Reached the North Pole on 28th April at 0159. Although we (Polar Slugs) were first over the line and completed the 350 miles 17 hours quicker than any others, it seems we may have been given wrong check point info and gone to the wrong place and therefore come in at 2nd place! Been incredible experience. From - 45, 50 kt winds, storm bound, frost nipped nose and fingers, wind burnt face, NO blisters, 34 days and nights in a tent - no washing a 3 pairs pants! Rock and roll. Has it changed me? No idea - you tell me!
Have a look at this and more to follow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYwZxC8Qtxs
Sent from Elgin Hotel, Ottowa on long and delayed way home to UK.
Monday 2 May 2011
Saturday 30 April 2011
At The Pole!
They've made it! Rob and the rest of the team reached the Pole in the early hours of yesterday. Statistics/times are being worked out to determine the winners.
The next hurdle is getting home! The weather has made it difficult for them to be picked up (please see polarrace.com for all the details)
We await the return of the explorer.......
The next hurdle is getting home! The weather has made it difficult for them to be picked up (please see polarrace.com for all the details)
We await the return of the explorer.......
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Check Point Three!
And they are still in the lead! Rob and the 'Slugs' have reached check point three ahead of the others.
I have received an email from Rob, which seems to have taken a week to get to me. He describes the race as tough but fun, with real highs and lows.
They are on the move for 10/11 hours per day through beautiful scenery and he has frost nip on his nose and fingers.
Hopefully he will reach the Pole in the next couple of days....
I have received an email from Rob, which seems to have taken a week to get to me. He describes the race as tough but fun, with real highs and lows.
They are on the move for 10/11 hours per day through beautiful scenery and he has frost nip on his nose and fingers.
Hopefully he will reach the Pole in the next couple of days....
Wednesday 20 April 2011
Check Point Two!
There has been no news directly from Rob and his team since my last blog, so maybe communications are down.
However, I have gathered from the Polar Race website that the last week has seen temperatures of -44 and winds of up to 40 knots, meaning the teams had to 'hunker down' for a few days.
They set off for Check Point Two on Saturday and arrived there in the early hours of this morning (our time) with Rob's team getting there first!
However, I have gathered from the Polar Race website that the last week has seen temperatures of -44 and winds of up to 40 knots, meaning the teams had to 'hunker down' for a few days.
They set off for Check Point Two on Saturday and arrived there in the early hours of this morning (our time) with Rob's team getting there first!
Sunday 10 April 2011
Check Point One!
Well, as Rob mentioned in an earlier blog, the reins have been passed to me!
After the initial training week, emails from Rob have been infrequent and short. However, today I received much more news from him, so am passing it on:
'Its going well. We got to the checkpoint today after 5 days of slogging in temperatures of -45. Averaged about -30 most days and at night it is - 24! Lovely!
Starting on Tuesday we have kept a good pattern of getting up at 6am, getting going at 9am (after taking down the tent, packing the pulks and also boiling 6 flasks of water for the day - and of course having breakfast (rehydrated sausage and eggs - mmm) and lots of hot drinks. We ski for two hours and then have a 5 min break to eat from our day bags which are biscuits, nuts, pepparami, sweets and chocolate - all tooth breakingly hard. We only stop for 5 mins as it gets so cold you are in danger of frost bite or nip. I have frost nipped my fingers alot! We do this until 6pm when we stop and it takes an hour to get the tent up and all gear packed away and everyone in the tent. 30 mins later and it might be above freezing until we turn the stoves off to sleep. At night your breath freezes in the sleeping bag, on the tent and everywhere so in the morning it is like being in a fridge with a little man throwing ice down your neck.
We have done 70 miles so far and averaged about 14 nautical miles per day. Our pulks weigh 50kg so I am doing a good workout. It is beautiful up here, nothing for miles. We saw a polar bear yesterday and kept well away for obvious reasons. We also saw bear and cub prints, which would make it even more
dangerous. We have a 24 hour break at this camp (in a tent - same as normal) and then off again.'
