[Note from Chris: Apologies for the delay, I did not receive the message until today]
Sitting in Check point two suffering slightly from cabin fever. We were determined to make the CP the night we did in order to make god our advantage, and ensure an extra nights rest. We detected the weather deteriorating as we got closer, so all the more reason. It was exhausting, particularly the last two days, as conditions conspired against us.
Anyway, having achieved our aim, we suffer the penalty of waiting for everyone else. Much as we would like to be active, and moreover get on with repair and maintenance, the wind prohibits movement and confines us to the tent. It is bitter, one has to walk backwards to go forwards in order not to risk ones face. The senior member of the support staff says he has not experienced worse weather, ice conditions and temperatures in his thirteen years of coming here. At one point at the last checkpoint, some equipment measured -62 degrees! Put that in your pipe Al Gore!
The other thing that is harsh is the ice conditions. We have hit severe rubble several times, and our last nine miles in took seven and a half hours of extreme effort.
We had a good leg on the whole and in some patches up the coast, hit areas of flat ice, or ‘M6’ as we called it, where we could take our skis off and walk, hardly feeling the tug of our pulks behind. We saw some spectacular ice formations and scenery and plenty of wildlife evidence….foxes, some huge wolf pad marks and the ever present Polar Bears. We have managed to avoid contact so far with P Bear, so far, maybe they are nesting, or back in the zoo!
One moment of drama was when we encountered soft ice at the North side of the appropriately named Water Sound. John went in to his knee, giving us a real shock. The only way was forward through more slush, and IW didn’t mind admitting to ‘bricking it’ leading on to safer ice. The going was arduous. Rubble is compacted loose ice, lumps from the size of a shoe, to the size of a car….or sometimes a house. It is a nightmare negotiating ones way through it, over it, round it. You can take your skis off but you go in to your thigh, leave them on and it is like going over an assault course…..well..in skis, dragging a 100lb plus pulk! We have taken to climbing high bits to get a view forward but it is exhausting. It varies in intensity, but even the light stuff requires concentration and a good eye, to make the best headway without losing ones bearing. DS has proved to have such an eye, which is good news as IW, who was doing most of the navigation and leading through the ice, sunburnt his retinas - snow blindness - from looking at the snow too much. Another reason to make good the dash to CP2.
Bad news…we want to get on with it! We also have quite a bit of kit to repair…. We broke a tent pole, our pulks are like cheese graters, pulling in pounds of snow on top of what we have to carry, our ski bindings are all smashed to bits and we are improvising with bungees! Thomas Edison, Watt, Brunel….where is Mr Bungee in the archive? Bungees are our answer to everything!
So, the good news…We arrived first again, building on our lead. We are all in good physical shape, bar some numb fingers and toes and Iain’s eyes, and the odd minor blister. We have had some rest and are eager to pick up from where we left off. Conditions ahead do not look great, and we are waiting for the ‘good weather’ to arrive, but we are confident as we have broken the back of the race now. The conditions are holding some teams up quite a bit, so we are slightly concerned that the race timetable may slip, or there may be some rerouting, but you will see news of that on the race website.
So, all in good shape, missing everyone and looking forward to tea and toast in blighty!
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Friday, 17 April 2009
The Boys on Arrival at CP1
Here's a picture that went up on the Polar Race website, but might look good here too. Please click on it for the full size version.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
News from Checkpoint One
[Passed to Chris from the Checkpoint Crew]
A hard haul put us into CP1 in pole position by some 18 hours. The first three days were fine, but cold, temperatures into the minus thirties, however Thursday 9th was a different ball park. We were 15 nautical miles short of check point one, so, to give us some advantage, we decided to reveille at 4am and skip breakfast. The most beautiful red sunrise should have been recognised as the harbinger of bad news, for the weather deteriorated in minutes to white out, and harsh 30 mph plus winds. Half way, we decided that stops for drink and food were doing us more harm than good, such were the bitter conditions, and we battered through the storm to arrive at the checkpoint at 1414 hrs local. We were tired and cold to our core.
We were very chuffed to have arrived first, especially as we had been through seven ski bindings and had one left between all of us. We had had to adapt and overcome.
The best thing about being first in, is that we have the most time to dry our gear, repair kit, reorganise and repack(!) and rest before the next stage.
We are in good spirits, and heartily chuffed that the ’grey beards’ of Pole-in-One are in pole!!
A hard haul put us into CP1 in pole position by some 18 hours. The first three days were fine, but cold, temperatures into the minus thirties, however Thursday 9th was a different ball park. We were 15 nautical miles short of check point one, so, to give us some advantage, we decided to reveille at 4am and skip breakfast. The most beautiful red sunrise should have been recognised as the harbinger of bad news, for the weather deteriorated in minutes to white out, and harsh 30 mph plus winds. Half way, we decided that stops for drink and food were doing us more harm than good, such were the bitter conditions, and we battered through the storm to arrive at the checkpoint at 1414 hrs local. We were tired and cold to our core.
