know when sunrise is as it's always up when we get up (6am). The tent is always light, so one's time clock is confused! I have been enjoying my brand new outer sleeping bag... in fact with the extra sun hours and no night as such, its been so 'warm'' in the tent at night, so I have only used the outer bag and the 'evil' vapour barrier bag! Doing away with the inner bag has made the process of going to bed much simpler.

The terrain has changed significantly from Nature's demolition zone I described last Post, to largely multi year ice covered in snow. Multi year ice is ice that hasn't been fractured and refrozen in the past year. This means that the terrain looks like a snow sea, with no / few exposed pressure ridges. Years of snow has covered the ridges / broken ice, and left an undulating soft snow surface, while easier than crossing pressure ridges is quite heavy going.

A view of an open lead and a sea of snow in the background.

The 27 days of tough days 'on the road' is starting to tell amongst the team...pains are appearing, painkillers being used, waking up is harder, less talking on the marches, everyone really looks forward to the breaks between marches, and there is a lot of focus on trying to reduce sled and backpack weights where ever possible. This is the time in the expedition where I knew the mind would struggle, around halfway, but thinking how long ago Day 1 it's a bit daunting thinking we still have the same again! I have really tried to see the routine and the cold environment as 'my life', to be embraced, and enjoyed rather than longing to be back in my 'other life' and desiring the things you can't have here. For short trips one doesn't have to do that, but for long ones like this it's critical, and the difference between the situation as freedom versus a daily prison. I can see each member of the team approaching this potential problem in their own different way… The focus of conversation and how it switches between the now and the arctic environment versus 'home' and it's 'catching' says a lot!

Snow sculptures like this are common in the 'sea of snow' terrain we are currently in... I may be 'losing it' after 27 days out here, but I saw this sculpture as a polar bear climbing into its sleeping bag.

I find my photography helps me get deeper into the now, and appreciating the absolute unique environment I am in. I often leave the group to go after photo shots, and then spend the next hour catching back up to them. It's also good for me as I can free myself of the monotony of 'just' mindlessly following another person's sled. I find particularly in the afternoons I start looking for alternate routes across ridges etc, which brings in another dimension of reading the ice and route planning. I have gained a lot of confidence through this, but like the sea, which it is, I never take it for granted, or think I'm in control. Yesterday, we had a situation where a snowed over lead looked totally safe, but as you poked through the snow it was just water… scary stuff and thankfully we had Richard's expertise preventing a disaster! I am really lucky that Richard is OK with me doing my 'own thing' sometimes, and as a follow on has asked me to lead the end of day marches. I have really enjoyed this!

I wrote the above at the end of Day 25, well it's now end of Day 26, and hmmm... today I 'fell' into the water, and am feeling sorry for myself! How? Well after getting behind I was taking a 'short cut' trying to catch up and misjudged the end of the water and start of hard ice...yes that same snow covered water I mention above! Fortunately only one leg went in up to knee level. It doesn't sound like much, but as I pulled my now completely soaked boot out of the water it all froze immediately forming an ice case around the boot. I broke off as much ice as possible, and then started to walk as fast as I could to try warm up. After 3 hours of trying to win the battle of warm my toes as I walked, I realized I wasn't winning, so stopped and changed my first layer sock and encased it in a plastic bag I kept for this very purpose. Removing the boot was not an easy thing, and then having 1 minute with a bare foot exposed to the 15 knot easterly was not fun! Anyway once I had that all done and started walking my toes recovered fully. As further punishment, as I sit in the tent, I have just finished taking my boots apart (2 liners and shell) and had to spend 30 mins with the loo brush, getting rid of the snow and ice. Lesson learned... It will NEVER happen again!

My iced boot...!

So finally back to "24 hours in the life of an expeditioner", and we have just fallen asleep....:

Being packed like sardines, it's highly likely you wake up if your buddy next to you decides to turnover. Then the snoring, and sometimes talking in the sleep....

Sunset and our home!

I'm alarm timekeeper, and with the responsibility I somehow wake at around 5h30 and then stay awake waiting for the ever popular, 6am wakeup call! This time before 6am usually catalyzes me needing to use the in bag pee bottle! Always an unpleasant task, but better than the outside alternative! Being the only morning person, and the only one who sleeps with my tent boots on, I am first out the tent in the morning. Once all of us are out, and have packed away our sleeping bags, its then up to Tessum to put on his full windsuit and go back into the tent, pass all out all the stuff in the tent and then with the loo brush and diligently brush off all the ice on the inside of the tent. If we didn’t do that all the ice would melt and wet us and all our clothes, etc! After the brush off, all the stuff goes back into the tent, and 1st priority is warmth and getting the stoves lit. As that's complete, the 1st course of breakfast is handed out (frozen sucre bread, with peanut butter etc) with our 8 vitamin tablets. As the water on the stoves boils, coffee is served, and after that pemmican and rice. Which is then followed by lots of chatter, about anything from iPhones to Richard’s arctic stories. That's breakfast...

To be continued!

Day 22: Two days of 'living it up', now back to reality, dealing with heavy sleds, lots of water, and playing drift catch-up...

2010-03-25T16:17:00.010Z

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 22: End of Day Position: 85 49.3 N, 80 49.0 W
Distance covered since the start: 171.3 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 18.8 nm
Distance to The Pole: 250.7 nm
Overall distance versus plan: -0.0 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 23 April, + / - 3 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 9.8 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -38 / -30 deg C

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

Well our two re-supply / rest days have come and gone, and we are 'on the road' again, back in the 9 hour march routine... only this time with sleds that are about 25% heavier than the sled weight on Day 1, and 60% heavier than the last ones we remember immediately prior to the re-supply, on day 18. This has all been a bit of a shock to the mind, but as adaptable as us humans are, it took about a day, a painful one at that before they were 'normal'.

My last Post was from the eve of the re-supply... I thought it was 10:30 pm when I sent it, but it was actually 1:30 am in the morning! That was a big day with the open water lead crossing. Sorry, I don't have any good photos from it, but I had a 'technical problem'... It would be on the special occasion hey! I forgot to mention that even with the drysuit and my 'normal' gear on underneath, the water was really cold on the body after a while. Richard stayed in the longest, doing a few shuttle swims, so came out really freezing. My drysuit also leaked a bit, a small seeping stream through to my crotch area… not fun when it froze!

Our open water lead crossing in progress. Tessum broke the path through the thin ice.

Ok, so now for our 2 re-supply days:

We were sleeping in late, and right on his promise, Dave the pilot from Summit, flew low over our tent, buzzing his arrival....gee, it was emotional as I rocketed out of our tent to see him banking to come in for a marker drop to help him adjust for the wind. One more circuit and the first drop (of three) was released....but no parachute opening, just a huge thud as our first load crashed at high speed into the snow, about 300 metres from our tent! Hmmm, not much would survive that impact! The other two parachuted perfectly to safe landings also near the tent. We all ran first to the crashed one and found the bad news: The replacement sleds were destroyed, one can of fuel burst contaminating food, and many food packages burst open. A little present was two containers of 'tinned' fruit that delivered perfectly served fruit on ice. Seeing fruit like that was irresistible and we just stopped work and savoured the 'special' look and taste of fruit!

The first drop that crashed into the snow without the parachute opening, destroying our replacement sleds, bursting fuel and food containers, and providing us with a few headaches!

Unpacking the other two drops was like Christmas day present opening! Of course as things like chocolate brownies and cookies came up we 'had' to stop work and sample! We had forgotten much of what we had bought, so most items were truly present like. Our only 'bottle' of wine a specially chosen (for air transport and Oz origin!) “Thirsty Lizard” came through the drop with a slight leak, but 99% of its scarce content saved.

One of our drops his the snow spectacularly within 200 metres of our tent!

We used the wooden bases of the palettes of each drop as tent floorboards, and 'retired' to our 2 day home for a wonderful feast in a warm virtual house environment. This being quite different from the 'on the road' house where the ice floor, limited fuel heating time, and continuous 'pressure' to pack and leave make for very transient living. Did we enjoy it, eating food chosen just based on taste bud delight, rather than the highest, 'calorie per gram' basis of the last 18 days! It was greed at its extreme, but we did feel we deserved it! Every now and then someone dampened the party by asking what our GPS position was. We were drifting south all the time, and in all the two days put us back 10 miles. We thought this would happen, and all agreed the rest was more important. The second day was not all relaxing, in fact pretty busy re-packing, fixing etc....We did sleep in though!

One of the parachutes leading to our 2 day home! We used some of the stuff from the parachute for repairs etc. Will it lie there for eternity preserved in snow and ice, or eventually be engulfed by open water and sink to the depths of the ocean?

Some other potentially bad part of the re-supply was our discovery that the critical re-supply expedition food had been taken from its outdoor natural refrigerator in the Yelllowknife hangar, to a warm place for packing onto the drop palettes. This unfreezing of the food has meant the pemmican has gone off! (The butter is slightly rancid, but all the other food is ok.) Unfortunately pemmican is the major part of our diet. The extent of the problem from our ability to safely eat it is currently being established, but early reactions are worrying. We are busy looking at alternatives at the moment.

The 2 days were great for team building as the pressure coming off and celebration of our team milestone brought out the personalities, around lively recalls of the 18 days, and personal banter of a level we had not experienced before... A great team maturing nicely!
That's all the story for the re-supply... pretty full on, fun yet challenging!

My own whole roast chicken!

Day 21 started with David saying: "It feels like Monday, and going back to work!" Hmmm, I actually woke wanting to get back to 'moving life', but as we connected sleds the huge 'new weight' made me re-think that! We have all been looking at ways to reduce sled weight, and I ditched most of my spare clothing, including my polar suit top. (The top designed for use in the severest cold. It's clear the coldest time is behind us now, with virtual 24 daylight, and long sun hours.)

I experienced something new: We crossed a large pressure ridge as it was slowly collapsing. Basically, the ice pans either side of the ridge that had crashed into each other to form the ridge were now being blown apart collapsing the ridge. As we walked over it there was a pretty loud crunching / gnashing sound as the broken blocks of ice fell to lower positions..! Pretty scary stuff for me, but Richard was happy it was all safe. The end of Day 21 produced a meager 6.5 miles of progress to the Pole, which dented spirits a bit.

I write this now at the end of Day 22:
I have finally got relaxed with my cocktail, after a very difficult day. Pemmican 'stuff' affected us a bit, but mainly the terrain was difficult, no sun, heavy sleds, and almost 10 hours marching trying to make up yesterday's lost miles. I expected the ice to be alive and messy, after waking to the sound of grinding ice, and lots of grey 'open water clouds' around. For most of the day it felt like we were in Mother Nature demolition zone. Huge broken leads, lots of thin ice, lots of big ice block pressure ridges, and just an obstacle course. Thankfully none of the open water needed swimming, as we found a way around each time. Lugging the extra heavy sleds over these ice pressure ridges was very tiring.

With my new outer sleeping bag a lovely novelty, I'll wait for the next post to continue the “Day in a Life of a Polar expeditioner!”

Burying my old Outer Sleeping bag. I cut it up first and found all the rocks of ice! RIP!

Till that next Post, take care!

Day 18: The Arctic ups the Ante, a Swim and the Sleds are needing a Re-supply

2010-03-21T12:34:00.007Z

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 18: End of Day Position: 85 44.4 N, 81 10.0 W
Distance covered since the start: 152.5 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 39.5 nm
Distance to The Pole: 269.5 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +0.5 nm (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 23 April, + / - 3 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 9.1 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -48 / -34 deg C (-57 wind chill)

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

The Story from the Ice:

Firstly, I’d like to thank all of you who have sent through comments and emails. It’s just absolutely amazing and motivates me a lot. You must also know that with your comment you get my mind space on my march too.... Sorry if I can't respond to each individually, but I do want you to know I receive and value them.

What is special about this photo...? Well firstly, as I'm sure you can see it's a shadow of me! Haha! It's my shadow at local noon, so is pointing straight to the North Pole. The shadow is very long because of the very low angle of the sun from the horizon, up here. Lastly, the ice on which I am standing is part of a huge refrozen lead, so you can see how flat it is to ski, and why we like them.

It was going all too well, and we were expecting the Arctic to up its ante any day, and now it's happened.... Just a tweak up, it could be a lot worse!

I am writing this at 1.30 am at the end of a long Day 18...12 hours out there marching...ooh, and swimming! Just as we were entering the last hour of our long day, we hit this wide and apparently endless 10mm ice lead. A quick test confirmed it was only 'crossable' by swimming. The next hour was spent doing that.... Tessum and I were first across in our drysuits, and then hurtling sleds and David and Richard. We had to break the thin ice as we swam. So, as I predicted in my last Post, we finally got our swim, about 150m!

Days 16, 17 and 1/2 of 18 saw us having to deal with a northerly head wind, right 'on the nose'...I thought that was a sailing term but now (from my reshaped nose!) I know it’s an arctic expeditioner term!...Not only did this wind make marching very uncomfortable, it has been pushing the ice south too, so we have been drifting backwards (south) as we walk and sleep!....The drift has been between 0.10 and 0.25 miles per hour so costing us 2.5-5 miles a day! When we are only doing 11-12 miles a day marching this is a huge 'dent' in a days’ progress to the pole. It remains to be seen how long this north wind blows. From about four days back, the compass ceased working as we are in too close
proximity to the magnetic pole and the confusing fluxes around it.

We had another amazing viewing of the power of Nature. This time it was the final 'death squeeze' in the ridge forming process. The ridge was formed, huge piles of large broken ice blocks now taken off the water, probably 0.75 m thick, being forced over each other one last time. As this eerie squeeze delivered its blow, the more vulnerable ones capitulate again, breaking a second time and finally falling into their new, high above the water, rest spots....ready to test next year's expeditioner!

Richard and Tessum: Like father, like son...lunch stop on -50 deg C wind chill...Lunch was very short!

Gearing up for resupply:

As you probably know already, our expedition is SUPPORTED, which means we get resupplied along the way. Well when we started our sleds were only packed with 21 days of supplies, and they are now much lighter, and we will run out of food and fuel in a few days. (We started with sleds of about 60 kg, and every day they have been getting about 1.2kg lighter as we consume the contents.) So, what happens when we run out...?

Fortunately our resupply will be 'dropped in', just in time, by air parachute (c/o Summit Air) to us on 21 March. This is a BIG day for us, as not only do we get vital food / fuel rations for the second part of the expedition, but we also have two days worth of 'normal' food and 'luxury' treats. We will have 1 day unpacking and repacking all 'the stuff', and then we are having a rest day....basically sleep! So we are in for two very special days, before resuming the rigors of the routine of the past 18 days, but with the shock of the fully stocked, heaviest ever sleds we have had! (about 75kg each). I hope the next Post will include photos of the re-supply drop in and some insights to our arctic
re-supply party, and day of gluttony! I am pretty excited getting into roast chicken, cookies, french cheese, cheese cake cappachino, and my South African delicacies!

It’s not all been weight loss in the sled.... Unfortunately my outer sleeping bag has been getting 0.3kg heavier every day as it takes on moisture, mainly from my sweat as I sleep...scary hey! What's real scary is the fact that this new sleeping bag is now virtually useless, being full of ice rocks that are both bloody uncomfortable to sleep on and don't provide any insulation! We will have new outer sleeping bags with the resupply 'stuff'. The unsupported people carry a spare outer bag, wrapped up to keep dry for use later through their expedition.

So, continuing with a day in my life....:

So I am now asleep like a tightly packed sardine in our tent, with an ice rock outer sleeping bag as my mattress. Because it's lost most of its insulating performance I have now started sleeping in my liner boots! So hopefully you can now imagine us 'snuggly asleep'!

As the night moves on there always comes a point where the desperate and intensive fight with my inner vapour barrier bag begins! (This bag is basically a thin, claustrophobic plastic bag that's supposed to reduce moisture traveling from me to both my sleeping bags.) The fight happens because I feel like I am suffocating as the plastic gets sucked onto both my air intakes. I have to find the opening and quick! Fortunately it’s so cold outside my sleeping bags that I can feel my way to the 'life saving' outlet by following the coldness. The
relief of getting to fresh air is soon replaced by the shock of my hand now being out in - 40 degree air, and the second gulp of air chilling my throat! Once that fight is over, the snoring and talking in sleep seems pretty easy to deal with!

It's getting late, so I'll send this now, and continue 'my sleep time
description next time....

Next Post will have our swim photos and coverage of our re-supply day 'party'!

A Special Response to BJHS North Pole Followers:

It's really great to have you guys following our expedition, and I hope one day I'll be back in Yellowknife to meet you! Thank you for your care about my face and fingers, they are doing well.

So far I have really enjoyed the expedition, and I think it's going to deliver what I expected.

Re the fog: Yes it does slow us down a bit, as we use visual navigation a lot, and the fog doesn't allow us to see the next ice mound to aim for.

I'll try and think about you guys and what you may find interesting for future Posts. Now take care, Howard

Day 13: Lots of Action and the 85th Degree a Day away‏

2010-03-16T14:18:00.008Z

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 13: End of Day Position: 84 51.25 N, 80 02.69 W
Distance covered since the start: 113 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 43.5 nm
Distance to The Pole: 309 nm
Overall distance versus plan: -1.3 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 22 April, + / - 3 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 9.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -43 / -32 deg C

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

As you maybe able to work out, we are making amazing progress, and today, Day 13, produced a new day's record of 11.7 miles. Today's mileage included crossing 4 huge frozen leads. I needed to switch from snow shoes to skis for 2 of them due to the thin ice. These leads are all from the super tide of 2 weeks back which clearly caused havoc in the ocean then, but time and the cold has managed to 'repair' all the breakage. We were just saying how scary it must have been being out here when it was all breaking up!

Much of our good progress can be attributed to Richard's expertise: Firstly in routing us as direct north as possible with limited navigation aids, and secondly his route picking crossing all the pressure ridges and other obstacles. Everyday we must cross 50+ mini mountain passes over boulder ice mountains. Choosing the best pass over these mountains can save a lot of time and effort, and Richard's experience shines evidently throughout every day. Our next concern point is the full moon and associated spring tides at the end of March. There is potential for extensive ice breaking up again. I guess we shall see.....

The temperature has been warmer than I had prepared for but it's still cold and every day I have at least one cold 'issue' where I have to dig deep to prevent damage. It always happens at either the start of the day or after a 'lunch' break when I have got cold. Once I get going and reach 'in the groove' temperature it's never a problem for the rest of a march.