Thats it for now - will post any more news as I hear it.
Saturday 2 April 2011
Ho Ho Ho
Hello - We have been slowly building up to the race day which is now Tuesday morning. Yesterday we took the pulks and ski'd to a campsite where we made camp, cooked, slept, cooked breakfast and were due back to the lodge at 9.00am. All good training for setting a regime and getting the making and brreaking camp like clockwork. Although it was a lovely morning the weather came in during the afternoon and it got a little chilly, windy and was a complete white out e.g. you could not see the difference between sky and ground, and cannot see any hils, lumps or bumps. Very hardgoing and time to dig deep. The camp was only an hour away but that was an hour of hard graft as the skiing is still alien to us. The training has paid off though as it been manageable.
During the morning we had a satellite phone and comms workshop and covered off a refresher on navigating by the sun at different times of the day (e.g. at 2pm your shadow will be 30 dgrees off North etc). Following that we went shooting with the pump action shotguns. We have 3 types of cartridge. Slugs (one big shot in the cartridge - will stop an elephant), plastic bullets (you know what they are - think riots), and bangers which go BANG about 50 metres away. The idea of the banger is to scare away any bears so dont shoot it past them as they will be running towards you!
We then had a very serious session on polar bears and how to understand their behaviour. Certain movements and positions mean different moods. To summarise, dont piss them off and if you do try and make them feel better or take v quick evasive action!
This afternoon we have a 2 night expedition on the sea ice. We come back on Monday and get a cooked lunch, supper and get to stay in the lodge (on the floor in our bags) because Tuesday is RACE day and I go off the radar, in communicado for 4 weeks!
Will update this on Monday night!
During the morning we had a satellite phone and comms workshop and covered off a refresher on navigating by the sun at different times of the day (e.g. at 2pm your shadow will be 30 dgrees off North etc). Following that we went shooting with the pump action shotguns. We have 3 types of cartridge. Slugs (one big shot in the cartridge - will stop an elephant), plastic bullets (you know what they are - think riots), and bangers which go BANG about 50 metres away. The idea of the banger is to scare away any bears so dont shoot it past them as they will be running towards you!
We then had a very serious session on polar bears and how to understand their behaviour. Certain movements and positions mean different moods. To summarise, dont piss them off and if you do try and make them feel better or take v quick evasive action!
This afternoon we have a 2 night expedition on the sea ice. We come back on Monday and get a cooked lunch, supper and get to stay in the lodge (on the floor in our bags) because Tuesday is RACE day and I go off the radar, in communicado for 4 weeks!
Friday 1 April 2011
Welcome to the Arctic Rob. Are you comfortable?
I am catching up so this is a couple of days out of date - last night we cooked and ate in the tent before sleeping in it! Brrrr
I eventually arrived in Resolute Bay after almost 3 days travelling. This sort of delay is to be expected up here in Northern Canada where nothing is taken by chance. We took the flight to Ottawa and stayed there overnight and the following day (28th) had a flight to Iqaluit here we were to change to get in a plane to Resolute. At Iqaluit we were told that the flight to Resolute was also stopping at Arctic Bay to drop some passengers and some cargo. When in the air we were told that before Arctic Bay we were stopping at Hall Bay for 15 minutes to refuel. After 2 hours at Hall Bay (and 8 hours since Ottawa) we were told the plane was broken and that another was coming to pick us up and take us back to Iqaluit! Once there at 11.30 pm we were back in a hotel and to the airport the following morning. The flight on the 29th also stopped at Hall Bay and then Arctic Bay - but then went on to Resolute.