We were very chuffed to have arrived first, especially as we had been through seven ski bindings and had one left between all of us. We had had to adapt and overcome.
The best thing about being first in, is that we have the most time to dry our gear, repair kit, reorganise and repack(!) and rest before the next stage.
We are in good spirits, and heartily chuffed that the ’grey beards’ of Pole-in-One are in pole!!
Thursday, 9 April 2009
On Behalf on the Boys
Hi, I'm Chris the Polar Race web guy. I also run the daily scheduled check-in calls the teams make once a night. Well, the boys asked me to put something up on their blog so you guys would know what's going on.
Well, currently they are in the lead, but it's early days yet, and they might not know it. They are making good progress but have been having trouble with the ski bindings and managed to break 4 bindings on their first day out! So they have been making repairs with the materials they have - mostly duct tape and cable ties - in order to be able to continue skiing.
They commented last night that they had seen a number of old polar bear tracks, but nothing more recent than a few days.
They look to be the first into checkpoint and should arrive there sometime during this afternoon (it's only 8:30am local time here at the moment...)
Not trying to plug too much, but their latest positions updated nightly (here, so will have changed first thing in the AM in the UK) and are all plotted on a map over at polarrace.com, so check it out.
Well, currently they are in the lead, but it's early days yet, and they might not know it. They are making good progress but have been having trouble with the ski bindings and managed to break 4 bindings on their first day out! So they have been making repairs with the materials they have - mostly duct tape and cable ties - in order to be able to continue skiing.
They commented last night that they had seen a number of old polar bear tracks, but nothing more recent than a few days.
They look to be the first into checkpoint and should arrive there sometime during this afternoon (it's only 8:30am local time here at the moment...)
Not trying to plug too much, but their latest positions updated nightly (here, so will have changed first thing in the AM in the UK) and are all plotted on a map over at polarrace.com, so check it out.
Monday, 6 April 2009
Morning of the Race - April 6th
All slept well on the floor of the room we are using to organise kit at the South Camp Inn at Resolute on our final night before the off. It seemed luxurious compared to last weeks camping out on the Ice every night and allowed us to continue working on kit long into the evening . A good bottle of champagne was opened and despatched by a number of us to celebrate my Birthday. Not feeling satisfied we moved swiftly on and through the 21 Year Old bottle of Highland Park. Feeling good today and really optimistic for the weeks ahead. Even met at Breakfast this Morning Pen Hadow's re-supply man in Resolute (Dominic) part of the Catlin Team attempting to survey ice thickness by dragging a huge radar type contraption to the pole. I told him to mention to Pen there is more then one OH on his way to the Pole now.
Tough bit of the next few weeks will be not speaking to family and friends , but we have each other for company and we are all commited ,so rest easy we plan to .We are 6 hours behind UK time here so when we finish at end of every day (say for example 8PM at night) it would be 2 AM the following day with you , so expect race updates around breakfast time on official race website .They use google earth to track progress of teams so you should be able to see how we are getting on. We have to make a radio call to Base camp at 8 PM each night with our exact location.
All Our Love
Touch Not the Cat Bot a Glove, or as I prefer to translate my family moto , 'Walk Softly but carry a Big Stick' . JM
Tough bit of the next few weeks will be not speaking to family and friends , but we have each other for company and we are all commited ,so rest easy we plan to .We are 6 hours behind UK time here so when we finish at end of every day (say for example 8PM at night) it would be 2 AM the following day with you , so expect race updates around breakfast time on official race website .They use google earth to track progress of teams so you should be able to see how we are getting on. We have to make a radio call to Base camp at 8 PM each night with our exact location.
All Our Love
Touch Not the Cat Bot a Glove, or as I prefer to translate my family moto , 'Walk Softly but carry a Big Stick' . JM
Sunday, 5 April 2009
From David
Hi to one and all !
We are now 24 hours away from the start and after our 2 day training hike now very aware as to what lies ahead over the next 3 and a bit weeks. I think deep down we have all been taken somewhat by surprise at just how harsh this place can be. The last 2 nights of -40 degree plus (or should that be minus) temperatures have been brutal.
Saturday was our 11th wedding anniversary and to say that I miss Kate and the kids is an understatement, I can only imagine what a great time you are having back at Point Lonsdale. I hope PT is not missing his old wetsuit too much, but be rest assured that it has been put to good use as a goggle mask and a sunglasses protector.
Today is Big John's birthday and Iain and my self managed to smuggle in a bottle of bubbles to celebbrate, which we will do tonight. Hopefully they will also have the effect of lowering the sonic boom like snoring that we are all suffering from and of at the moment.
I can also only reiterate John's comments around family support and say that without the love and understanding of our families we would not be able to undertake this most amazing adventure.