The day following my last post produced the first true open ocean area. Compared to the previous open leads this was a huge pan of real green arctic sea water...and the water was an interesting green colour. We all donned skis to cross lots of thin ice, and Richard found us an amazing ice route across the pan. I sense that things are 'a-changing' and a day for swimming is not far off. We have seen lots of level cloud, and fog all around, all indications of lots of open water. Last Post, I referred to the sterility, but all this has changed, with the open water.....On day 12 we came across Polar bear tracks, a single medium size bear that had passed in a south westerly direction. Probably heading towards the open water in search of a seal. It is interesting to think of the quality of life of a single 'lonely' polar bear, in this harsh and bleak environment!

Polar bear print.

On the night of Day 10 just as we were preparing to get into our sleeping bags we heard the all too familiar now...boof...boof...boof, that sounded really close by. Hmm, are we and our tent in the way of nature's pressure ridge construction process? We went out to inspect but fortunately the ice ramming activity was a safe distance away. It does make one think of the scenario of being woken with breaking ice on our doorstep! The way we try to mitigate against this is by selecting camp sites way away from any pressure ridges, or leads.

Day 11 was my worst so far. It all started as I put my head out of the tent at 6h15 to find an eerie grey world with thick fog everywhere. I'd been warned to expect many days like this, but after 10 amazing clear and sunny days this was a shock. Basically the fog stayed around the whole day, making ‘my world’ very small, and requiring me to dig deep for the 9 march hours. That had not been a problem before, as I had found the visible environment was stimulating in its unique starkness. We shall see in the more 'fog days' ahead. It is interesting what one thinks about out here.... In one of these moments, I decided the 'Purpose of Life' for the moment (haha, a contradiction hey!) is to fully embrace my Arctic / North Pole experience! These Posts and trying to deliver something special for you are part of that, so thanks for being there with me.....

I am undoubtedly the leader in 'getting wet' experiences, with 3 times 'boot in the water', and one knee in the water while taking a photo kneeling on thin ice. However Tessum was first to dunk his sled in the water, and I managed to capture it on camera below:

Tessum's sled falls through the ice!

One may get the impression that we are moving along 'trouble free', but this is a harsh and demanding environment and we have had our fair share of equipment breakage / failure: To date we have broken a ski pole, seriously cracked two of the sleds, worn out 2 pairs of mittens, cracked two sets of crampons on the snow shoes, broken a ski binding, and many ‘ski-tow hitch' lanyards have broken. Fortunately through Richard's experience we have spares and repair 'bits and pieces' with us, so have been able to painlessly repair the equipment. Richard and I stitched up the sleds using wire thread stitched through newly drilled holes. The sleds in particular take a huge pounding as they hurtle over the ice boulders crashing to the ground...once or twice out of control and ending up mowing me over, leaving my ego badly damaged!

Two of the sleds are no longer capable of floating in the water, but in the next day or so we will have sealed the cracks so they will be ready for our first swim!

Continuing where I left of last Post with my 'A day in the life of a North Pole expeditioner, I have now entered the tent, and it's about 7pm....

The one stove has just started heating the tent, and the other two are being fired up....My cold world of the 9 hour march is left behind me for at least a few hours, and a warm, social environment awaits. But before I can relax, there is housework to be done...... My gloves, neck tube, hat and socks have to be hung up at the roof apex of the tent using safety pins on our washing line. This is so they will dry using the heat from the stoves and be ready to keep us warm for the next day ahead. By now the big water pot is on the 3 stoves, melting snow for our highly prized 'end of day' reward: a 'Weber cocktail'... Richard won't tell us the main ingredients, but it’s like a warm horlicks drink, plus a large amount of 'Canadian maple sugar', served in our individual mugs to which we then each add 'the main ingredient'.... David's extra special Scotch whiskey! Most nights its just 1.5 'measure' each, but for special occasions (e.g. crossing 84 degrees, and our day 11 record of 11.6 miles) we go up to 4 measures! Gee, these cocktails go down REALLY well!

While the water is boiling, I have to remove my boots, 4 layers of socks, and then brush my inner boots from my ski boots dry of all snow and ice using the loo brush.... The 2nd sock layer is basically a thin waterproof liner that keeps sweat in the inner sock. Anyway all this has to be taken 'apart' and dried for the next day. Once our boots are brushed off, we put them back on and have 'evening slippers' that go over them so we catwalk outside without getting too cold.

Cooking then continues with our 'second course', a wonderful pemmican / noodle dish, with either pine nuts or coconut crème, it's always a surprise which it will be! I usually have two full plates worth!

All the time there is lots of chatting, about everything from the day's progress, to real 'boys' stuff! It's been great having all this interaction after the pretty solitary 9 hour marches.

Dinner time in tent!

A short while after the main course we have 'desert' which is a warm cup of 'muscle milk'.... a variety of lovely flavours of muscle recovery drink!

Around 9h30, the bad moment is called..."stoves out!" From that point on the tent temperature is on its way down to the outside temperature. We then have to 'rush' out of the tent, grab our 3 sleeping bags and night pee bottle then have a last, 'cold' proactive pee! The sleeping bags stay outside so they don't take in moisture while the stoves are on.

The race is then on to get into the 3 sleeping bag layers one by one before you 'freeze'. It's quite a challenge, but I feel more than adequately rewarded when I'm finally tucked in and feel things warming up inside. A few 'seconds' later through shear exhaustion I am in dream land...

Next post.... The night, waking in our frozen home and breakfast!

Day 9: Our first major latitude line crossing, and…

2010-03-11T21:22:00.005Z

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 9: End of Day Position: 84 07.75 N, 78 52.5 W
Distance covered since the start: 69.5 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 38.7 nm
Distance to The Pole: 352.5 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +1 day (Versus original Ward Hunt Island start point)
(- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 23 April, + / - 3 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 9.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -47 / -30 deg C

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

Our first major latitude line crossing, and…:

Gee, I feel some much more relaxed and in tune with this Arctic environment versus how I felt when I wrote my last Post! Nine days done, the 1st degree milestone accomplished, land almost out of sight, we are now the leading expedition (closest to the Pole) and a few battle scars to show for it all!

A lovely cold damaged nose!

The hard work of daily disciplined 9 hour marches is paying dividends as we have had good daily averages since the last Post. The huge frozen lead we were on continued for another amazing day (10 miles in total), virtually going true north directly the directly the route to the Pole. Almost like a super highway. These frozen leads are very smooth newly frozen ice, which then has fresh snow on it. The snow on the surface has an amazing range of shapes, depending on its age and exposure to the wind. Sometimes it truly looks like white fine bowling green grass stretching for hundreds of metres. It can also take the look of undersea coral, and then amazingly a haphazard cluster of fine fibre glass strands. The main thing for us is that the frozen lead has virtually no obstacles and a fast surface for the sleds...so miles fly by!

After the end of the highway the frozen ocean started looking more like an ocean with mainly undulating swells frozen in time, and then every 1/2 a mile or so we would come across fairly small pack ridge ice. On day 8 we found ourselves running into a large (200m wide), freshly frozen / still freezing lead, that was running east / west and as we were to find out, a significant obstacle. It looked frozen and 'cross-able' on ski's, but after testing the ice, it was definitely too thin. (I am on snowshoes most of the time, towing the ski's behind, only switching for thin ice) We decided to ski close to the edge where it was thicker, but soon saw open water patches and then hastily, but carefully we went off the lead for a while. It became apparent that this was a huge lead and a huge barrier to our progress. As we stood on terra firma, at the edge of the lead I witnessed something I will remember for the rest of my life: firstly there was this noise like an old steam driven pile driver...doof...doof...doof, and as I looked down at the ice, each 'dooh' was a ram by the ice pan on the opposite side driving the newly frozen ice into the terra firma I was standing on! This caused the new ice to buckle, crack and then crumble forming a brand new pressure ridge right in front of my eyes. The noise was eerie! As the ice cracked water oozed out and then a new open water channel appeared.....hmmmm, nature at work, and live, no movie, or TV show, this was the real thing...the making of a pressure ridge, and we needed to cross it! I felt so excited, like a little boy in a new playground. Richard said: Maybe we should use the dry suits and 'just cross', others said lets wait till the morning when the lead should have totally frozen, but I had no hesitation in supporting 'exploring'! The guys even commented that they hadn't seen me so excited yet! So....we decided to don the dry suits pack our backpacks, skis and snowshoes on the sled and walk precariously across the thin ice, pulling the sled by hand, and ready to swim if the ice broke! With the dry suit on I felt 'invincible' and ready for a swim! As I walked I could feel the ice bending and flexing on the water below. Anyway after about 20 mins we had crossed the lead, all feeling very proud of the huge time saving we had achieved. As we awkwardly took off our drysuits, I could still hear the doof....doof...doof, as the piledriver continued making the new pressure ridge using the ice we had just walked on... Special stuff!

An example of a pressure ridge! Flatish trail, then one hits this as a barrier across the desired path. The ridge rubble could extend for 1km behind this!‏

Physically, I feel quite a wreck, but also feel I have come through a baptism of fire with flying colours! I have one badly cold damaged index finger (1 step before frostbite), a few minor cold 'burns' on other fingers, a badly blistered nose, a few bloodied toenails, lots of aches and pains all over the body, but a strong soul and spirit. I feel like I really have come through 9 days of real learning, and am starting to feel at ease here. Managing ones body temperature very finely is the key, and proactive clothing layer and march pace management are key. Sweat is almost worse than being a bit too cold. At these temperatures sweat eventually freezes some where between your skin and your outer clothing layer forming another VERY undesirable crusty, cold new 'clothing layer'. The cold environment doesn't scare me anymore, and the last day of -30 or so felt TOTALLY at home, and even too warm! I guess our amazing human bodies adapt far beyond what we imagine.

My cold damaged index finger, Result of the -51 C day's testing the limits!

The sun is getting stronger and staying up longer, so it’s getting warmer and feels better each day. The interesting thing is that our long shadows (the sun stays low on the horizon) point directly to the North Pole at roughly 12h10 (local midday) everyday. So we just follow our shadows!

Posing at 'lunch stop', usually 5 mins because we get so cold.

Yesterday felt like I really was out on the open ocean. The terrain was almost all 'undulating swells', and limitless horizon for almost 360 degrees. It reminded me of the Australian GAFA...and I named it the new GAFA...The Great Arctic FA... There is nothing but snow and ice here. With no permanent open water around there is no visible sea life, so no Polar bears, nor other land animals, nor birds, there is no food for anything. Makes one wonder what lives beneath the ice Its just stark and sterile, but at the same time possessing a unique beauty.

Richard doing 1st check of the ice thickness before crossing the lead. Exciting stuff!

I thought it maybe of interest to go through our 'typical' day routine with you. I'll do this over the next few Posts, starting today with the end of march time...18h30 currently:'

So, we have been marching for 9 long hard hours, and its now come to a welcome end...we all feel weary, with a few upper body aches from the weight of our backpacks and the continuous tugging of the sled line. Time to find a camp site....hmm, it always seems like where we stop is always too icy to plant tent poles (the ski's). So we wander around looking for soft snow....so the march isn't over yet! Eventually we find a spot, backpacks off, snowshoes off, sleds are opened, ski's disconnected from the sleds, and ski poles, are 'victoriously' tossed into the central tent site, ready for later use.

Me 'happy' in my dry suit towing the sled but walking carefully on real thin ice, that flexes as you walk on it!‏

There is pressure on me; I carry the tent and two CRITICAL loo brushes! Both these items needed first and urgently...the tent is obvious, but the loo brushes?.....Well they are needed to brush off all the snow / ice from sweat / breath etc that has built up on our clothing. Being in a warm tent without doing that will mean your clothes getting sopping wet, and then never dry!

Next is putting up the tent, which now takes about 20 minutes. Once the tent is up Richard and Tessum go in to set up the 'kitchen', and David and I finishing building the tent, by shoveling snow around the tent sealing it against the wind, and making it stable. My final outside task is filling the big tent bag with 'quality' snow to melt for water. By now the stoves are alight, and I can't wait to get inside, as my hands are normally on the edge of cold damage. Gee, it feels so good as I put my head inside our warm room for the next few hours...

Continue next Post...

Forward to the next degree....

Day 5: The First Story from the Ice

2010-03-08T18:01:00.005Z

DC3 Drops us on the ice, for the start.

Expedition Statistics:
Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 5: End of Day Position: 83 28.85 N, 77 48.0 W
Distance covered since last Post: 30.8 nm
Distance to The Pole: 389 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +3.2 nm (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 22 April, + / - 3 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 9.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -51 / -40 deg C

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

Last Post I was in the comforts of Southcamp Inn, Resolute, my how life has changed! I sit here in our snug tent, 3 stoves roaring on max, providing heat for cooking, drying our gear and also heating the tent so we can have a pleasant 3 hours rest and social time. It provides the beacon of motivation and focus for the long 9 hour march days.

From the progress statistics above, you could conclude we aren't going to make it 5 days gone (10% of 50 days), and only 30 Nautical miles or 7% done! Well yes, the going has been very slow, as we have had to deal with four open water leads, albeit relatively small ones, and yesterday we had huge pressure ridges that virtually stopped us for 3/4 of the day. The surprise has also been the -ve drift we have experienced. From night 2, we were on ice that is drifting, unfortunately southwards, so two nights as we slept, we got taken back some distance (3 miles in total) by the current. Basically, as expected, the ice is much more fragmented than 'usual', and is already broken free of the mainland shelf ice. In all his years of doing this, Richard has never experienced open leads, and drift at this point in the journey! This being a combination of the super tide of 1 March, and global warming. The Arctic is REALLY changing hey! What this means for us is not the best of news, but progress is ahead of plan at this early stage. Today, Day 5, was the bonus day.....We managed to find a huge frozen lead, running north / south, which REALLY helped our progress. We did an amazing 10.5 miles today, and not one pressure ridge to deal with.

The first open lead.
Richard checking a lead.

On Day 2 I was amazed to see ice drift in action! While walking, the huge sheet of ice (or pan) was approaching us but sliding over the one we were walking on. The approaching one was about 25cm thick and just being forced over our one. I estimate it was moving at 1cm / sec, and with a violent gnarling sound. We ended up having to jump step onto it before we got 'mowed down'! Quite amazing!

We have been spared extreme temperature, with our coldest day being today a relatively warm -51 C. Both our thermometers 'over heated' and burst in the DC3 flying from Resolute. The cabin temperature control was limited and we must have had +50 C in the passenger area. One of the bindings on the snowshoes was almost melted through! So sorry no accurate temperatures!

On Day 2, the sun only rose at 11h00, and set about 14h30, but the dawn and dusk are very long and provide wonderful orange skylines. Every day the sunlight hours increase by a huge 1hr, and by March 21 we should have 18 hrs sunlight, and from 31 March 24 hours sun. We can't wait, but will miss these beautiful twilight hours. The twilight with the varying ice landscapes provides wonderful scenery for the arches....oohh well until we hit the pressure ridge ice rubble. Crossing these ridges is like towing a heavy sled over a wide boulder filled river. The boulders are huge chunks of ice, clearly the product of a serious ice pan crash. It's hard to describe how tough and violent pulling a sled across this terrain. It's really exhausting, and sometimes ends in a fall, or the sled careening virtually out of control over an ice cliff smacking straight into one of us below. We all are responsible for getting our own sleds over these ridges as often the tight access only allows one person. This can involve unclipping the sled and shoving or pulling it vertically up a 'mountain', and over a cliff the other side. We are fortunate that there are flatter sections between these ridges, but one never knows what's ahead....as today's bonus frozen lead showed.

Last night we identified the North Star, which is located directly above our destination, the NORTH POLE.

So, what’s happened to Indinda? After the initial Arctic shock, he has settled down well, and as the photo shows has adapted well to sleeping outside! My team mates have a bet with me that I will get tired of carrying this not so insignificant weight, and dump him as the tiresome journey takes its toll. I have a pact with myself that he will get to the Pole! Indinda on my pack (below):

Physically I am doing ok! The problem toe, after being a worry Day 1, is now good. Frostbite is a big worry, and the past two days I have been right on the edge of what my fingers can take. They have cold damage, but fortunately not frostbite. I now understand and known my limit, so at that point just before things shutdown I stop walking and do lots of arm windmills that get the circulation back...not pleasant stuff! We heard yesterday that the Irish team have sadly aborted their expedition due to bad frostbite, and were being emergency rescued today. Today, we discussed the scenario for our team....necessarily, but not a good discussion!

Teamwise, things are going great, but not what I would have predicted..... Richard and Tessum stick together at the front, and I have decided to stay with David behind, with me the 'guard train' last coach. This has been the best for the team, and I'm happy with my role. I've saved a few left behind skis that come unattached with the violent jarring. The guard was embarrassed yesterday when my thermos fell out after a big fall, but with no guard after me I only found out 2km later. I ended up running back to find it and then had a wonderful sled march at 'my speed' catching up without lost time!

That's all for now, don't take those showers, latte’s, beers, fruit, vegetables, carbohydrates for granted.

The Final Hours ... Whoopsie!

2010-03-03T23:40:00.005Z

The last 24 hours before we left for the final flight started with a dress rehearsal: I got up at 5h30 with the Irish team of 3, and Michele, the solo, unsupported guy. They were given the go ahead by the pilot, and a fairly frantic last minute runaround started....breakfast, final packing, phonecalls, team photos and emotional goodbyes. I was really glad I was part of it, we had become good friends, and I was surprised how I felt envious I wasn't going....hmm, 24hrs time, and its MY turn! (Hopefully!)

Our Start point has changed again: Lots of discussions around the ice today, and finally the feedback from the pilot Troy, after his flight today has changed our plan. The ice conditions around Ward Hunt Island sound bad, and the place where my friends Dan and Amelia started from is now favoured again. The large open water lead has refrozen closed (as they do at -45 deg C, so it seems odds are much better leaving from the point about 7 miles south west of the Island....Cape Discovery, or McLintock Inlet. So, FINAL, that's where we will be leaving from!

Ok, so back to the last few hours....

I never imagined getting to the point where I am actually packing the sled for the LAST time, ensuring I have everything I need in it, and it is in the best condition for the task ahead. Here is a photo of me putting the final piece, our tent, into the sled bag, before I finally close the lid. I did this inside as I had to make adjustments that needed room temperature. The sleds are packed
with food that needs to be 'refrigerated', so they normally stay outside all the time in 'Nature's fridge'. Compared to all the other expedition sleds, ours look like they have come from a 'toy shop'.....far from it, simple yes, but I know Richard knows his stuff, and I know we have the best sleds for the task ahead.

Well, if you weren't going to have a bath or a shower for 50+ days, wouldn't you
REALLY enjoy a last bath? Here it is:
Also...now this is a SECRET, hey...We smuggled a few beers and a bottle of wine in, and had a great team 'Last drink' together. This photo was taken by Christina Franco, an Italian woman who is attempting a solo, supported trip to the Pole, and who will travel with us tomorrow. The 'Men in Black'...It feels like a great team!

And finally....The feeling within:

As I said above excitement kicked up a huge amount today. I am really looking forward to getting out there now. I think saying goodbye to the others today and a breakthrough on my gloves and mitten management had a lot to do with it. With potentially having four layers of gloves, having a system and easy access for each layer, when each layer significantly reduces your dexterity, is key....I now have that system!

Apprehension is also high, but happily has reduced a bit. Sometimes I think I am in denial, but mostly I turn my back on my fear areas (which are quite a few!) and tell myself..: "You'll be ok, somehow you will deal with it!"

I do feel a huge weight of responsibility off my back, especially having Richard and then also my team mates. The pressure of doing things solo are so different, it REALLY stands out for me. Interestingly, Christina and I spent a while talking about this.

Otherwise, I am all set to go...

By the time you read this I'll be another 9 degrees north and walking to the Pole!

I'd like to THANK YOU all for the truly amazing support, which motivates me to bring you closer to the expedition...It's just great, and I will try my best to deliver my style and perspective from the Ice.

Leaving in an hour.....

2010-03-03T11:37:00.003Z

It's 5h30 am and I ave just woken up to hear the good news that we are flying out in about 1 hour.... So its now REALLY happening. A pretty good nights sleep, but I have to admit to waking up feeling a wee bit apprehensive and thinking how nice that bad was.....!!

There will be a full Posting about the last 24 hours going up on this Blog later today. Thereafter there will be updates on our progress every 4-7 days, and if you are on the Alert email list you will get an alert email EVERY time there is a new post. I haven't been emailing Alerts each time with these Resolute posts, but rest assured you will get them for each Post from the Ice.

Thanks for your support so far, and hope you enjoy the expedition 'with' me...

Bye for now....

More delays....Bad weather prevents flying today

2010-03-02T02:44:00.004Z

Due to bad weather up in the area, the pilot called off the flight for the two expeditions that were scheduled to leave for Ward Hunt today. This is bad news for us, as it means we are delayed at least another day. Today's two expeditions are hoping to fly out tomorrow, but this will only be confirmed at 5h30 in the morning.

I can feel tension building and I had to go for a long walk on the ice on my own. It's still around -30 deg C outside, so I came back feeling quite fresh! It was good for the mind and spirit. I had a lovely what I thought was a 'second to last' bath last night.... Gee, I will miss just relaxing in a full warm bath. Last one coming up tomorrow night... Hopefully!

I highlight of my day today was meeting Pen Hadow in person, as he is in Resolute as part of a UK Scientific Ice Research program. Pen was the first and one of only two people to have done Ward Hunt Island to the North Pole, solo and unassisted. I refer to his book often in my Blog, and it was just great sharing with him, one-on-one, his experiences and also telling him how his expedition and book played a huge role in getting me here to Resolute. Our discussion focused a lot on open water (lead) swimming, and it became apparent that their are two different philosophies: The one says, "Swim any leads that look 'swim-able'", and the other one says, "Walk the leads and you will eventually find a place iced over where you can walk across". Richard's experience follows the later philosophy and he is adamant that this is much faster than swimming. We still remain flexible and prepared to swim, so the difference between the two is just a matter of degrees.

More on our departure soon....

PS: Sorry about the poor quality of some of the photos in the last Post, I am trying to rectify that. The photos are amazing, but at the moment it takes imagination to see that!

Some Photos from the Last Few Days

2010-03-01T18:12:00.027Z

Friday (26 Feb): Back in Yellowknife, with my new skinhead and my last beer until at least 25th April (Resolute is a dry town..ie alcohol is illegal.) Oh, the haircut, low maintenance, even though it's a bit colder. Head cold has never been a problem, as I have a good selection of head gear layers.
Friday (26 Feb): This is our sleds being loaded onto the Summit Air Twin Otter, bound with us to Resolute. It was a pleasant, albeit noisy, 5 hour flight to Resolute. Here is sunset above the clouds:

Friday (26 Feb): It was a bit of an emotional shock arriving at 10pm at the very desolate Resolute airport at -32 deg C, and knowing I was now at 74 deg North, the furthest North I have ever been. Inside me I felt a funny twinge as I knew there was just one more 9 degree step left, and the start line was only a few days away. After being told to reduce my expectations of Resolute, I was pleasantly surprised by our accommodation, food and general infrastructure. Here is a photo of the only church in Resolute:

Azzi's place, where we are staying is a hive of activity with seven of the eight expeditions staying here. This huge room below is set aside for us all to prepare in indoor comfort, and looks like an arctic gear exhibition, complete with stuffed polar bear!

Saturday (27 Feb): The 2nd night I went for a long walk around sunset and was treated to the views I described in my last post. Here is sunset across the frozen ocean:

Here is that full moon, with some ice rubble:

I can feel my 'sand desert' connection with the ocean 'ice desert', and it excites me. These amazing shapes ... original blocks of ice presented by the sea, covered in snow, and then each uniquely sculptured by the ocean wind.
Sunday (28 Feb): After we finished packing the sleds with their final expedition loads (food,gear, etc) we went out for a five hour march on the ocean ice, even finding some significant pressure ridges. Being my first encounter with sea ice conditions, and with the temperature at -37C and wind chill at one point it turned out to be a great session. I just love the beauty and variety of the ocean terrain, it really made me connect with the adventure ahead. I can see that with the ocean ice and the pressure ridges the days marches won't be boring, but rather a game of route picking decisions, and fairly immediate high stakes/rewards penalty.

On the walk I saw my first water condensation cloud in the distance. It looks like smoke from a fire on the ice. This being a 'steam plume' that literally forms a low level cloud that marks an open water lead below, ie a large break in the ocean ice that exposes sufficient area of water which provides the heat/moisture to create the cloud. The air near the water is very 'warm' at -1.8C, vs the air around the ice which is -35C or whatever. The warm moist air rises off the water and then gets cooled by the 'ice air' and the moisture condenses forming the cloud. So clouds over the ice ahead are bad news!

We also came across two polar bears...arhhh...well note quite, but their fresh paw prints. Two medium sized, not fully grown ones, but clear in the snow. Sorry no photos, because at that moment my camera was too cold from just having shot a lot of photos and so the battery couldn't function!

On the return journey we came across this amazing Inuit woman and her daughter on their snowmobile. She was just returning from a successful seal hunt at one of the offshore open water leads. She is the only female polar bear guide in the Arctic region. Here's a photo of her dragging the seal catch behind.

Here are photos of the two solo, unsupported, expeditioners that have been with us preparing.

Tom Smitheringale of Australia who left Sunday (Feb 28)

Michele Pontrandolfo of Italy who leaves Monday (Mar 1)

Only two people have ever managed this so these guys are to be admired for taking on this huge challenge.

Finally, I have just heard that due to the bad ice conditions the pilot has suggested he take us to our original start point of Ward Hunt Island. So, back to the original plan. I am happier with that, as the point has a lot of history and significance. The two expeditions that went today were to be dropped off there.

All being good, we leave Tuesday (Mar 2) at 0630...hmmm! And I'll do a last post before then.

Resolute all good....set for Tuesday Start

2010-02-28T13:50:00.004Z

Just a short one for now.....

We all arrived safely in Resolute, it's a lot colder here, but 'sadly' set to warm up again! Preparations going well, and today we will go out for a training march, my first experience of the sea ice.

We are now scheduled to fly out 2 March, but things could still change. More later and some photos...

There are lots of different views on the condition of the Ice, but today we hope to get the 'real' story from the pilot who flew my friends Dan and Amelia out, two days ago. Tom the solo Australian leaves today, so things are happening!

It was a beautiful clear day here yesterday, and as the sun set we were presented with the problem causing, full moon, bigger and brighter than probably I have ever seen it before....! Hmm, this is the body causing all the Ice fractures, and the earth quake and tsunami's too...??? Anyway it was a beautiful sight rising over a ice cliff behind our accommodation.

Yesterday I had my first feel of the 'Ice Desert' and the Arctic Ocean. From Resolute I could look out across a never ending sea ice plain to the distant flat horizon. Somehow with the sun setting and the wildly shaped shadows it made I felt this huge excitement within, and then soon after the moon appeared adding to this specialness.

More tonight.....

Fear running high!

2010-02-26T19:09:00.003Z

In the last few hours there have been lots of emails, phone call activity around the condition of the Ice at the start point. One never knows where the truth lies, but infra red photos are being sent around with notes attached saying that the ocean is really badly cracked, and there is even open water right off the land at our start point.... This is when it's good to tap into Richard's experience, and he remains confident that this is pretty typical pre-expedition hype and apprehension. He does qualify that by saying things are probably a 'bit worse' because of the super tides.... We have just spent the last two hours going through the possible ice scenarios and how we will manage them....Hmmmm.... It will be VERY interesting, and I can feel my stomach turning a bit more!

My friends Dan and Amelia took the lonely flight to the start this morning, and within hours they will be at the cold face and know the real truths about the ice conditions. We were supposed to be with them in Resolute, but with the this was not to be. I received an email from them last night, and it had a huge impact as I immediately related to their pre-expedition nerves, given the relatively low level of experience. They are strong and an amazing team, so I hold thumbs....

We are on track for a 2.3o pm charter flight departure from Yellowknife, and are about to head off for our last 'nice' team lunch. Apparently Resolute is not a centre of culinary fame! I can almost be certain that none of us will be ordering any food that resembles, pemmican, noodles, cheese or nut butter, and we will keep away from nuts for desert!

The Blizzard up North Continues....

2010-02-26T15:00:00.006Z

Well yesterday was another day spent in Yellowknife, as the blizzard up North at Resolute prevented us flying again.... Tension builds, but in some way I was happy to have another unplanned rest day, and my toe is now significantly better for it.

At this stage we are still hopeful that this delay in getting to Resolute will not delay our Expedition start date, however the reality is that we probably will be delayed. With 6 expeditions leaving, we are scheduled last to be flown up to the start point, so we will just have to wait and see. I have used this time to rest, read and get my mind 'locked onto' the task ahead.... The only time I get a bit of a wobbly is immediately on waking in the morning to a vivid, peephole picture through my sleeping bag hood of my -55 Deg C 'room', that ice encrusted tent and us packed like sardines, with 'another' 10 hour march day ahead. It only takes a few seconds and this uninviting image is replaced with a picture of me out there a very special world of sea ice, and in a mental solitude that for me is the ultimate meditation. I can't wait to 'get simple' again, and remove the last layers of everyday life clutter, exposing the very core of me.

At 9 am on Friday morning it is looking very hopeful that we will now fly to Resolute at 4pm this afternoon. It's still not 100% certain though, and I'll keep you updated!

Last night, while having my REAL last beer in my 'favourite' Yellowknife club, I had an interesting interaction with a middle aged, local Dene woman. (The Dene people being the local Aborigines, the land based version of the Inuits, who live off the sea.) She was interested in why I was in Yellowknife and clearly saw me as a misfit in the local community. On hearing I was walking to the North Pole, she almost dismissed this as 'just a tourist thing', saying I should be doing it the 'Inuit Way'. On questioning her what that was, she was disparaging implying that with modern equipment and technology we were 'cheating', saying the Inuits don't need half the gear, and it's all handmade, not bought from fancy outdoor stores. I didn't rise to the bait that could have gone down a more fundamental and emotive discussion, and the discussion turned to how I was going to struggle, as I am almost the physiologically opposite of an Inuit! Hmmm, lovely stuff to hear a few days before leaving for the North Pole, where the physiologically closer one is to an Inuit the easier it will be! Basically she was saying that I was tall, had long fingers, and toes, lower fat content, and overall a huge surface area to keep warm. The critical part being the short toes and fingers, which is where the larger heat losses take place! Add to that having spent almost 50 years in warm, humid climates, the reality of what she was saying really hit home.........Oh well, it wasn't like it was the first time I had thought about my 'physiological fit', and actually that is part of the challenge I have signed up for! I do feel (and talk myself into believing) that my physical and sporting background has provided me with a physiological advantage for pulling a sled over tough terrain. The important thing for me, is that I BELIEVE I have a strength that outweighs my weaknesses....The mind games hey!

Hopefully next Posting for Resolute..... I am now REALLY excited!

Our first Arctic Blizzard experience..............Aahh sort of...!

2010-02-24T00:55:00.015Z

After a mammoth effort to get everything completed and packed for our Yellowknife departure, Mother Nature gave us maybe her first 'warning' of what's in store for us...A blizzard in Resolute, 55 knot winds and zero visibility, has forced a 24hr delay in our departure to Resolute. Forecasts expect it to last 24-36 hr, so we are holding thumbs for a tomorrow morning (Thursday) departure. The good news is that it has brought colder weather... We had -30 on our dry suit swimming day!

Slimming down to the essentials...

I am now slimmed down to just my Expedition gear. Today I packed and mailed off to London my 'excess' baggage...surface mail, as there is no point rushing it while I am 'otherwise occupied' till early May. So basically I only have my Polar suit and Arctic Boots as my 'casual' everyday gear. A wallet is wasted weight and space, so two necessary bank cards and my passport were sealed in a ziplock bag, and stored deep in my backpack inner pocket, only to be used after 90 deg N! Razor, hair and scrubbing brushes joined the items destined for London. Even my book has joined the Not for expedition' gear. (After discussions with others I can see I will be so dead tired each day, there won't be more than reading seconds!)

From the 'Catwalks' of the Arctic Ocean....

The latest in men's fashion wear, straight from the fashion houses of the Arctic! Long trousers with rear 'flap downs' for that cool, 'You decide how far you want it open at the rear', look! Haha...!
Many have asked: So how do you manage to the toilet at -50 Deg C? Well this is the part answer, convenient, specially designed gear! This is my Polar suit pants, which go under the soft wind shell. The other part of the toilet process is that you have to manage your bodily functions such that when you 'Have to go... you go!...No sitting around reading the paper etc...you will get serious frostbite! The good news is that the repetitive food, and routine mean that things become very predictable!

Pre-adventure wobblies....the mind games!

Probably, in anticipation of our departure this morning, I had a fairly restless night, and woke up a bit lonely...that sort of 'alone-ness' that I have experienced before, and which is the necessary reality of mentally preparing myself for the hard 'solo' personal struggle ahead. While there is lots of emotional support from many (Thanks!) this 'alone-ness' is about being physically alone, socially isolated from normal 'luxuries', and me being 100% responsible for getting my mind and body to the Pole without help and harm. I found my mind drifting back to some of my previous solo adventures, dwelling on both the very high and the very low spots, and how I rose to the adversities.

I even skimmed through my 'highlight' photos and gradually the 'fear' transformed into huge excitement and confidence. While the cold of the Arctic and the pulling of a sled are new challenges, I quickly locked on to the 'strength of mind' I have built up across many first time, and difficult situations with the diversity of solo cycling, sailing and sea kayaking adventures I have done.

When I looked at it like that, This Arctic challenge was now not totally new and scary, but rather a more extreme version of a well know path for me. That simple twist, removes the fear, and taps into my spirit of adventure and the desire to extend my already honed skills and competencies...... This may however be the most demanding adventure yet! I thanked my 'lucky stars' for having the privilege to be able to immerse myself in this experience.

In this world where I am currently 'playing', I am intrigued by the discussions that go around whether Everest is more difficult than the North Pole, and what is bigger better, harder, etc...? As a solo sailor, and solo adventurer, I am alone in these circles. Few know the world of the ocean sailor, and even less the perspective of the solo adventurer, these are expedition team people, and mainly mountaineers / serious polar adventurers. Almost without exception all the people I have met since embarking on this polar diversion, openly state they would "never go solo", nor see the attraction of solo pursuits. I do understand and respect their perspective, but inside me I know that somehow the solo adventurer is the purist of them all! (Pen Hadow's solo, unsupported trip along the same route we are taking, is truly an awesome achievement which I relate to quiet closely, and respect hugely.) After listening to these discussions about which is the hardest, biggest etc, I just can't wait to put this North Pole team expedition experience into context of my my solo world, and be able to have my measurement scale....In some ways I feel sad that I have been sucked up into this senseless ranking and in my view ego driven debate. I hope that knowing my own truth will give me the freedom to remain peacefully quiet in the presence of these discussions. That's all it's about, the relatives for those that There is no doubt that this North Pole expedition is going to be very challenging, and I am looking forward to doing my own 'harder, bigger, better' and assessing the impact on this ranking of the team support element and me 'leaning on' Richard's experienced leadership.

Over a few 'last night' beers (Resolute is a dry town!), David and I shared our 'top worry' areas, and interest how different and personal ours were. Mine were around tent comfort, and feet, cold management. The conversation moved to emergency rescue decision making: How we will react in a situation where their is potential loss of toes, fingers to frostbite? When do you bail rather than sacrifice fingers or toes? Knowing one's limits, one's personality and where we each draw the line, is key in all this....Powerful stuff!

The Arctic Giraffe gets a Name....

As 'we' prepare to walk to the North Pole together and my team mates have accepted my 'strange African buddy', he has been officially named "Indinda" after my Wanderer persona, and his extensive travels. Indinda means "Wanderer" in Zulu, one of the major African cultures within South Africa.

Lastly....not the ideal way to start this trip...

Somehow I seem determined to give my middle toe on my right foot the ultimate test! It was the one worst affected by the -40 C frost nip in December, but 5 days ago I slipped down a staircase, and with only socks on, I kicked the balustrade hard as I tried to stop the fall. It was bloody, seriously painful and cost me another toenail...yes same toe. It's been very swollen and sore after a four hour walk, and I am in denial about the possibility it's cracked. I lie here with my right foot raised, hoping to speed up the recovery...hmmm, maybe this enforced rest day is Mother Nature taking a real maternal role over her 52 year old 'little boy'. I am 90% sure it will be ok, but I'd prefer not to have the 10% niggle. It's never simple or easy hey!

Next one from Resolute... I am sooo.... excited now!!

The Pace ramps up....!

2010-02-21T14:52:00.008Z

The last two days have been quite hectic and I can feel the momentum is building now...