Dave
We are now 24 hours away from the start and after our 2 day training hike now very aware as to what lies ahead over the next 3 and a bit weeks. I think deep down we have all been taken somewhat by surprise at just how harsh this place can be. The last 2 nights of -40 degree plus (or should that be minus) temperatures have been brutal.
Saturday was our 11th wedding anniversary and to say that I miss Kate and the kids is an understatement, I can only imagine what a great time you are having back at Point Lonsdale. I hope PT is not missing his old wetsuit too much, but be rest assured that it has been put to good use as a goggle mask and a sunglasses protector.
Today is Big John's birthday and Iain and my self managed to smuggle in a bottle of bubbles to celebbrate, which we will do tonight. Hopefully they will also have the effect of lowering the sonic boom like snoring that we are all suffering from and of at the moment.
I can also only reiterate John's comments around family support and say that without the love and understanding of our families we would not be able to undertake this most amazing adventure.
Dave
Thank You
A big thank you to all our friends and family that have allowed us to get to this point ! It is truly incredible being up here in Resolute Bay and feeling some idea of what true Polar Explorers experience in their endeavours. As Iain mentioned in the last blog earlier today one silly mistake creates a tidal wave of problems which all end up in one being Cold or dehydrated or both and the week we have been here preparing has allowed us time to try and overcome those difficulties and work on solutions.
On a personal note I wanted to thank Lara ,Alec, My Parents and my Sisters for there good wishes on my Birthday (today) which I was handed earlier today ! Thanks all your messages brought a tear to my eye , luckily I was inside otherwise they might have frozen to my face. Thanks all I love you and miss you .
We have calculated we can make approx 2.2 nautical miles across good ice and snow without becoming sweaty messes at the end of the day .(There are aprox 1.1 normal miles in a nautical mile).However broken ice/ rubble fields or hillsides etc do slow us down .First leg (65 nautical miles) should prove a good testing ground to see where we stand against other teams etc. On the move we are among the faster teams we still need to get faster at creating camp and breaking camp if we are to save valuable time ,but as everyone noted in our de-brief following 2 day mini expedition, speed in packing up can lead to errors . Safety remains the watch word and above everything else we will remain safe.
A huge thanks personally from me to Lara, Jane and Kate and all our collective families for letting us try to do this . You support and encouragement really are the difference . Having two great friends to do this with could make all the difference in the weeks ahead. Wish us luck and keep the mesages of support coming so we can catch up on them in checkpoints .
Race starts at approx 2PM from Resolute tomorrow . Wish us luck !!
The birthday boy.
On a personal note I wanted to thank Lara ,Alec, My Parents and my Sisters for there good wishes on my Birthday (today) which I was handed earlier today ! Thanks all your messages brought a tear to my eye , luckily I was inside otherwise they might have frozen to my face. Thanks all I love you and miss you .
We have calculated we can make approx 2.2 nautical miles across good ice and snow without becoming sweaty messes at the end of the day .(There are aprox 1.1 normal miles in a nautical mile).However broken ice/ rubble fields or hillsides etc do slow us down .First leg (65 nautical miles) should prove a good testing ground to see where we stand against other teams etc. On the move we are among the faster teams we still need to get faster at creating camp and breaking camp if we are to save valuable time ,but as everyone noted in our de-brief following 2 day mini expedition, speed in packing up can lead to errors . Safety remains the watch word and above everything else we will remain safe.
A huge thanks personally from me to Lara, Jane and Kate and all our collective families for letting us try to do this . You support and encouragement really are the difference . Having two great friends to do this with could make all the difference in the weeks ahead. Wish us luck and keep the mesages of support coming so we can catch up on them in checkpoints .
Race starts at approx 2PM from Resolute tomorrow . Wish us luck !!
The birthday boy.
one day to go
We have returned to the South Camp Inn after two nights out in weather 'as cold as we have it'. We know it was below -40 as that was all the readings would go down to, though one chap did hear -45 was the figure. Just about everyone had 'moments'. By this I mean experiences, short or long which rammed home what a lethal environemnt we are in. On the morning of the 3rd, it was so cold only IW could move his hands to get the tent back down. Things one takes for granted in the real world (!!) like doing up a zip, putting gloves on, changing clothes all have their issues and need to be thought through. Even equipment is fallible despite being built for the conditions. We have had issues with our MSR stoves, and simultaneously last night, our goggles fell apart as the temperature went below what the glue could bear. Vitals these, it makes one aware of how thin the line can be.
Food is the saviour. We have dehydrated rations which in the morning and at night we can rehydrate with boiled water. During the day, 'day bags'. these are ziplock bags full of nuts, cheese, chocolate, salami...why has no-one claimed that recipe?....anyway, we graze on this as we stop skiing every 75 mins or so. It is a shock though as the food must defrost in the mouth and it feels a little like sticking a hand full of cold pebbles in! Thank gawd I've still got me own teeth!