There has been a slight, last minute change of Expedition plan:

The pilot flying us into our start point, has asked us to move the start point to a very small island about 8 miles south west of our original Ward Hunt Island starting point. This is because of the difficulties of landing at Ward Hunt with the 1 March, poor sun angle. We have agreed to this, but the extra distance now adds another day's marching to our expedition. Life is full of surprises and changes!

Friday was another meals day. This time putting together 55 Dinner packs and then making 220 gourmet, stack sandwiches. The specially selected ingredients came from Ottawa and we then had to measure out and package daily rations. Here is a one night, four person, dinner pack:

It consists of pemmican, packets of chicken / beef noodles, a mix of grated mature cheddar and either pine nuts or creamed coconut cubes, a sachet of powdered milk, a lump of crystallised maple sugar, another sachet of Muscle Milk (Body builder supplement), and a cube of butter. These are the ingredients to make firstly our 'pre-dinner', milk cocktail drink, then the main course, a cheesy, pemmican dominated, noodles dish. This is then followed by desert which is a Muscle Milk drink.

The treat for breakfast is the stacked sandwich shown below:

As I said, we spent Friday hand making each individual sandwich and then carefully wrapping it in cling wrap, before storing them outside in the natural cold room, to freeze. The ingredients are sucre, a Russian toast bread, which then has a thick peanut butter layer, 'drizzled' with macademia nut butter paste, and then topped with a thick slice of pure butter. This makes each sandwich about 700 k calories. It was quite a process making 220 of these sandwiches! The rest of breakfast is more pemmican and 'normal' coffee and powdered milk.

Yesterday, we did our longest sled pull to date....just over six hours with full sleds, packs and towing the ski's to exactly simulate the first days of the expedition. We took on some hilly terrain to make it even more real, and I felt pretty good at the end of it all.

Given all my solo pursuits and need to feel free, I do find staying in line staring at the sled in front of me quite difficult, so often break free of the group and break my own trail. Understanding that this might not be considered full team behaviour, yesterday I brought this up with the team, and this resulted in a very positive win-win discussion. I am very aware of the possibility of any niggling issues now, becoming huge issues on the expedition, so have been trying to facilitate very open discussions around potential issues. I am really happy to say this openness has been welcomed and even encouraged, resulting in each of us having a much better understanding and respect of the others. Yesterday's discussions were particularly productive in this area, and at this stage I couldn't feel happier about being part of a team as the team I am setting out with. I can feel the unit becoming stronger and more co-ordinated each day, and at the same time I can see my need for 'a bit' of freedom and individualism being accepted and accommodated in the daily routines.

Tomorrow we are planning to have dry suit swimming training, but other than this the time before our flight on Wednesday to Resolute will be all about packing the food, gear and organising the logistics of getting it all to the airport on time.

Here is a picture of people ice fishing on Great Slave Lake. We came across them yesterday while on our six hour training march. A great catch of fish as they hauled out the nets from under the 60 cm thick ice.

Probably my next Posting will be from Resolute! Much further North and much colder!

Talk to you from there!

Odds and Ends....Some Questions and facts

2010-02-19T14:36:00.018Z

An 'off road' training day....

Here are some Facts and Questions and Answers that you may find interesting....

Will we see Polar bears?

Probably not, as they are normally found south of the latitude we will be starting from. They feed off seals and thus prefer to be where there is more stable terrain with permanent water where the wait for seals to surface is a bit more routine. They have been sightings on expeditions similar to ours, and I am holding thumbs that we do see 'one'. Just in case, we are carrying a shotgun which will be kept ready at the entrance of the tent every night!

What other wildlife can we expect to see?

We will probably see seals, maybe arctic fox in the early stage while still on the ice shelf.

There are no land based birds found in the Arctic Ocean area, and if we are lucky we may see these of the 3 most common Arctic Ocean sea birds: Black legged Kittiwake, Ivory Gull, Murre and Black Guillemots

How many human beings have EVER done what we are doing?

In answering this question, it's important to define what I mean by "what we are doing". For this purpose I have included only expeditions that have set out from the Canada side (not Russia), only those on foot and not assisted by dogsleds. Although our trip has one re-supply, I have included all expeditions that were unsupported (no re-supply)

It's hard to establish the the exact number, but its no more than 50 individuals. A few of these people, like Richard, have done it a number of times. Interestingly last year had the largest expedition failure rate, and the two years before that nobody attempted the route. This year there are five expeditions attempting the route, two of which are solo expeditioners. I wonder what the success rate will be and in which category we will fall?? (For those that are interested Pen Hadow, the first person to do this route solo and unsupported, provides a good insight into what it's like doing it solo, in his book entitled 'Solo'.) Many are of the opinion that Mother Nature, will take this challenge off the table' before 2018, and this is a strong motivation behind me wanting to do it now!

Will we see the Northern Lights?

In the first few weeks we would be able to see the Northern Lights, but will probably be sleeping after a hard day on the ice! I probably won't be that enthusiastic to get out of all those sleeping bag layers and then brave the midnight cold to try see them! I say the first few weeks, because from 21 March the North Pole will have 24 hr day light, so as we approach it our day light hours will be really long, with a strong dusk / twilight and little night light. Because of our high northerly latitude, and the fact hat we are walking further north each day the increase in daylight hours takes place very rapidly. At the beginning of the expedition (1 March or so) we will only have around 10 daylight hours, but this rapidly increases. In fact the reason why we cannot leave earlier than 1 March is mainly related to sun angle and daylight hours, because of the difficulty of flying into our departure point.

As we get into the expedition these longer day light hours will allow us to move onto a 'day cycle' that is more than 24 hours. This sounds strange and apparently our bodies will fight this change in rhythm. We would do this to increase the march time per 24 hours.

How will we navigate to the North Pole?

In the old days, the explorers used a combination of sextant, compass, and sun visual. That is not possible these days...mainly because the weather has deteriorated to the point that weeks can go by without seeing the sun sufficiently enough to be able to do sextant sun.

A compass is not much use. This is because firstly all compasses point to the Magnetic North Pole, Magnetic North and not True North. The Magnetic North Pole is located around 82 degrees North and 114 degrees West. Our expedition starts at roughly 83 degrees North and 70 degrees west, so virtually the same latitude as the Magnetic North Pole. So if w followed our compass's north pointing needle we would not head North (where we want to go) but West! Yes, there are tables that give you the correction (called Declination) between Magnetic North and True North. With this declination one can then offset the compass to show one where True North is. The problem with this is that because we are so far north and above the Magnetic North Pole, the declination changes rapidly as we move north, and also the earth's magnetic field is very haphazard right near the Magnetic North Pole. Both these factors render a compass virtually useless. The magnetic declination will change from 65 degrees west to almost 90 degrees when we are at the Pole. That actually means that near the Pole, if we are walking in the direction of 90 degrees North (The Pole) the compass would point directly right angles off to our left had side.

So, thanks to development we will use a GPS to track our position, as it gives true position co-ordinates.

Fortunately there will be some sun, often just a dull glow, but sufficient to do visual navigation in between GPS readings.

What is Pemmican?

It is a traditional primary food used by the North American Indians (Inuits and Dene) people and was found to be ideal for fueling the body's needs in cold climates. It has a very high fat content and originally had Reindeer as its meat ingredient. It basically consists of 1/3 dried meat, 1/3 animal fat, and the last third a mixture of dried fruit and (have to have) cranberries. Here is a picture of one wrapped dinner portion for our expedition. (You can see the cranberry 'spots')
Will we have to swim?

As explained in another Posting, the ocean ice can fracture due to the movement of the sea below it. When it fractures the wind and currents then drive the fractured pieces apart forming open water 'leads' or channels. These leads can be up to 1 kilometre wide and many kilometres long and typically run east west. When we come to these leads first option is always to look for a way to walk around them. ie find the shortest way to the end of the channel. Sometimes this may prove fruitless, and we will then have to don our dry suits and get into the water and swim across the lead. We are hoping that this doesn't happen, but we are prepared if it does happen. The sleds float, so it's just a matter of packing our backpacks, snow shoes, ski's and poles onto the sleds, putting our dry suits overall our clothing, then tied to the sled slithering into the cold Arctic Ocean, and starting the big swim! The last of the major oceans I haven't swum in!

When will we use ski's and when snow shoes?

In the first half of the expedition, we will use snowshoes virtually all the time. This is because of the amount of ice rubble and other obstacles we anticipate along the way, and also the ice should be pretty thick. The snow shoes give one more leverage when needing to pull the sled over obstacles, and for me not really slower than ski's. Ski's will be necessary in the later part of the trip when its warmer and the ice is flatter but also thinner and more 'mushy'. The ski's provide about 3 times the surface area so make it less likely that we fall through the ice.

Falling through the ice and into the water in one of the worst things that can happen on the expedition. Richard has fallen in once on a previous expedition and doesn't talk fondly of the experience! All your clothing gets soaked, it's bloody cold, sometimes difficult to get out as the edge of the ice just breaks as you lean on it to pull yourself out. Once you are out of the water the water in your absorbent clothes freezes making perfect fitting, ice clothes! The way you deal with it is you just have to start walking as fast as possible to try and warm up, until you find a spot to set up tent so you can dry the gear with the stove heat in the warmth of the tent. Apparently this takes at least 6-8 hrs. Just thinking about it ensures I will be very cautious not to fall in! This involves 'prodding' the ice with my ski pole as we move through thinner ice. Blackish ice tends to be the first warning.

How do we get re-supplied?

Around about Day 20, hopefully we will find a suitable spot on the ice where a small aircraft from Resolute can land. Using satellite phone communications we will direct the pilot to this landing spot, and providing the weather is ok he will fly out land drop off our pre-packed re-supply goods, and then take off immediately. If for whatever reason the pilot can't land the re-supply pack will be dropped by parachute. Basically the re-supply pack consists of food, replacement gear if any has failed / worn, and a replacement outer sleeping bag for each of us.

The replacement outer sleeping bag is 'needed' as after 20 days our original outer sleeping bag will have at least 8kg of ice in it. Even with the vapour barrier liner to prevent moisture absorption, the outer bag still sucks up about 400g of moisture a day. The problem with this is twofold, in that it adds unnecessary weight and also significantly reduces the insulation effectiveness. Due to the temperature gradient from our bodies at 37 C to the outside temperature at say - 45 C some where in the three sleeping bag layers the temperature will be zero C and that's where the moisture from our clothing and bodies freezes forming ice in the down, as it tries to get out of the sleeping bags. This point generally is only in the outer bag, and hence us needing to replace only that sleeping bag. Those who are unsupported and don't have a resupply would tend to carry a second outer bag.

Oh, and then the best part of the re-supply........ :
We will get two days of 'luxury food' in the re-supply pack. This being food that is unsuitable to carry on an expedition but our favourites, 'exotics' and something to really look forward to....and a break from fat and pemmican! Wow, was it nice shopping in the supermarket for these treats..... Four roast chickens, blue cheese, tinned fruit, condensed milk, real chocolate cookies, a carton of french wine and a few other 'treats'. We will have one and a half days of gluttony on the ice, before getting back to the daily march and pemmican routine again.

Less than a week to Resolute

2010-02-18T14:36:00.016Z

The Awesome Foursome! Richard next to me, and then Tessum and David:

It's less than a week before we fly to Resolute, excitement building and preparations are going really well.

So how I am I feeling?

Mentally I feel very strong for the challenge ahead, and am almost prematurely getting very impatient and want to 'Just start' now. There are still quite a few jobs to be completed, and this doesn't help the impatience, as some of them require team co-ordination, which we are still trying to improve on! I do find my mind racing a bit, and I think Richard thinks I am a worry-er, as I try and visualise the journey ahead and then hit some 'no knowledge' areas and bombard him with questions and what ifs? It's not about fear or apprehension, it's about the excitement and preparing my mind. Yesterday this thought process took us into a scenario of swimming an 'uncross-able' lead. I found it very useful as I internalised the whole decision process and then the actually swimming trip. The positive was that I think we thought through this a s a team, and some good detail came up in terms of storage of the gear for the water crossing. I am sleeping very well, which is always a good sign. I am struggling with being part of the group environment, and having my time 'stolen' as we work within the 'confines' of a family home, and get 'distracted' by home comforts and the inevitable chores. I know this claustrophobia will disappear with the start of the expedition, as the clutter disappears and life simplifies to pure survival, conquering immediate challenges, and body and mind management. I love getting into that space, where day to day life has a very high level of 'purity and simplicity' that provides one with peace and a fertile, mind meditation place. I know living together with my three team mates, in this environment will not be a problem as we will all be in the same space, with a crystal clear and highly desired common goal, and this means by necessity all activities will be for the good of the team. The 'lonely' time on the daily marches will give me the alone time I need, while the evening communal tent time, will provide a great social highlight for further building camaraderie. (Oh, and our daily pre-dinner whisky based, cocktail, will certainly help the 'spirits'!!)

A concern...It's too warm!

Our major concern is the weather and I never thought I'd be worried that it wouldn't be cold enough! The weather here in Yellowknife has been amazing with blue sky, sunny days and temperatures no lower than -16 deg C, but mostly around -10! Why is this bad? Well the warmer it is the worse the sea ice conditions at the start are going to be... More ice fractures, more ridges, and more open water leads.....all the things that hinder progress, and increase risk.

Even up at Resolute (74 deg North vs our current 62 N) temperatures have been unseasonably warm, with most days around - 20 deg C, and few below - 30 deg C.

To compound the situation, there are super high, spring tides which peak around the day we are scheduled to start the expedition. These super tides are related to the moon, in its elliptical orbit around the earth, being in it's perigee, or closest position. This means that the pull on the ocean from the moon is at its strongest of any other point in its orbit, and hence the specially high tides. "But how does this affect you when you are on the ice?" I hear you ask?.....

Well as I explained in a previous Posting, the ice is actually floating on the ocean, until it connects to the fixed ice shelf extending from the land (Canada). This 'joint' is not a single line but rather a zone of fractured ice pressure ridges that makes the 'flexible coupling' between land and ocean. With the higher tides this 'flexible coupling' will need to be able to handle much bigger up and down movements, and so the transition zone will be wider, and the pressure ridges around the fractures will be higher. So the warmer weather and these tides mean out trip will be more 'fun'!! (Even Richard admits to not having had these conditions to deal with, and today we are doing some more scenario planning to prepare for the unexpected.)

The training continues...

Our training continues here in Yellowknife, and we are now up to full weight sleds (85 kg) and full packs, simulating the exact loads we will start with. Daily four hour marches on snow shoes have been great for the team, and I can honestly say that I am feeling really confident that we have a great team, that is physically well prepared for the 'project' ahead. The first few days of the expedition will involve 7-8 hour of sled pulling, so the four hour training sessions only give us 'some taste' of the full days to come. As we get more into the expedition we are expecting to ramp up to 10+ hours a day marching, and if necessary the final "Push to the Pole" could involve 14-16 hours a day. This will all unfold as go....We will find out how Mother Nature decides to 'treat' us!

Yesterday we spent a lot of time on tent work and sleeping bags. David, Tessum and I are 'big guys' and we weren't sure that a 4 person tent would be adequate. In December we used a 6 person tent, but are all to well aware of the significantly greater fuel required to heat a larger tent at the end of the day. We have finally settled on the snug 4 person tent with Tessum and I taking the middle two longer sleeping areas, and David and Richard sleeping on the outsides which are slightly shorter. Hmmm, it's going to be really cosy!!!

Getting ready for bed is quite a challenge as I have to basically slide one by one into three layers of sleeping bags. The first layer is what is called a Vapour Barrier layer, and is very light, 100% waterproof layer designed to prevent sweat / moisture from entering the two outer sleeping bags. Once I am in the vapour barrier sock, I then slide into the very thick down inner sleeping bag (-20 deg C rated). Then the next challenge is to slide all this into the almost as large, outer sleeping bag. At this point I feel pretty mummified, but have one more task left.....: To try and ensure my head is in the head cowl's of both sleeping bags, the 'chimney' from the Vapour Barrier bag is free and able to do it job of extracting moisture out of the bags, and the drawstrings on the cowls are pulled tight so only my nostrils' have an open route out! All this is to be done with my hands and arms inside the bags, as they can't be 'locked' outside! Oh, and then all this is done while ensuring that I still stay centrally positioned on top of two, very necessary, insulating mattresses!

Every night I will also have my 'pee bottle' join me, because once I am tucked in, there is no getting up and going outside for for a pee! Every 7 to 8 days I will also have my battery charger system join me....... "Hmm, where does he connect that to??"......... No, that's not for me but rather to charge either the phone, PDA or camera batteries. These take quite a few hours and need to be done in a warm environment. So, interesting bed partners hey!

Towards the end of a long day's march the thought of a warm tent and our evening clothes will be a 'beacon of narrow focus', and huge motivation to complete the days march goal! For evening wear we have 'black jackets', fur headdress, tent 'slippers' and headlamps! Some dinner part hey! The black jackets being loose fitting very warm down, fresh and sweat free, replacing the day's work gear. The tent slippers are soft shell warm 'foot gloves' that replace our bulking boots inside the tent. The headdress completes the end of day transformation, and I will sleep in it for added warmth and a form of integrated pillow! Here is a picture of me in 'dinner jacket' and evening headdress:

Here is a picture of our tent, which uses ski's and poles as a frame and guy line pegs, and is a double skin design, with a loose floor. My communal house for March and April!

As we test our gear, nervous last minute, innovative tweeks and tucks are designed, and we have been using a local seamstress to assist with the changes. Here she works on my wind pants:

Oh, yes the Northern lights: A few nights back we had a good viewing:

Planning, a snow shoe march, and 'preparing' 220 lunches.....

2010-02-14T12:31:00.010Z

Yesterday was another big day, involving a morning of planning, then a four hour training march with snow shoes, and finally packing 220 lunches for the expedition! Everyday I can feel the expedition coming closer to my heart and soul, and as I get to know my team mates better, I am feeling good that we are going to be a good team together....There is a great mix of personalities and interactions are lively, diverse yet when we are on the ice we each slot in to our own groove....

The planning session resulted in a decision to delay flying to Resolute until the 24th February (was the 22nd). This only to optimise training rather than any problem. The weather here in Yellowknife is unseasonably warm at the moment, but a cold patch is expected in 6-7 days time, so we want to try and take advantage of that while here in Yellowknife. This change of plan will not affect the expedition start date. Still ahead in training here is a night out sleeping in the tent, testing our systems, procedures, final check on whether we use a 4 or 6 person tent, and testing the new sleeping bags. We will also be visiting the 'warm tub' on one of the smaller lakes for another dry suit, swimming session. Can't wait for that!

The four hour snow shoe march went well, I felt really good out there, even though it was only -16 deg c. On the return we had a strongish headwind that increased windchill quite substantially. I decided to use my new paintball mask, and wow how great that was! I am rally pleased with the protection it provides and how easy it is to breath versus some of the soft fabric ones I have used. It still remains to be seen how this mask will perform at -60 deg C an below! The experts remain skeptical! These daily training sessions are so good for the mind as it gets one thinking about the 'road ahead', and at the end of the day I have a lot of questions for which Richard inevitably has very simple and experience backed answers. A great comfort factor, and Richard has a very calming effect on the team.

Here is a photo of the snow shoes I'll be wearing for most of the first half of the expedition:

Due to the pack ice and pressure ridges we anticipate in the first section as we leave the land and start heading out into the Ocean, snow shoes are much more effective than ski's. The snow shoes provide so much more leverage when trying to haul the sled 'up and over' obstacles. Also in this first section we don't expect much thin ice, and mushy pans, which are the condition when ski's, due to there larger 'sole area', provide less risk of 'falling' through the ice / mush.

Here is a close up of my sled. Very simple, robust, short and deep for the pressure ridges, and as light as possible:

I will start the expedition carrying about 80 kilograms of food and gear in the sled. As we eat this will reduce in weight and become easier to pull. It will go back up to 80 kilograms immediately after the resupply (Around day 20 to 22). On top of this I will have a full back pack weighing about 20 kilograms.

After the training march we organised as a production line packing the 220 lunches we will be taking with us on the expedition. These lunches are part of our huge, 7500 kcal daily food intake, and consist of carefully chosen and prepared ingredients. The ingredients for one lunch are shown below:

All the items are chosen for their exceptionally high fat calorie content. The individual items are: Thick slices of smoked bacon, mixed nuts, a special high calorie fruit cake, a cube of butter, a chocolate truffle bar, and finally a chocolate 'Zero' bar, which is the highest calorie / gram chocolate bar on the market! Aren't I a lucky boy, HAVING to eat all this fat every day! As we packed these ingredients into small plastic bags, 1 per person, per day, we all looked at each wondering how appetising this will all be after 50 days of eating it every day. Then the banter and trading started with preferences rising to the surface and swap /trading prices being quoted on individual ingredients! Not the time to say "I don't eat bacon!" Fortunately we had tried all these ingredients in December, and I can honestly say I will look forward to my lunch and each ingredient, every day! Just remember the display of ingredients in the photo above were laid out for photographic presentation, on the day, most pieces are wrapped in plastic, inside a plastic bag, and at -40 and below is really cold and rock hard!! Hmmm, that just doesn't sound so attractive anymore!

Here is a photo of a snow plane landing on Great Slave Lake right in front of our Bed and Breakfast yesterday:

And finally...The Arctic Giraffe feels more at home every day, and my team mates are getting used to this 'non-essential' piece being part of me!.... Proud of my African heritage!

That's it for today.... Hope you all have a great Valentine's day!

The Arctic Giraffe meets the Ice....Excitement builds

2010-02-13T13:49:00.012Z

1st day Out with my New Expedition Gear

Yesterday was the first day back with my expedition mates...... It was like a Christmas reunion, great to see Richard, David and Tessum again, and then wow all these 'presents' handed out....The new gear we were waiting for, and I felt like a kid overwhelmed with so many new and cool things from Father Christmas! We spent most of the day just trying on the new clothing, making adjustments and then also off loading all the food which had also come in by plane from Ottawa. Gee, this all got the pulse rate racing!

In the afternoon we headed out onto the lake for a short two hour test ski, and the Arctic Giraffe was introduced to her new world of Snow and Ice.

Heading out with the Arctic Giraffe in her place on my back!

The big question answered: "So Why are you doing this North Pole Expedition?"

2010-02-11T14:28:00.004Z

I get asked this all the time, some even put 'their clear opinion' on it, asking: "Why would you want to spend 50 days suffering in the cold, just to get to place that isn't even marked or obvious that you arrived there?"

The truth is that I don't analyse 'why?' before I choose these specific adventures, they are part of my dreams, and innermost desires! It's amazing that when they get formed in my head it just feels right in my soul and the analysis comes later! It's almost like falling in love again, some special passion flow kicks in and it becomes a 'no brainer' and a priceless opportunity. But I know that won't satisfy the cynics, and psychologists out there so here is the result of my analysis over the past years of doing these crazy things:

Following on from the esoteric theme from above, I do believe there is something deep within our making that makes us want to explore, experience and discover new things and places. This is one of the attributes of humans that differentiates us from animals.

In my readings, I came across a book written in the late sixties by JLR Anderson, entitled "The Ulysses Factor, The Human need to explore". This book talks about this basic human instinct we all have in our blood pushing us to explore and challenge new frontiers. It's about actually needing to actually experience ALL aspects of the exploring, not just simulating it, not just reading about it, not just watching a movie of someone who 'did it', not 'paying for a seat' on a trip that passes along the same route, but rather actually doing 'IT'! The Ulysses drive demands that we LIVE the exploration, and actually experience the 'total package' of physical and mental challenges, the unknown, the risks, etc, because it's about how a human deals with that whole package, and masters it. The author goes on to define this factor, and although it has a few words that may raise your eyebrows, I am sure many of you readers will immediately associate a part of you with it:

The Ulysses Factor is: "A powerful drive made up of imagination, self-discipline, selfishness, endurance, fear, courage, and perhaps most of all, social instability..." I find this a powerful definition and being defined as 'a drive within' it may go a long way to explaining why 'people who do these things' can't explain why they are doing them, because it's a natural force within that feels so right and normal!

It is pointed out that we all have different levels of this 'factor, the great explorers like Amundsen, Chichester, Scott etc, have huge 'doses', and at the other extreme are those who have virtually none, and fear moving out of their local village and routine based lifestyle. Somewhere in the continuum between these two extremes, each one of us fits in. It's not about there being a 'superior' place 'to be' along this continuum, or being a lesser / better human being, depending on where one is on the continuum, but rather knowing where oneself is along the continuum, and accepting how it helps define oneself relative to others. I have come to understand that I have a 'fairly good dose' of Ulysses Factor, and to my surprise I realise that this was with me in my work career as well, I treated business as an adventure / expedition, always talking on new challenges, and behind them all was this huge 'drive to explore'. In saying this, I do see that I am nowhere near the real explorer end of the continuum. I feel very low Ulysses in the presence of people like Richard Weber, our expedition leader, who is clearly close to the outer limit. (Among other impressive achievements, in 1996 Richard and Misha Malakhov became the 1st, and only people to date, to have completed an unsupported Canada to the North Pole and return expedition. Experts concur that this feat will be unlikely to be every repeated.)

Beside this natural 'Ulysses Factor drive', this North Pole expedition has a strategic 'life fit' for me. In 2004 I chose to break away from the "big bad, materialistic, and big city, world, to pursue a dream that cost my two marriages in it's pursuit! I guess another true 'Ulysses driven' decision! This dream was to lead a simple 'adventure life', initially centred around solo sailing, cycling and sea kayaking as a form of travel and exploration in more remote and 'interesting' places of the world. As it turns out this has been more of an inner personal journey than a physical activity one....! In my adventures I met a number of people who had explored the Poles, and I became very intrigued, to the point that I decided to expand my circle of focus to include polar adventures. Eighteen months of reading, learning, exploring options, meeting the right people, and perseverance, has now delivered this once in a lifetime opportunity, that helps diversify and expand the original concept behind my 2004 dream. Each adventure adds some more richness and personal growth that helps me finesse my simple, adventure life, non-traditional, philosophy of living. From the many day to day interactions I have with others around the world, I feel I am gaining valuable insights that will be used later in helping other humans achieve their potential and get closer to their dreams, whatever those maybe.

At a lower level in the 'Reasons' hierarchy, like most of us, I do enjoy gaining new skills and knowledge, and this step into a fairly foreign world of 'Cold and Ice' is providing me with huge learning and skill development. Approaching the cold from a perspective of trying to learn how to become comfortable in it rather than saying "I hate the cold and will never live in a cold place", brings a positive mindset and one that nurtures learning and adaptation. Learning how my body will adapt to being fueled by a 90% fat diet for 50 days is something I find interesting. Moving away from a hot climate 'Sweat is good' mindset, to a new one of 'Sweat is bad' is interesting. Then there are all the 'on the ice' techniques, the learning about the Polar environment, the value of meeting and getting to know an expert like Richard Weber, etc, etc.

The value of being experiencing intimately a very unique, beautiful, remote, unspoilt last frontier of the world, that is every changing is hard to describe and rank on the Reasons list, but it is another huge, albeit secondary motivation for me. I love being out in an environment that has those criteria, and then getting as close as one can to being at 'one with nature' is something very special, as many of you would know. While in the huge and wonderful Wrangell St Ellias Park in Alaska, I remember thinking to myself that this is Nature at her 'biggest, best and most dominant'. I thought I was getting closer to being at one with her, but the truth is I am so insignificant in her wonder that she is indifferent to my presence. This was a powerful and humbling experience in understanding significance. Deserts do the same to me, and I am imagining that the Arctic will be produce another extreme of this. In her book entitled 'Exploring the Infinite', Maria Coffee explains the sixth sense many extreme adventurers speak of—in which they become keenly attuned to the environment—and how anyone can develop a deeper spiritual connection by exploring nature. She confirms that to get this deep level of connection, one has to take on the 'full package' of a true expedition type experience, as I describe above.

And Lastly, I have to confess I am a drug addict! Maria Coffey also goes on to explain the evidence of a 'higher level endorphin' that is produced when extreme adventurers like mountaineers, solo sailors, polar adventurers etc are exposed to body and mind endurance challenges, while having to deal with personal risk in a totally natural environment. This drug produced by the body creates a euphoric feeling or well being, soulful peace and close connected-ness with Nature. I have definitely had my fair share of this drug in the past 6 years, and after the 'prison' of 2009, I am now longing for another 'big dose' that will no doubt be associated with this expedition!

Gee, I have opened up my 'kimono' quite a bit...there is always a risk to that, but then I hope my risk has provided you with some insight that may help you on your 'life journey', even if it is just to confirm, "He is a bloody weirdo!"

Ok, before you think I am really losing it, I'll sign off, and with my fellow team members arriving tomorrow, the Postings will be more related to the actual expedition activities.

a powerful drive made up of imagination, self-discipline, selfishness, endurance, fear, courage, and perhaps most of all, social instability..." J. R. L Anderson

Now to the Arctic, the North Pole and The Expedition

2010-02-09T21:24:00.014Z

So now 'we all' have a common understanding of the Poles and their differences, I'll focus this Post on the specifics of the North Pole and Arctic Ocean, as they relate to our expedition.....

So the Arctic Ocean is this huge ocean covering the northern 'cap' of the earth from virtually the 70 degree North parallel right up to the North Pole (Greenland, and to a lesser extent the Canadian Arctic Islands)make an intrusion spoiling this otherwise perfect Northern earth cap, 'made of ocean'. Because it is largely frozen over, many people tend not to think of it as a mass of water, with all the tides, winds, currents and unpredictability of any other of the major oceans, but it is!

At its deepest the Arctic Ocean is ...The Arctic Ocean over 1000 m deep and is continuously covered with drifting polar pack ice whose thickness varies between 1-10 m, although pressure ridges maybe three times that size. About one third of the Arctic Ocean is shallow, i.e. continental shelf. Over these shelf areas, ice is absent at least part of the year, but ice is found year-round over the deep ocean. This icepack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling continents.

Because of its donut shape and the plethora of channels and connections to other major oceans the Arctic Ocean has a relatively complex and dynamic system of currents. This is shown below:

From the map hopefully you can see that we will be taking the 'Beaufort Gyre' virtually head on...hmmm, I think that means less sleep and more walking!

In conjunction with the currents, the floor of the Arctic Ocean is divided by three submarine ridges—Alpha Ridge, Lomonosov Ridge, and the Arctic Mid-Oceanic Ridge, and these ridges have a huge impacts on the flow of currents. Basically, the ice shelf if the thinnest and most prone to early breaking up above these ridges. On the expedition we will cross or get very close to the Lomonosov ridge and will feel its impact on the ice conditions.

All this paints a picture of very dynamic, frozen environment, almost a contradiction in that how can it be frozen and changing so much? Well, the answer lies in leads and pressure ridges. Leads are open water 'channels' where the ice layer has cracked and broken into two or more smaller ice plates, probably due to currents underneath. These then get pushed apart by the wind and currents, leaving a 'Lead' or water canal between them. Depending on the width of the canal, and the strength of the current running in it these leads can pose huge challenges to us the expeditioner. Pressure ridges on the other hand, are formed by two or more relatively fast moving packs of ice colliding pretty violently into each other with great momentum causing fracturing, buckling and sometimes one sheet to be forced under the other. This leaves a pile of collision debris that can tower above the insignificant expeditioner, and provide a huge barrier to straight line progress! I can't wait to see my first and my largest pressure ridge, and then probably hope those are the only two I ever see again!

Because it has all this sea ice which is very susceptible to temperature change, climate change is another variable affecting this unique ocean, more than any other. There is some evidence that the Arctic sea-ice cover has decreased about 6% during the last two decades, and that the mean ice thickness has decreased as well. It is thus an environment undergoing huge change and this alone makes our expedition full of new unlike any other before! Richard Weber, who has been to the Pole some 5 times, and more than anyone else, told me that each year he has noticed a deterioration in the weather and ice conditions. Meaning that the ice is more broken up earlier in the year. I have heard a view that says by 2015 it will be impossible to attempt what we are trying to do because there will just be too much open water.

One of the other challenges this Arctic Ocean will throw at us is a phenomena called drift. Most of the time we will be travelling on what feels like terra firma, thick hard ice, however given what I have described above this ice is just one of the many fractured ice plates that is drifting with the wind and currents. Mostly this won't be obvious, but setting up camp for the night, and then waking after a possibly noisy night's sleep will confirm that it is indeed drifting! An early morning, nervous check on the GPS will tell us the good or bad news: We have either had a free ride to the Pole, or some of the progress of the previous day, and in the worst case all of it, has been wiped out by southerly drift!

Lastly, I have painted this picture of the Arctic Ocean being this 'cauldron' of drifting, cracking, bashing, drifting and melting ice, subject to the control of the winds and currents, but what happens at the cauldron edges? This is what the first few days of the expedition will be about....:

We will be leaving from a point considered the last and most northerly land point in Canada an island called Ward Hunt Island. Being an island 'off Canada' that definition is not exactly true, however because the Arctic Ocean is totally frozen in this area, the island is firmly connected to the mainland by a solid ice shelf giving it this sort of mainland status. If you think we are cheating, well in the purest sense maybe, but history and the Polar expedition record books have accepted this point as the official last landpoint!

This mainland connected ice called the ice shelf extends out into the Arctic Ocean and has a totally different feel to the cauldron ice. With climate change these extended land shelves are under threat, sometimes allowing the ocean to 'claim the ocean back'.

This extract from Canadian Ice Service brings the point close to home: "In July 2008 two ice islands calved from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf. A chunk of ice approximately 4x2KM broke off to the northwest of the unstable section of the ice shelf. A second larger calving came from within the unstable section between two large fractures and produced an ice island that is 7x2km in size. It is very possible that more of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf will calve before this summer is over."

When one adds the extreme cold, every threatening storms and high winds to the above picture of the Arctic, it's not difficult to see why 'they say' going from Canada to the North Pole is probably "The hardest natural challenge on the earth".

With that I better head off to the loo....

The Basics of the Polar Regions… Skip if you know a bit about the Poles

2010-02-08T22:20:00.007Z

From a warm Yellowknife. (-5 to -16 deg C) Preparations going well, time for a change in Blog Post focus:

I have had requests for this general info....so here is the first of a few that will hopefully add context to our expedition:

In the past 18 months as I have turned my focus to learning about, and trying to have a deeper experience of the two polar regions, at the North and South extremities of our planet. During this process it became apparent to me how little I knew, but also that I was no less knowledgeable than ‘the average person’, who have a very abstract idea of these Polar regions are like.

The North Pole, or more correctly, the Geographic North Pole, is the single point ‘at the top’ of the earth around which the earth rotates. Basically if you stand on the North Pole it would be like standing in the centre of a spinning wheel, you would not move, everything spinning around you. The South Pole, also the Geographic South Pole, is the equivalent ‘centre of spin’ point directly opposite the North Pole, down under. If one can imagine a axle going through the centre of the earth connecting these two Pole points, then that would be the axle about which the ball of the earth rotates. This is what fundamentally defines these two Pole points, but interestingly that is almost where the similarity ends.

As a start, think of a donut. For the Arctic and North Pole, a good way to visualize the area is to see that the countries of Canada, USA, Siberia, Russia, Greenland, Finland, Norway, and Iceland form the ring of the donut that virtually encapsulates the Arctic Ocean, which is then the ‘hole’ in centre of the donut. (As the map of the Arctic below shows, the Greenland Sea between Greenland and Norway is actually a large ‘gap’ in the donut ring, but lets not complicate things.) The Arctic Ocean is generally included as the 5th of the five major Oceans of the world. The ‘gap’ to the Atlantic via the Greenland Sea means that sometimes it is not included as an ocean on its own, but rather part of the Atlantic)

On the South Pole side, we also have a ‘donut’, but an exact opposite version of the Arctic one: The donut ring is ocean (The Southern Ocean) and the centre ‘hole’ is a huge piece of land, called Antarctica, the so 7th of the seven generally recognised continents of the world. (Antarctica is 30% larger in area than Europe, 50% of the area of Australia, and more than 50% of the size of North America. In other words a huge place!) The map below shows how the continent fills the hole, with the South POle in the centre. Interestingly, Antarctica inot a stand alone, sovereign country, nor is it owned by any other country. It is unique in this respect and is 'managed' by 'the world' through the Antarctic Treaty. Over 10 countries have a claim on areas of Antarctica, and thee are the demarcations on the map below. Interestingly Australia has a claim for in excess of 40% of the continent.

So essentially, the South Pole is land locked and sits ‘in the middle’ of this vast continent which is encircled by uninterrupted ocean flowing in a westerly direction around it. The North Pole is situated in the middle of the vast Arctic Ocean, that is circled by the northern most countries of the world.