Anyway, a bitter night, Ice on hats, sleeping bags, it even snows in the tents as our breath turns to ice! Gloves go hard with icelock.
Depite this morale is high. We knit as a team and mutual understanding and the timesaving teamwork and procedures are coming through. We are feeling strong, but realistic. This is no environment to make the least mistake.
One thing that is becoming apparent is that it is sometimes simply too cold for cameras to work. Video in particular. Having come 'tooled up' with video, Flip, and conventional cameras, it is difficult to warm them and keep them warm, as well as the batteries. We will try to get photos on here via the USB stick and Chris the IT man, but there are updates via:
http://polarrace.com/2009/news
Special mention has to be made of the Pacerpoles we are using. They are great, but the overmit that was almost chucked in as an after thought is invaluable. It means that we do not have to resort to the huge pillow case gloves when skiing. The do seem to allow us less effort, though the bright orange wee we are producing at the end of te day, shows we are exerting ourselves to dehydration. water intake will be key.
This all sounds alarming, but we are more than coping and spirits are good. No one should worry, we are careful and the only Polar Bear sightings have been after they saw the taxidermist.
The race starts tomorrow.
Wish us all Luck!! It's John's Birthday today, his second 21st!! Something tells me we won't be knocking a few back though!
Food is the saviour. We have dehydrated rations which in the morning and at night we can rehydrate with boiled water. During the day, 'day bags'. these are ziplock bags full of nuts, cheese, chocolate, salami...why has no-one claimed that recipe?....anyway, we graze on this as we stop skiing every 75 mins or so. It is a shock though as the food must defrost in the mouth and it feels a little like sticking a hand full of cold pebbles in! Thank gawd I've still got me own teeth!
Anyway, a bitter night, Ice on hats, sleeping bags, it even snows in the tents as our breath turns to ice! Gloves go hard with icelock.
Depite this morale is high. We knit as a team and mutual understanding and the timesaving teamwork and procedures are coming through. We are feeling strong, but realistic. This is no environment to make the least mistake.
One thing that is becoming apparent is that it is sometimes simply too cold for cameras to work. Video in particular. Having come 'tooled up' with video, Flip, and conventional cameras, it is difficult to warm them and keep them warm, as well as the batteries. We will try to get photos on here via the USB stick and Chris the IT man, but there are updates via:
http://polarrace.com/2009/news
Special mention has to be made of the Pacerpoles we are using. They are great, but the overmit that was almost chucked in as an after thought is invaluable. It means that we do not have to resort to the huge pillow case gloves when skiing. The do seem to allow us less effort, though the bright orange wee we are producing at the end of te day, shows we are exerting ourselves to dehydration. water intake will be key.
This all sounds alarming, but we are more than coping and spirits are good. No one should worry, we are careful and the only Polar Bear sightings have been after they saw the taxidermist.
The race starts tomorrow.
Wish us all Luck!! It's John's Birthday today, his second 21st!! Something tells me we won't be knocking a few back though!
Home from Home
Home from home. This is how we are living at the moment. Yes, it is as cold as it looks, but we are, sort of, getting used to it.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Furious Activity!
The last few days have seen more preparation and training. Tent work, skiiing, skiing with pulks, cooking, cooker maintenance. Packing, re- packing, re-repacking, and then more. Food has been issued, so a huge exercise in terms of breaking it down into food per race leg, then per day and guess what packing and repacking into drop off bags. The problem with repacking so many times is that one forgets what one packed where, when….so starts repacking again!
The bitter weather last night, -36 degrees inside the tent, gave way to the most amazing blue skies and the longest visibility we have yet had. Resolute Bay is framed by a rocky ridge which looms over the village. To the South we can see out to the ridges where the sea ice meets the bay. Despite all the snow and ice, the atmosphere is incredibly dry and sucks the moisture from ones breath. Snow creaks underfoot, but loudly, accentuated by the general silence.
We are all very tired. Activity is pretty well non stop, but any slower moments are spent with mind spinning, wondering whether all is in order, attempting to finesse gear, packing (!) etc., to the extent that we are more worried about over engineering.
The bitter weather last night, -36 degrees inside the tent, gave way to the most amazing blue skies and the longest visibility we have yet had. Resolute Bay is framed by a rocky ridge which looms over the village. To the South we can see out to the ridges where the sea ice meets the bay. Despite all the snow and ice, the atmosphere is incredibly dry and sucks the moisture from ones breath. Snow creaks underfoot, but loudly, accentuated by the general silence.
We are all very tired. Activity is pretty well non stop, but any slower moments are spent with mind spinning, wondering whether all is in order, attempting to finesse gear, packing (!) etc., to the extent that we are more worried about over engineering.
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