Because both poles at different times of the year, become 'the furthermost places on earth from the sun', they are very cold year round. Due to the inverted difference of their ‘donuts’, the North Pole has a maritime climate, and the South Pole a desert climate. Ie The Arctic Ocean is a very humid and ‘wet’ place, with most of the ocean being frozen year round. On the other hand, Antarctica is the driest place on earth, the worlds largest, driest and coldest desert. However over thousands of years ice has built up on the continent, and the land is virtually 100% covered in ice, more than 2000 metres thick in most places. The ice has laid itself down, by largely filling in the valleys between the mountains and leaving a relatively flat topography of ‘buried mountains’. This ice is ‘permanent’ and stable as it has a continent as its foundation. Since 1909, with Amundsen being the first to reach the South Pole, explorers and adventurers have been challenged by the trek, or part of the trek across the continent of Antarctica to the South Pole. Because of this stability and this relatively flat topography, walking to the South Pole, while very cold, windy and dry is fairly predictable. A trip to the North Pole is very different, and is considered a significantly more difficult and uncertain journey……

…It essentially involves crossing half an ocean:……and that’s where the fascination and challenge for me lies… Oceans are very dynamic environments, having currents, winds, tides, and a liquid foundation, and then to add another dimension this one is largely frozen over year round.

I’ll finish this Post at this point, and leave the next one for a bit more detail on The Arctic and what we can expect along the way. I apologise for those that found the above simple description insulting to their more extensive knowledge of the areas, but I just wanted to try and ensure ‘All’ had a similar context for what is still to come….

The Excitement Builds… The ‘Arctic Giraffe’ is Born!

2010-02-05T17:32:00.001Z

Well, today is my last day in London, before I leave for Yellowknife, and emotions are running high. The ‘final’ goodbyes, the noticeable step up in excitement, and its ‘Siamese twin’, apprehension, but overall it all feels amazing.

I have done quite a few trips where I have had to pack ‘only enough’ gear to carry say on a bicycle for 3 months, and unnecessary gear is not tolerated, but this is an extreme version: Like the bicycle, unnecessary weight is a severe burden, and although it’s tempting to treat the sled as an unlimited storage, ‘trailer’, it needs to be approached the same way as loading the bicycle…Only the essentials! That then puts a lot of focus on what are essentials? One rapidly concludes that ‘normal’ clothes and comforts for that ‘too scary to think about’, end of expedition period, before returning to London, don’t qualify as essentials! So, in leaving London today, I am leaving with that mindset and with a very light pack, as most of my expedition gear is in Yellowknife. I have a few ‘non-essentials’, that will travel with me to Resolute and then get sent back to London, as we slim down to ‘only the essentials’.

In deciding what where essentials, I even surprised myself as to what sentimental, non-functional, items made it onto the ‘Essentials’ list:

The Arctic Giraffe: Rummaging though my gear from past adventures I came across a few pieces of ‘obviously’ essential gear for this North Pole expedition: The one being my sentimental teak Giraffe mask, that I bought in Malawi some years ago. It has traveled with me on most of my solo cycling and sailing trips, and had a prominent place in Solone´s my yacht, Solone´s saloon. It has been my ‘African companion’ for many ‘lonely’, and very memorable miles, both a symbol of my heritage and destiny. As my eyes found ‘her’ again, my heart started racing, and I became filled with emotion, as wonderful memories of my adventures flashed before me, and I knew the ‘Arctic Giraffe’ was born…She has to accompany me to the North Pole, and be the first giraffe there, and also the most traveled one in the world! What better way to give this most northerly point, a highly unlikely, African flavour!

The newly named 'Arctic Giraffe', pictured here on Christmas day 2007, onboard Solone in the middle of the Atlantic.

Padkos: The second sentimental, ‘non-essential, essential' item that I found to take with me, is my very tired and weather beaten, Australian flag that flew proudly from Solone’s stern from the day I bought her in Greece, to the day I sold her in the Caribbean . This flag will accompany me to the Pole as reminder of my Australian connections and citizenship, which were instrumental in me being able to break free and live this adventure life.

The third sentimental, which definitely can ‘squeeze’ into the ‘Essentials’ definition, are some South African, food and drink items. They are shown together with the Arctic Giraffe in the photo below. Starting at the bottom right is a bottle of Van der Hum, Orange brandy liqueur, then moving anti-clockwise there are four servings and different flavours of Safari dried fruit roll, and finally some premium Biltong (Dried meat).
There will be six, Degree Latitude, line crossings, from 84 to 89 degrees North, on the way to reaching the Pole, the ‘Spot Latitude’ endpoint, and the 'Big Party'. On achievement of each there will be a milestone ‘party’, and these items will form the basis of an African Arctic ‘celebration’. I just hope my fellow team members find the cultural experience a reward!

Other items of 'Essential gear' that may bring a smile to your face are:

My Toiletry Bag: In the context of my North Pole expedition, I found its product description, and intended use, “Quick Trip”, as very amusing. Yeah, that bag will hold all my toiletry needs plus personal supplements and medication for 50-60 days…Maybe that is a “Quick Trip”!

A Real Face Mask: After my experience in Yellowknife, I have been searching everywhere for a very heavy duty face mask, that will provide physical protection against a combination of strong headwind and the ‘coldest cold’, while also not freezing up or restricting breathing. A bit of cross sport searching, returned the ‘Paintball’ mask below.

This mask combined with the traditional soft fabric face mask should enable my face to deal with whatever the Arctic throws at us. Time will tell! What with the Giraffe mask and now this one, together with my sat phone in my hand luggage, airport security people could quite well treat me as ‘suspicious’! Oh no, now that takes me back a few years to when I was on Interpol’s ‘Suspected Drug Trafficker’ list! I definitely don’t want to go there again!

Thermometers: Measuring outdoor temperatures of -60 degrees and below is not an ‘everyday’ activity for normal life, and finding a suitable thermometer to do this provided quite a challenge. Most recreational / domestic thermometers at best go down to – 30 degrees C, and digital thermometers are not suitable as they need a remote battery power supply that can somehow be kept warm close to the body. I finally sourced two traditional glass and alcohol, precision laboratory thermometers that go down to -80 degrees, which should hopefully be low enough! The challenge with these is that they are quite fragile, and secondly their maximum limit is +20 degrees C so to ensure not to ‘overheat’ and ‘pop’ them! If only they could talk, it would be interesting to hear their complete ‘temperature story’ at the conclusion of the expedition! (I’ll try and capture part of ‘their story’ for you, along the way)

A Book to Read: Each one of us is taking one book along on the basis that we can share if the weather and conditions are so favourable that we spend our time reading! I found it quite challenging trying to decide on ‘that single book’, but eventually chose The first and Last Freedom, by Jiddhu Krishnamurti because I believe the expedition will provide a fertile mind for absorbing and debating the simple yet fairly radical philosophies of this Indian author. This line on the back cover finally did it for me: “Krishnamurti takes the reader on a wide ranging quest exploring society’s common concerns, such as suffering and fear, love and sex, the meaning of life, and personal transformation, always relating them to the essential search for pure truth and perfect freedom.” I must thank, Richard Ross at Empire Books Cape Town, for linking this book to my ideological pursuits and suggesting I get hold of it.

Diary and Pencils: I plan to record every day on a fairly rigorous basis, including the expedition statistics, the external stimulants and importantly, the inner soul journey of the experience. Interestingly, normal ballpoint pens are unsuitable for this cold environment, and I am taking along artists mechanical pencils which have thick lead cartridges.

So much for the `not so obvious’, Essential items……..Some of ‘obviously essential’ items that surprisingly found themselves on the ´Non Essentials´ list are:

- Shaving gear
- Towel
- 3rd pair of underpants (Yeah, I’ll use just 2 pairs for the 50+ days)
- Deodorant
- Hairbrush
- Cosmetic mirror
- Soap
- ‘Casual’ shoes (Arctic Boots will be my only footwear)
- ‘Casual’ shirt and pants

The lack of need for normal hygiene gear, is mainly due to the cold environment not facilitating bacterial growth...we shall see, or maybe that should be smell!

Moving away from ‘The Essentials’ theme, to a special meeting I had last week. I had the pleasure of meeting up with Dan Darley and Amelia Russell, who are setting out a few days before us on a totally unsupported expedition along the same route as us. Dan is close to my heart, as through our friendship and his contact with Richard Weber, he connected me to this rare North Pole expedition opportunity. So thanks again Dan! The expedition Dan and Amelia are embarking on is has only ever been successfully completed by less than 30 people, and differs from ours in that it is totally unsupported and without the experience of a seasoned explorer like Richard Weber. They are both novice Arctic adventurers. Besides their inexperience, what they are attempting to do is considered one of the ‘hardest things in the world to do’, ‘beaten’ only by an, Unsupported Return Trip, and a, One Way Solo trip. Should they be successful, Amelia would be the first British woman to do this. You can follow their progress on http://www.northpolechallenge.co.uk/.

I could sense that catching up with them both was mutually beneficial and motivating as we discussed the progress on preparations, our fears and anxieties, and strategies for coping and conquering! We will meet again in Resolute as like us, they plan on doing their pre-expedition training there.

And finally as I prepare to leave, the last part of testing of my Satellite phone / PDA communications systems exposes a gremlin fault that at this last minute has left me bewildered. While working perfectly last week the PDA now does not recognise when the phone is connected to it, so I can’t dial out to get send emails and data. The bad news, this prevented me doing the last bit of testing, but I guess somehow next week will resolve the issue, albeit with more stress! Oh well, that’s technology and I’ll have to wait till I get to Yellowknife to sort it out.

Next Posting from Yellowknife!

More Preparation….Toes OK, and the mental training is working well…

2010-02-03T15:27:00.005Z

As you may have picked up, the effects of the frostnip on my toes, from the December Yellowknife training, have been concerning me. (Just a niggle in my mind, as I review my potential weaknesses / vulnerabilities for surviving 50+ days on the ice.) I still have this strange numbness in four toes that comes and goes, seemingly erratically.

Well, today I had a thorough check up with the doctor and she was 100% happy that I have “Full and normal, use of my feet and toes”. I am just suffering from some nerve end damage, that is not circulation related, and nothing to worry about. Hmmm, she sounded pretty convincing but she isn’t doing the trip! It was a very therapeutic doctor’s appointment, and for one of the tests I ended up lying on my back blindfolded while she randomly ‘massage tickled’ my toes requiring me to acknowledge the attention! Hmm…., it was tempting to purposely fail, so I got more! Anyway it was good for my mind to get the 100% verdict, as I have been feeling that this was start line vulnerability, which is never good.

For those more sensitive viewers, please skip this next section!

I decided to take these photos of my feet, firstly to show you how they look post Yellowknife, and pre the expedition, and secondly, bizarrely there is a chance they may never look the same after the expedition…! So these are the ´Before´ shots, with the Áfter´one to follow in May, hopefully with little noticeable change!

Like previous extended adventures, I have taken accurate measurements around my physical condition and I look forward to look at the before and after changes. I have noticed that my pre expedition training has increased my leg and upper body bulk and definition, my only slight concern is my lower than desired weight. Maybe the next week or so in Yellowknife can see me correct that with an eating binge! Overall, the eating / calorie plan is designed to be almost balanced over the duration of the expedition, meaning that, unlike many similar expeditions, we are planning to match daily calorie usage with intake. Somehow, I am sure I will return a bit leaner!

I’d imagine, like many of the multi-week, endurance adventures I have done, this expedition is going to be mostly mental, and probably ‘The Most’ mentally challenging one to date…. As a regular daily reminder of this fact, (not that I need reminding!), I do 50 non stop, press ups. Why 50? Well 50, is a pretty ‘tough amount’ for me to do non-stop, but 50 is also the number of days I am hoping we can complete the expedition. (Hmmm, I hear some of my fellow team members saying you can’t plan on the number of days!) So, as I do each press up I imagine it’s that number day of the expedition, and go through the internalisation of how I will probably feel on that day:
….Day 1, scared and overawed by my first encounter with the real Arctic, “Why am I doing this?”…. Day 5, gee this has been tough, I never knew the pack ice / terrain would be so difficult, and the cold…”Will I ever get to feel ‘sort of ok’ in this environment?”, and we have only covered about 5% of the distance, but ok….. Maybe 10% of the time, but who knows? Gee, this is going to be a long hard trek! But hey, it is amazing and beautiful to be out here in this special place, how lucky I am to be here. .... Day 15…Aahh, progress a bit easier, and I am into the routine now, almost enjoying it (ha-ha!), and it sort of feels sustainable, but still a long way to go,…..Day 19, Gee we started the day further south than we did the day before! With the southerly current, Nature is teaching me a lesson in patience and human significance. This is very frustrating! Day 25….hopefully halfway (time wise).I find halfway is sometimes the toughest point as one looks back at how long and hard it felt to get here, and realizes that its now ‘The same again’!....Day 35, the ‘back is broken’, and we are about 70% through, gee its nice to have that amount of progress behind us…. Day 45, and 5 days to go…”No, prepare yourself for at least 7 more, that will be good for dealing with the ‘end anxiety’ that always kicks in: Don’t think of that first warm bath yet! Are we going to make it? When do we up the pace, and make a push for the Pole? Press up 50...Aahh we have made it, and yes there is a still be of physically capacity left to do another 7-10 press ups, if I have to, but that would kill me, and I am happy to be able to stop at 50! It feels great, gee and as I look back those 50 went quite quickly!!
On the odd day I do extra press ups, a random number, just like the Arctic, anywhere up to 60, just to remind me, that there is definitely no certainty in the 50, and on those days, I think through all the setbacks / challenges we could face and how I will mentally fight back and overcome them. I have found this very useful in helping me think through the phases of the journey, but probably reality will be something completely different! I believe the specifics are not as important as the process of thinking it through… We shall see…Reality will unfold, creating Reality!

In reading through this, you may feel I am painting a very negative picture of the journey, and question why would someone want to struggle like that? Well, more about my motives in a separate Post to come, but I am a firm believer in being a realist, and have even classified myself as a ‘pessimistic realist’. On all my reading, I have found that this dimension (Pessimistic Realism) is a very important part of successful adventures (Business too!), in that one pro-actively thinks through the challenges and potential problems. Being aware of these challenges, and internalizing as best one can how one will feel and deal with them, results in less anxiety, better preparation and probably as a result, less likelihood of a bad outcome resulting. Unlike what it may appear at first read, if I do all this in the context of the excitement of exploring the unknown, following my dreams, and having highly meaningful goals for the adventure / expedition, the WHOLE process is VERY optimistic and motivating.

Only a few days now before leaving London....

Electronics and Power: Beware....quite a technical Post...!

2010-02-01T17:12:00.005Z

Still in London....Three days to go before I fly out to Yellowknife, and 1 month to our March 1, Expedition start. Hmmm, and February only has 28 days!

I'm basically down to final equipment sourcing. I thought it some of you maybe interested in the electronic / communications side: Here is all the electronic equipment I am taking with me:

Starting at the top left, is the Iridium 9505A satellite phone, and then continuing clockwise, first is the Canon S90 Digital camera, then the 'sat phone' charger, followed by the IPAQ PDA charger, then the Main Power Supply / Charger for all the chargers, then the IPAQ PDA (basically just a very small PC), connected to the IPAQ is a modem serial input / output card to enable data transfer via the phone, and then lastly right in the centre is the Canon camera battery charger.

Lots of chargers I hear you say...??? Yeah, power is a scarce resource, and as we all know, these electronic devices all need power to function. All the power will come from the 100 AA Lithium batteries shown below:

The item I called the Main Power Supply / Charger in the photo above basically holds 8 x AA Lithium batteries connected in series, connected via a cable to a female automobile, 'cigarette lighter', socket. All the other chargers then have male connectors and one by one, as required they will be connected to the Main Power Supply / Charger and their respective, electronic devices, to have their rechargeable batteries charged by the AA's. I also am taking along, 10 spare and fully recharged camera batteries, just as a 2nd backup.

The other big issue with power, is the fact that at temperatures below about -15 degrees C, the standard electronic device batteries cease to provide power, even if they are 100% charged. This means that most of the devices will only be used inside the tent at night when conditions are significantly warmer while those 'wonderful' stoves are burning. The camera is an obvious exception, as I am sure blog viewers would get tired of only, 'inside tent' pictures, albeit that they may provide the most amusement! So, how do I get photo's on the run, when the temperature is -50 degrees C? Well, its a process that requires patience, and not designed for that surprise shot of the Polar bear we suddenly bump into! Basically the camera is carried without battery, with the battery being stored somewhere deep in my underwear, where it can remain close to my body temperature. I have this fancy store and recovery mechanism that allows me to quickly retrieve the battery when needed. I then pop the batter into the freezing cold camera, and quickly snap my shots before the warm battery succumbs to the cold camera body, and eventually dies! This has to all be done with huge three layer gloves / mitts, that make one feel as if there are no hands at the ends of your arms! I have had to modify the camera to enable me to easily operate the on/off and shutter buttons with mitts. Also, one of the reasons I have chosen this Canon model, is that it has large lens ring, that is easily operated with mitts, and can be used to adjust virtually all the key photo shoot variables. It's also a 'semi profession', meaning that it is virtually a DSLR, only not having the 'through the lens' optics.

The IPAQ PDA will be used to put together content for emails, manage the photo's from the camera. Then using a normal Windows Mobile messaging system and linkage to the satellite phone, using the PDA modem, shown above, enable the blog reader to get follow the expedition in 'virtual realtime'.

I am told that with each year of global warming / climate change, conditions in the arctic are deteriorating, with more storms, less sun, albeit warmer conditions. (We are not expecting to see the sun for up to two weeks at a time. This all means that using the sun for power generation, and / or navigation is not possible / viable.

You may ask where the navigation equipment is? Well that will be largely by GPS, and Richard, the expedition leader looks after those. Yes, I have my own hand held compass, and my watch compass which will no doubt be used along the way. (There will be a future post on Navigation, as there are some unusual quirks in navigating one's way to the North Pole!

Now for the story behind the South African flag in the photo, on top of which all the equipment sits: It's actually a bandanna, sent to me here in London, by Martin Evans, a good friend of mine in Johannesburg. It came with a a special message, that included a request that I send him a photo back from the North Pole, ie 90 00.00 degrees North, showing me wearing the bandanna. Martin, provided I get there, it will be a pleasure, and a moment for South Africa.

That's the end of this technical Post.....

London happenings.....

2010-01-28T15:43:00.003Z

This past week in London has been one of 'knocking off' items on the long 'To Do List', for all the things that need to be done before leaving civilisation for a few months. The items, vary from source last minute equipment for the expedition, to tie up normal day to day activities so there are no crises while I am away. One of the problems is that the closer 'D-Day' approaches the longer the list can become, as one thinks of new issues that need addressing and / or anxiety starts one looking for 'better' solutions for the higher risk / concern areas. A good example of this is my 'fear' of toe frostbite. Weeks ago I was feeling confident that I will, be alright, and that Yellowknife training taught me a lot about cold management, and if 'others' can manage the cold, well so I can I!". With more thought, a chat with Richard, and a bit of internet research, it becomes apparent that one can virtually remove the frostbite risk, buy buying electrical foot warmers. These are heating pads that you insert between socks, and are powered by a series of AA Lithium batteries, located in a warm place close to your body. The idea being, that they can provide an instant, 'on switch', source of heating in conditions where your body can't cope. Well, when one does a risk vs reward analysis, it is apparently a "no brainer". I spoke to the owner of the company who supplies them, an experienced Polar expeditioner' himself, and he 'confessed' to using them on 'his' North Pole trip, and spoke of the wonders of their performance. Hmmm, should I "Just pay some more money, and eliminate that risk"? Well, I don't find it as simple as that: I have to go back to what I am trying to achieve, and once I did that, it became a 'no brainer', that I will not go with the electric warmers. For me it crosses 'my line' of wanting to prove to myself that I can deal with natures elements 'on my own' and survive. Many may call that irresponsible, others may say why are you worried about that when you are already having the luxury of modern equipment, clothing and diet technology? Yeah, that's why it's 'my line'.... a line I have dram that makes it 'pure' for me. I don't judge where other's draw their line, but know its important for the whole experience for me, me to know where my line is to know I haven't crossed it in moments of weakness or fear, and then during the expedition I live and embrace the consequences of these decisions.

I guess, just like in REAL life, we all have to draw our own lines of how much hardship, risk, and effort we are prepared to accept / put in, and hopefully that is done in the context of a higher level goal that is valuable to us. My philosophy and experience has always been to try and experience 'thing' at the limit of my capabilities, and closest to the 'purest' form, because for me that gives me the richest and most soul-rewarding experience. This must not be confused with taking stupid risks...... something completely different!

Back to knocking off items on my list!

Switzerland Training.. Warm vs the Arctic!

2010-01-24T19:59:00.007Z

Well arriving in Wengen, there was a lot of snow around, but the temperature was a warm -2 deg C. Warm??? Well, Cold compared to Cape Town, but I was expecting that. What I wasn't expecting though, was for me to feel warm at -2 deg C. Aaah, the training in Yellowknife is working: I 'see' snow, and I now associate it with -20 to -30 Deg C, but now Wengen is confusing that, and I feel warm.(I haven't quite finessed this 'brainwashing' to associate snow with -40 yet!! I guess after the North Pole that or lower is what my reference then will be!)

First day out on the touring ski's.

I decided to keep the training simple here, and focus mainly on strength work. I have my touring ski's and boots here, and although they aren't the same as the type I'll use in the Arctic, they are good for training, in that once I put 'skins' on the ski's I can literally go anyway where there is snow....Uphill, downhill, flat, obstacles etc. For those that don't know, skins are strips of friction fabric, that are the length of the ski, and clip onto the underside, ski-ing surface to enable one to have grip when going up hill. Early North Pole expeditions did not use Snow Shoes, and the expeditioner would carry these 'skins' with them, attaching them when the terrain required 'ski grip', and removing them when the terrain allowed, low friction, ski-ing.

My training plan was to basically try everyday to ski from Wengen village up to the base of the Eiger... A tough 2 hour climb of over 800 metres along a magnificent, back country, off piste path. I would do that at as fast a pace as I could go, and without rests, to simulate a single 2hr Arctic 'march. For the North Pole the plan is to do approximately four, 2 hour, 'marches' a day, with rests between each 'march'. I would then either have 'a fun' downhill ski back, or on the occasional day, take a longer alternative ski-walk route back.

This plan has worked well, and as I prepare to head back to London tomorrow, I feel like my fitness has improved, and my mind is stronger than when I arrived.

The destination everyday....: The base of the Eiger, an awesome 'beacon'!

Of slight concern though is the occasional numbness I feel in a single toe, one that was affected by the frostnip. The fingers and toes that were affected by the frostnip, are far more sensitive than normal, and after initially un-nerving me, I see this as a helpful, early warning mechanism for the future.

On the diet side, I have been trying to put on a bit more weight...not a significant amount, probably 2 kilograms, but try as I will, I am struggling to do that! I must say it is pretty nice not watching what I eat these days, but it does go against my better judgement to just binge knowing I will get fatter! I have never experienced this dichotomy, of training heavily for an event, yet also wanting to 'get out of shape'... the mind boggles!

The 'Easy Life in Wengen'...Jagermeister coffee, after a good day's training!

So tomorrow, its back to London, and knocking off the "Things Still to Do" list. There is an amazing amount of stuff still to do, as once I leave for Yellowknife again, (5th February) there is no turning back and basically the stuff that comes with me, goes to the Pole.

More in the next Post.....

North Pole Training in Cape Town!

2010-01-13T19:48:00.002Z

After the intensive training and cold of Yellowknife, I looked forward to the warmth and familiarity of Cape Town, my old home town. I purposely booked my accommodation on Muizenberg beach, for easy access to almost 30km's of open False Bay beach. This was going to be my new Arctic training ground, dragging tyres behind me along the beach sand, simulating the physical demands of the sled on the ice. I couldn't have picked a better place for my soul and mind, and the change of environment contributed to the increase in motivation and focus. I was out on the beach just around sunrise (5h30) two mornings of every three, two tyres, my backpack, walking poles and trekking for two hours down the beach, and two hours back. The Indian Ocean lapping the shores, and with the tide different everyday, the terrain was different on every day.

A different form of Arctic training! But don't be fooled, it was real tough!

From a physical side, I found towing the tyres significantly more demanding than the sled on the ice in Yellowknife. I could have reduced to one tyre, but I chose to work with the higher resistance on the basis that the 'real thing' will feel lighter. Once I left the popular Muizenberg main beach, I was largely on my own, save for the odd surf fisherman who would usually be friendly and interested in my apparently strange pursuit. True to South African humour, I had comments from "Hey, do you know you are towing two tyres behind you?", to "Why has your wife punished you like that? Closer to the popular beach I often got questions from knowledgeable outdoors people whose guess at my expedition ranged from "climbing Kilimanjaro", to "climbing the Alps", to a few who narrowed in an a Polar trip.

Four hours along the beach, with two mandatory sand dune patches really took it out of me, and on most days the infamous howling South Easter just added another dimension closer to the high level of adversity I expect on the Arctic. The only thing mossing was the cold, but after Yellowknife I felt it was ok, to be enjoying the luxury of the warm weather. A significant amount of the challenge is going to be mental, and for this these days on the beach on my own were high quality, training days.

To increase the diversity of the route, I often when inland initially discovering this wetland, which had superb and abundant bird life. I was amazed that in all the time I lived in Cape Town, I never knew about this special place. Hundreds of Greater Flamingos, Pelicans, Cormorants, Plovers, a huge range of wild ducks and waders. I was the only visitor there, but unfortunately getting out involved me trawling my tyres through a huge seagull colony. Much of the area had basic nests made in the beach sand, with the parent bird still sitting on eggs! Some chicks had hatched, but still clumsy on their feet, and certainly not able to fly...

A special scene I came across..one of the chicks here still has its head in the egg!

One adult had picked up some string which it had wound around its neck and then somehow also had the other end caught around its wing, in a tight chord that make it impossible to fly. My sympathy came to the fore, and I dropped my back pack and tyres, to catch the bird. Eventually it trapped itself in a thick bush, and I was able to get my hands around it with a view to undoing the string. Well, did I get nastily bitten by the bugger. Anyway, switching to my Arctic tough approach, I dealt with the pain of its sharp nips as I managed to get the string off its neck. At that point, it seemed to see me as a friend, and went quiet allowing me to even get my knife out to remove the difficult piece around its wing. A few minutes later, it flew off, and I hoped that this would count as a credit towards acceptance to Mother Nature's Ice room, or was this just a Warm Room credit!

These excursions into the bird sanctuary, and the sand dune patches, probably simulated the Arctic terrain very closely, as there was lots of ups and downs, obstacles and cause for frustration. I wondered how I am going to deal with sled getting stuck or overturning, or careering down on top of me... A little more painful than tyres hitting me!!!

It almost looks like THE ice! Cape Point the tip of Africa in the distance.

One particular day I call 'Death Day'...as I walked along the beach the death side of nature was in evidence in more ways than seemed a co-incidence. I took time out to celebrate the whole cycle of life. Here are a few of the sights I came across:

A dead Penguin, washed up on the beach.

A dead Cape Fur Seal, also washed up on the beach.

A dead Seagull

Finally after more than 12 sessions involving more than 40 hours of strenuous beach training (and quite a few more hours of fun with my friends), it was time to leave "The Fairest Cape in the World", and take a few slow, and necessary steps back to the cold of Yellowknife and eventually the Arctic. The next step being to the ski village of Wengen, Switzerland, my training ground in the Alps for the next 10 days....

Solo Training in Yellowknife

2009-12-28T16:01:00.001Z

Sunrise on Great Slave Lake: Early Morning Solo Training on my last day.

On the 14th December, our team each went their own ways from Yellowknife. I said my goodbyes, as I had planned to stay on to do some more cold climate acclimatisation, building on the lessons I had learnt in the team training.

On discussion with Richard about my strengths and weaknesses, we confirmed that my biggest vulnerability would be my "Cold Management". It was great to have his validation, that me spending time here in Yellowknife "was probably the best thing I could do to minimise this vulnerability". Gee, this is commitment to the expedition, spending Christmas all on my own in remote Yellowknife!

So, my plan was to try and spend up to 4 hours a day out on the ice towing a sled of the same weight as we had in training, but unlike the team training where i mostly used snow shoes, I would now exclusively use ski's.

I was dealing with the after affects of the frostnip, and the poorly managed, cold exposure. My nose, 4 fingers, and 3 toes all started their reactions, which involved blistering and peeling to reveal new unblemished skin. While not sore, it was a bit disconcerting as I thought that this had only been -40 deg C and only 4 days. However reading on the internet, made me feel better, realising that I 'just' had frostnip, which while not good, is not serious, and a speedy 100% recovery was normal. I guess, it turned out to be a valuable warning and learning lesson, a small blow to my confidence, and a big blow to my ego!

The days in Yellowknife involved me setting off from the B+B just before sunrise 9h30am!, 40 min walk to Ewan's house, where the sled was stored, and then within minutes I was on the lake and moving! With lots of directions to go, and parts of the lake to explore, I was never bored buy the same route, and generally found the 4 hrs went by pretty quickly. There is something about ski-ing on my own on the lake, with an endless horizon...It reminds me of the peace I get when I am in a desert on my own.... Often I never saw one person on the lake, and a few times I came across ice wolves, who added a degree of wildness and mystery. They would check me out from a distance, watching for a while, and then continuing to move in their aloof, yet predatory way, seemingly driven by hope, rather than purpose!

To increase the diversity, and in pursuit of a Northern Lights viewing, I changed my routine to include night treks, where i would leave at 9 30pm and be back by around 1 30am. Once again, there was some specialness, in being out on the ice on my own at night...resisting the natural reaction to switch on the headlamp, rather opting for my eyes adapting naturally to the limited light. I had two Norther Lights viewing experiences, the best one being when Ewan joined me as a treat and break from everyday routine for him. (That was special, thanks Ewan!)

My night path to Great Slave Lake: Oblivion or Gateway to the Northern Lights?

I focused a lot on my clothing layer management, and also purchase new 'Expedition mitts' which have helped hugely in my hand cold management. One doesn't always appreciate the finer aspects of some of this very technical clothing, but having suffered the consequences of poor cold management, I was now ready to learn about all the tweaks and adjustments possible. The mitts having three layers, and adjustable vents, enable me to now finely control my hand temperature environment

Interestingly, the temperature never really went below -28 in these days on my own, mostly around -20, and I genuinely felt too hot and cheated out of my REAL training. Anyway, overall it was great for my confidence, equipment 'bonding', mental preparation, and the overall fitness side.

One of the benefits of the late night training was that at 1 30am I finished all hyped up and 'not ready for bed', and the Gold Range Hotel pub was on the way home. (Yeah, a bit of a dive, and not everyone's cup of tea, but it does take people like me a bit closer to the heart of Yellowknife, and how it works!) Well this is a cultural experience, particularly at the time of the morning. There was a band playing anything from fairly recognisable rock and roll, through home grown favourites, to traditional Country and Western. There I was, walking in after a cold 4 hours out there on the lake, complete with my Arctic gear, including boots and backpack, and often frozen head gear. I'd listen to a few of the end of night favourite Bad requests, what the cultural dancing, nurse my two whiskies, and then sneak out just before closing, feeling very content and ready for bed!

And this is supposed to be monotonous training for the Arctic! Aaah well, really great for two or three weeks, but I now need to move on to a new (and warmer) environment....

The familiarity of Cape Town and my friends awaits....

Team Training in Yellowknife

2009-12-15T09:51:00.004Z

The first, and scary, photo of me in Arctic headgear!

It was all pretty emotional, as I met my team members face to face for the first time... Obviously we had chatted on the phone quite a bit, and exchanged emails, but now meeting, knowing I was starting a process which, over the next 5 months, would end with me knowing each of them intimately and maybe, even relying on each other for our lives, was quite intimidating. All went well, Richard's quiet assertiveness and professionalism inspired huge confidence in both me and the team environment.

Initial activities were involved in the issue of our expedition equipment, testing sizes, and make some customisations as directed by Richard's experienced knowledge. For example, the ski poles we are using are a combination of one supplies pole (the strongest and lightest) and another suppliers cork grip (best insulator and comfort). We had to put the two together, ensuring the glue we used for the handles will perform its function at -60 deg C. It's the details like this where one values Richard's experience.

The boots, ski's and bindings we use are custom made under Richard's, Weber Arctic, brand. Here is a picture of the boot that will (hopefully!)take me the 770 km's across the arctic to the Pole:

About 90% of the equipment we use on the expedition has been / will be sourced by Richard, as one finds out how specialised the 'stuff' we require is. Even in London, which has a large number of world class, outdoor / mountaineering shops, their attendants admit that: "They largely they don't stock, and cannot advise on gear for a North Pole expedition". Some of the stuff we use is also still on trial / laboratory development, and subject to risk of not being 'perfect for the task'. I did find this quite surprising in this technically advanced world we live in, but then again the target market is very small, and probably bloody crazy, so business sense prevails.

Just some other 'equipment briefs' that maybe of interest (I'll add more in future Blog posts along the way):

We will sleep in 3 bags: Two extreme temperature rated down sleeping bags. One inner and one outer, and then a very thin, Vapour Barrier Bag (VBB). The VBB is the 'most inner' bag that is designed to 'chimney' all the moisture generated around our bodies and clothing as we sleep, out via the head opening, away from the two sleeping bags and their moisture hungry down. Moisture management is one of the real focus processes in this Expedition, as moisture when absorbed, eventually turns to ice, and this has two bad implications: One being added weight, and the other being loss of insulation.

We will use Snow shoes and Ski's to traverse the ice. The snow shoes are best for the real rough terrain where crossing pressure ridges and pack ice require the additional leverage that the shoes with their crampons provide. (The terrain for the first few degrees is expected to be very rough and will be done mainly with snow shoes. The ski's are required where the ice is thin, and more flat, so out weight can be spread over a great area, lessening the chance of falling through the ice. Providing the terrain is relatively flat, the ski's provide for faster travel. The boot in the picture fits both snow shoe and ski bindings.

Then there are the sleds.... The ones he used here in Yellowknife are not the ones we will use on the expedition, but similar, and which had to weighted to simulate the actually sled weight we will be carrying on the expedition. So it was off to find sand, so we could fill sand bags to around 50kg. Not easy when the whole environment is covered in thick snow, and little bare earth exposed. Shovelling the sand at -30 deg C, then loading the sleds with the bags started bringing the realities of upcoming, four days of trekking, closer to reality. This was something new for me...I had never camped out, on the ice, in -30 deg C conditions, but it is something I want to learn and get to the point where I am totally at one with being able to move, eat, sleep, and live on the ice, for an extended period. I have felt this on my bicycle, in the wildernesses of the world, and on my yacht, on the oceans of the world. There seems to come this point when you have earned this place with mother nature, you feel right, and she allows you 'in' to be at one with the rest of 'her creatures'. I feel far off being accepted into her ice rooms, but am confident that with the help of Richard, my other team members, time on the ice, and my determination, I will eventually get accepted in. That is a huge reward for me, in taking on this expedition. I was about to start the first harsh part of this process...

Getting familiar with the gear and working with the other team members had the additional effect of bringing the expedition closer to the emotions. At times this was hugely exciting and motivating but, at times the enormity of what lies ahead seemed to look like a single, complex, threatening, and yet unidentifiable cloud on the blue horizon.....and one which was travelling a huge speed relative to the others in the, otherwise normal, sky.

Our first real physical training experience started in a 'special', smaller lake, just outside Yellowknife. The lake was frozen, but 'special' in that the Yellowknife power generating plant discharged it's warm cooling water into the frozen lake, forming a perfect small, zero degree water, 'swimming pool' for us to try out our Dry suits. Using every chance I could to get exposure to the cold, I chose to walk there and meet the others who came by car, from different accommodation. Hmmm, the 3 km walk in the snow was good, but arriving early I experienced the challenge of staying warm in a totally open exposed, -30 deg C environment while not moving. Good for the mind! Putting on the Dry suits over all one's -30 deg C warm clothes proves a challenge, particularly as we found out, most of the Dry suits had been made a size oo small! As they were called "Dry Suits", I assumed they were 'guaranteed' not to let water in, so didn't bother emptying my pockets of phone, money, wallet, and other valuables. Now that moment of truth as I sit on the edge of the ice pool (no cocktails in hand (sorry mitt!) for this one!) slowly slithering my way off the end of the ice edge into the 'inviting' water. Well the first thing I notice is that I am like Michelin man, as there is a huge amount of air trapped in the suit, making if difficult to become neutrally buoyant at a level tin the water that fells 'normal'! The other issue is that the buoyancy is such that it wants to turn you on your face, and your mind says, hey that's not a good idea, you need to be doing backstroke! Ok so logic prevails and I spend time forcing all the air out through the neck seal. At the same time, I do feel what seems like direct contact between my skin and water. "It can't be, because this is a Dry Suit, it must just be how the extreme cold water makes the plastic suit skin feel, don't be a nerd! Right, now getting used to floating, and swimming, gee this could be quite exhausting if I have to do three or four hundred metres open water lead crossing, and managing the sled behind me." Eventually it feels a bit more natural, but now I am convinced there is water inside my Dry suit. Now to get out....hmm, pulling oneself up onto a tin, brittle ice ledge, hoping it doesn't break off half way through the movement. Aah, I made it, now I am out of the water, I can confirm there is water inside my Dry suit, and sadly quite a bit, so my clothes are soaked and boots and felt liners soaked. Oh well, this could happen on the expedition, except much worse, I could fall in to the water with no dry suit on...now that would be 'fun', but it has happened, and i need to check with Richard how best one manages that... Not now though, as I am dealing with my current predicament, and finding out that my 2 day old Canadian mobile phone has not survived the watering. Oh well at least I didn't have my 'expensive' phone with all my personal data with me! Chilled to the bone, and with this start, we complete the training, with me wondering how I will ever get Mother Nature's blessing to enter her Ice rooms! Thanks to Faith and Ken's industrial drier, I get all my gear, 'back to, bone dry, and ready for round two'! That night, a lovely team building, restaurant meal, with a few beers,the company of the other two teams also being coached by Richard, and all is but behind me as experience...yeah, I steep curve, but I feel good that I am learning and moving. The next day is another steep one....

Is that a look of Fear, Cold or, a Leaking Dry suit? For sure, he is not having fun!

'D-day' arrived, when I bade farewell to Faith and Ken, and most importantly my lovely warm bed, and it's heated environment, as today we were heading out for our 4 day expedition simulation, trek. Time to start living even deeper reality... It was first handing out the daily lunch and snack rations, packing the sleds, last minute equipment checks, and then head down to the lake for the set off. Gee, the food looks great, thick slices of fattiest, smoked bacon, chocolate bars and truffles, home made high calorie Fruit cake, a huge packet of mixed nuts. (7500 kcal per day...! Almost the best part of this whole thing...just eat, eat, and eat! Unlike the huge carbohydrate and protein dominated, calories involved in my cycling adventures, this is almost 100% fat, and we all know that fat food normally tastes the best! More on the food side in future Blogs postings. Yeah, there are even more 'daily delicacies' to talk about!)) For hydration, my personal 1 litre thermos flask that will be filled with hot tea at the beginning of each day and provide the day's hydration. (Sweat is 'a crime' on polar trips, so fluid replacement is nothing like warm climate activities.) We share out the communal equipment, and breakfast / dinner supplies, balancing the sleds as best we can.

The next four days were truly valuable in helping me familiarise myself with the rigors, routines, and challenges of getting to the point of being able to walk for 6-7 hours a day, live on the ice, in a sustainable, multi-day repeatable, manner. On the expedition we initially plan to be 'moving' for about 10 hours a day, but because of the limited day light hours the 7 hours was deemed a practical first test. The temperature dropped down to the -40 deg C's, for a few of the days, and in hindsight, this was the best training I could have hope for.

Probably the biggest learning I had, was about 'Sweat management'. As a true Antipodean, I view sweat as a positive and natural, reaction to prevent overheating at high work output, and provided I replace the sweat, and keep alert to the maximum body temperature control, I can perform hour after hour without a problem. Well this is a whole different game: As Richard said: He is 'allergic' to sweat! Now, not literally, but figuratively to emphasize the pedantic way in which he approaches the generation of sweat. Its like manging a fine machine, adjusting layers, opening closing vents, adjusting work output, as conditions varying. All with one goal in mind, to work at the planned expedition level of output (speed and sled weight related) at the point 'just before' the body starts generating sweat. This is easier said than done, and I can see is part of the art inherent in experienced Polar expeditioners. With the stopping and starting, varying terrain, and changing environmental temperature / wind effect, this becomes a continuous management exercise. Sweat, or any moisture for that matter, is a problem as I mentioned above relating to sleeping bag moisture control.... Loss of insulation and weight gain!Tipping over the other edge of being too cold is the other harsh side of managing this delicate balance. On the first day, the 'naive Howard' tipped way into the 'too much sweat' area, and paid later in frozen clothing layers that just couldn't warm me, at the end of the day, tent building time, and then were difficult to dry inside the tent that evening. On one of the following days, when we had -40's and a sharp head wind, I definitely lost the balance on the cold side, countering the fear of sweat by not having enough layers on, and letting my core drop to the point that I had mild frostnip on my toes and fingers. All valuable learning for me, and fortunately not resulting in more serious frost bite. It's an amazing physiological and mental struggle walking, pulling the sled, and knowing your hands and toes are just on the limit of being able to keep themselves warm given the protection you have surrounded them with! Slight wind changes, temperature drops, hand positions, foot movements, and the game moves in and out of one's favour... Stop to take a pee, or adjust something that requires mitts off and the whole process is set back with increased unfavourable odds! Anyway this was how I felt on these four days training, and it was an invaluable experience having to deal with this at this early stage in the expedition training. At -20 deg C, it's all a breeze, and the game switches almost 100% to only dealing with the sweat side. Hmmmm, after confirming I am 'just and apprentice, or maybe even only a 'wannabe apprentice', I resisted thinking what -60 will be like.... Phase 2 problem!

These few days training made me comfortable, thinking I should be able to manage the day after day, 'monotony' of the 9-10 hr trekking.....the mind has dealt with a fair amount of this on past solo adventures, but I did get the chance to think about the SPECIFIC new challenges the cold, arctic environment may catch me unawares with what strategies I will employ. However, the imagination is not the same as being there... so we will see!

Unlike solo sailing, where the 'pressure is with you 24hrs a day, day after day, this polar expedition stuff has some 'very nice', daily break to look forward to: After a hard day hauling, when the tent is up, the stoves are roaring, I have done my 'collecting ice for water', duty, and its time to relax, cocoon and enjoy the increasing heat inside our 'little tent'... Boots off, tent 'slippers' on, mattress down, and luxury tent seat supporting a tired, but content Howard. Aah, and to cap it all, a lovely warm, virtual mother's milk, based drink to start the dinner process. I can see, that this scene will be a major motivator for completion of the end of the day progress goal each day.

With mobile reception still available, and i-phones aplenty, conversation around dinner was often centred around instant information still available online... Hmmm, how this will change in the Arctic, and I do wonder to what levels, and in which direction it will go... I find that stripping all the busy world away, and just dealing with the basics required to keep the body and mind functioning, and managing the day's suffering brings a level of thinking, and open-ess of the heart, that is probably only possible with those dealing with terminally ill friends or immediate life threatening circumstances....but I maybe wrong, time will teach me more!

Like all good things....They have to come to an end.... One of the many, and certainly one of the most critical, scarce resources, stove Fuel, has to rationed, so at some point the stoves have to be turned off! Oooh, from a lovely warm and lighted tent, chatting around the stoves, to -40 deg C, and inside 3 Sleeping bags, and a dark tent, all in a matter of minutes! This will take some getting used to. Just the physical process of getting into the three bags is at the limit of 'serious fun'!

The first night, I thought I had managed my pee-ing routine, but an hour before the wake up alarm (mine!) went I awoke dying for a pee... Gee, I tentatively put my head out of all the bags, and saw that we were sleeping in a igloo...With our breathing and clothing moisture all the tent walls had iced up, and it looked just like an igloo! The turning 'quietly' to see the path to the tent door, I realised I had an impossible mission. There were faceless sleeping bags, packed like sardines together blocking the way... Hmm, I will have to plan this better...and for now you will need to 'vasbyt' (bite hard!) as they say in my home country! Fortunately later Richard 'lends' me his pee bottle for the next night and beyond. Gee, what a simple 'invention' and what a luxury to be able to pee in one's sleeping bag! (That's if you are a boy!)

At the end of the 4 days training, I am relieved to get back to a warm B+B environment, but I also feel as if I have accomplished a huge amount, and am a step closer to Mother Nature accepting me into her Ice rooms. Before we part ways as a team I feel I have really completed the early stage bonding with my team mates, and I feel good that I am part of this team.

Our Team Photo at the end of the 4 Days: L to R: David, Sven(who assisted, but not part of our North Pole Team),Tessum, myself, and Richard.

I am so glad I have decided to spend the next two weeks in Yellowknife training on my own, as I need to now take the lessons from this team session back into the next level of learning. See the next Blog posting.

A bit about Yellowknife

2009-12-05T18:58:00.012Z

On 4 December 2009, I excitedly left London for a fairly remote town, called "Yellowknife", just below the Arctic Circle, in the Northwest Territory of Canada, I was going to join up with the other expedition members for our first formal training together. Yellowknife was chosen because of its high probability of sub -30 degree C temperatures, and it's position right on Great Slave Lake, ideal for my introduction to North Pole expedition 'orientation'!

The 'Welcome to Yellowknife', says it All!:
The Baggage Claim at the airport

Yellowknife is famous for its pivotal role in the Ice Truckers movie / culture. The area around Yellowknife is a rich Gold and Diamond mining area, and I was surprised to hear the some 15% of the world's diamond production comes from the area. There are also lots of lakes around, and as a result, little road infrastructure...Well until winter arrives and the lakes all freeze, and nature provides a 6 week window where human innovation has created the opportunity to build this 600km ice road that provides access to the mines, saving huge air transport cost. The Ice Truckers are the 'madmen' who drive these huge rigs up an down the road for the short time it is open.

Yellowknife has a population of 20 000 'interesting' people, and in the three weeks that I was there I enjoyed getting to 'mix' with a diverse range of the locals. From the original natives, one sees both Inuits (Natives that used to live off the ocean) and Dene (Natives that 'used to' live off the land) Then there are the 'new settlers' who are a rich combination of miners, freedom seekers, disillusioned big city people, and small town entrepreneurs. At first glance, I wondered why anyone would want to live in this remote and difficult cold environment, but as I met the people and learnt more I began to see that it offers a rich diversity of outdoor life, within a community of very good old fashioned value systems. Almost ideal for bringing up kids. Great Slave Lake, which is the 9th largest lake in the world is at the centre of this huge lake district that provides world class winter and summer playgrounds, right on one's, small town, doorstep.

Great Slave Lake is impressive, and was obviously completely frozen this time of the year. A controversy, is the establishment of House Boats on the lake. These being 3-4 bedroom, sometimes double storey, houses that float and are anchored in the lake in perfect bays with easy access to the town. It's controversial, because the owners don't pay for and, nor do they pay taxes, and yet they have this idyllic location with use of all the town's amenities. It's becoming quite fashionable to buy one, and is seen as the ultimate bailout from city life.

A House Boat. Tricky access after summer 'clear water', but before winter 'solid ice'!

Interestingly, when I arrived in Yellowknife to -18 deg C, the locals were telling me that it was unseasonably warm, and they normally have -30 deg C and below this time of the year. Because of that the lake was a 'a bit risky', and I need to be careful of falling through the ice. The 6km, short cut, road across the lake to the small village of Dettah wasn't open yet, and this was very unusual for December. The global warming again! Anyway, the following week, we were 'rewarded' for our training with an exceptionally cold spell down to -41 deg C for 4 days or so. I subsequently learnt from a fisheries guy I bumped into in the middle of the lake, that in a week around that cold snap the thickness of the ice on the lake increased from 10 to 21 inches! That was all that was needed to get the road opened and 'normal', frozen lake activities to continue!

Another House Boat: Ice Scuplture Gardens

While I was there I stayed at Embleton House(http://www.bbcanada.com/embletonhouse,) a homely B+B and was treated like one of the family by Faith and Ken, the owners.

Spending Christmas there on my own in a small foreign town, could have been challenging, but the small town hospitality connected in and thanks to the Afflecks, and the Armstrongs, I was made to feel as if I was a Yellowstone resident. This was a very special, and different Christmas, one I will remember and treasure. I have had many titles in my life, some not s good, but at the fun ice hockey game we played at Ewan Affleck's house on Christmas eve, he introduced me as "South Africa's No 1 Ice Hockey player", yeah, yeah, maybe, and the only one! Gee, was it bloody difficult just moving around, let alone putting 'stick to puck' in a way that added value to my team! All great fun though!

For my South African and Australian friends, I felt proud of my strong links, as I many of the people I bumped into worked for the Canadian subsidiaries of De Beers, Anglo American, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton etc... interesting people too, because they were either part of these companies 'assignment employees', who get assignments in these interesting remote places, or they were 'miners' with interesting stories of the challenges of mining around the Arctic circle.

Yellowknife is one of the 'most reliable' places in the world for one to view the Northern Lights. To see them though you have to be out in clear skies from 10pm or so through to 2 am, with them generally being strongest after midnight, when it's normally the coldest! Fortunately, by firstly checking the weather forecast for clear skies, and then visiting this website http://www.astronomynorth.com/, one can substantially increase the chance of having success on your midnight excursion. That website provides useful info on the amazing natural wonder of the Northern Lights, which is little know to most of 'us' antipodeans, who don't have the 'luxury' of a convenient land viewing of the Aurora Borealis! I was fortunate to have a 'pretty good' viewing on one night out training with Ewan. In fact it was amazing for me, but I did confirm with Ewan, that it was about a 4/10 viewing for him over his 15+ years of living in Yellowknife. Oh well, something more to look forward to on my next return, or on the Expedition itself. (Sorry no photos, it was too bloody cold for my Nikon DSLR! I now have my little Canon Arctic camera, and a good, warm battery, management plan!)

Lastly, a real positive Small town story, that captures the 'Spirit of Yellowknife' perfectly:

I am needing to have my one wisdom tooth removed, as I am told it could become problematic 'anytime'. I was also told that the specifics around the tooth are quite complex and require a general anesthetic and specialised oral surgeon skills and procedures. Well, through a London Dentist'mate' of mine in London, before I left to go to Yellowknife, I get a referral that ends up with me being quoted in excess of £2000 for the removal. This after having to pay £300 for an x-ray and a 5 min consultation! London, London, London! Anyway, pissed off with that, I thought I'd take the X-Ray to Yellowknife and try and find a suitable 'service provider' there! Well lo and behold, soon after I arrive there I am told by 'a number of people' that I "Must meet, the, kiwi dentist, Roger, who is also an ex-endurance athlete etc, etc" It turns out I did meet him socially a few nights later, and the story of my wisdom tooth came out. A few beers later, and Roger insisted he drive me back to my B+B and I show him the x-ray. Well there we sat in his car, -30 deg C outside, and he viewed the x-ray against his interior car light! After obvious careful, and professional viewing of the x-ray, he turned to me and said, "No problem mate, it's a routine job, and I am happy to do it for you". With surprise I questioned his contrarian assessment, and was comforted to hear solid reasoning behind his prognosis. Remembering that we had had a few beers that evening, I suggested I visit him in his practice the next day for a " Regular patient, paid, and formal consultation!". Well IK arrived at "Great Slave Dental Practice", embarrassingly barging through the full waiting room, and was given an 'emergency' consultation! Now, with a 'proper' mouth inspection etc, Roger even more confidently returned the same prognosis as the night before. And this from a man who is very shy, humble, obviously professional, and in no way at all a cowboy dentist! (A pukka, good Kiwi, as only Kiwi's can be!). We discussed the options and the risks, and he convinced me that it was a routine extraction, definitely not requiring General Anesthetic. Completely unsure of a reference point here, I politely asked him how much it would cost? He pulled out the 'Rate card', and said something like $160 all up, and he could do it asap! Shocked and caught off guard, also busy with full on training, I decided to book and appointment for a time on my return in February! That will now happen. This is a great story for me, putting into context how the big cities have lost it! Professionals don't want to take risk and the whole environment is so specialised that risk is passed down the line, with the patient picking up the costs and the specialists just milking the increasing 'fear' passed on by each professional along the line at they move you closer to the 'no risk, exhorbitant solution. Well done Roger, you were prepared to give me advice like you would have given your son, and also take me on as a friend at your special Christmas dinner!! One of the joys of Yellowknife!

Leaving Yellowknife!

London Training....October and November

2009-11-23T18:49:00.001Z

It may seem strange doing training in London for an Arctic / North Pole Expedition, but lo and behold London delivered exactly what I needed...Nothing abnormal for London...rainy, cold-ish, grey gloomy, and short days at this time of the year!

My training was spread between getting up at 5am, and heading out into the dark, wet night for a 18-21 km run every 2nd day, and then weight work in a gym during the afternoon, and lastly just living within my philosophy or walking or cycling everywhere I went around London.

The running was great, as it toughened me up mentally as I dealt with the rain, cold, and often wind, in the dark, continually saying to myself: "Fairbank this is great weather versus what you will be dealing with in march, so: Just enjoy every minute of it!" The trouble is I didn't dress for the sodden gear, strong wind, factor, and a few times I thought..: "This is really good arctic training because you haven't dressed warmly and you are f....g cold! Then back for a lovely sit down breakfast, and reality says I am nowhere near the Arctic!

The weight training: Well after many of my earlier years in them, I hate gyms. Since 2004 when I left the big bad world, of Cities and all that goes with them, I vowed never to make exercise ' A thing I have to do in a special environment', but rather it would be an integral part of my life and way of transport... Anyway, I saw the value in strengthening up for the tough expedition ahead, so signed up at a nearby Gym. With the expedition as my motivation I some how got to enjoy the intensity of the gym workouts and complimented with my protein supplement, I was further motivated by the noticeable impact on my body! As I side, I find it quite extraordinary that our world has got to the point where people now list "Gym" as a positive and desirable, interest of theirs, in presenting themselves in matchmaking or other personal marketing media! (That's my cynical side showing up...you had better get used to it!)

Then the Walking and cycling around London thing: Well that is always interesting, it buzzes, and I love it, other than in the rain... Somehow, it makes me feel free that I have ditched the fancy car, and I have the time to walk and cycle...it's not an affordability issue, it's my choice, and my gym. In walking you can 'think' and 'see', meet interesting people, and then there is also the competition...fellow pedestrians, and the buses, gotta beat them! The bike has even more value, as one survives within the continuous challenges of London traffic...it certainly gets the adrenalin going sometimes, and then picking up the newspaper, and reading the '1 a month' cyclist death stats, I realise there is more risk here than going to the Arctic! Aah well, most days I covered 4-6 hours on bicycle or foot, so all in all, while in London, I had pretty diverse and full on Arctic training days!