Resolute is the second most northern town / village. There are about 200 people who live here. It is in a beautiful location and when the weather is as good as the 29th was (sunny, no clouds, - 25 C) it is amazing. This is where we are training for the week. We have spent one night in a lodge, met our skis and took them for a 2 hour walk, put tents up inside and outside in the snow and covered a lot more theory and classroom based activity. My Baffin boots are about 1 metre long and 50 cm wide which makes skiing on skis 15 cm wide interesting. I spent a few minutes with my face in the snow. Although it could have been worse as later in the day a scientist from a research group fell through the ice 50 meteres from where we are camping! Putting up the tents wearing gloves, goggles, romper suit and with rubber dinghys on your feet is a lot harder than doing it in South Wales. We are sleeping in them tonight - its only - 35 C so not a problem (apparently).
The classroom stuff has bought this to life in a rather galling fashion. We had a session on frostbite and saw a lot of photos of amputation of the nose, fingers, toes and even worse (boys). Its a serious business out here! We then covered Polar Bears and missed out on a photo of a Inuit Guide who had the top of his head removed when a bear attacked through his tent. The reason we missed it is the laptop ran out of juice. But I ask you, how scared are they trying to make us! Tomorrow we are having some more time with the shot guns and it cant come quicker.
Race proper starts on Tuesday now (delayed because of errr, our delay). Temperature later this week are due to drop to - 40 C. But do you know what? I just want to get out there and get started. Jo, Lucy and I are working well together as a team and after 18 months of preperation and training we are finding ourselves to be pretty experienced. We seem to know our stuff - which in the end is a good thing - especially for my sponsors!
Until next time. Next one will be a frozen beard, perhaps."
I eventually arrived in Resolute Bay after almost 3 days travelling. This sort of delay is to be expected up here in Northern Canada where nothing is taken by chance. We took the flight to Ottawa and stayed there overnight and the following day (28th) had a flight to Iqaluit here we were to change to get in a plane to Resolute. At Iqaluit we were told that the flight to Resolute was also stopping at Arctic Bay to drop some passengers and some cargo. When in the air we were told that before Arctic Bay we were stopping at Hall Bay for 15 minutes to refuel. After 2 hours at Hall Bay (and 8 hours since Ottawa) we were told the plane was broken and that another was coming to pick us up and take us back to Iqaluit! Once there at 11.30 pm we were back in a hotel and to the airport the following morning. The flight on the 29th also stopped at Hall Bay and then Arctic Bay - but then went on to Resolute.
Resolute is the second most northern town / village. There are about 200 people who live here. It is in a beautiful location and when the weather is as good as the 29th was (sunny, no clouds, - 25 C) it is amazing. This is where we are training for the week. We have spent one night in a lodge, met our skis and took them for a 2 hour walk, put tents up inside and outside in the snow and covered a lot more theory and classroom based activity. My Baffin boots are about 1 metre long and 50 cm wide which makes skiing on skis 15 cm wide interesting. I spent a few minutes with my face in the snow. Although it could have been worse as later in the day a scientist from a research group fell through the ice 50 meteres from where we are camping! Putting up the tents wearing gloves, goggles, romper suit and with rubber dinghys on your feet is a lot harder than doing it in South Wales. We are sleeping in them tonight - its only - 35 C so not a problem (apparently).
The classroom stuff has bought this to life in a rather galling fashion. We had a session on frostbite and saw a lot of photos of amputation of the nose, fingers, toes and even worse (boys). Its a serious business out here! We then covered Polar Bears and missed out on a photo of a Inuit Guide who had the top of his head removed when a bear attacked through his tent. The reason we missed it is the laptop ran out of juice. But I ask you, how scared are they trying to make us! Tomorrow we are having some more time with the shot guns and it cant come quicker.
Race proper starts on Tuesday now (delayed because of errr, our delay). Temperature later this week are due to drop to - 40 C. But do you know what? I just want to get out there and get started. Jo, Lucy and I are working well together as a team and after 18 months of preperation and training we are finding ourselves to be pretty experienced. We seem to know our stuff - which in the end is a good thing - especially for my sponsors!
Until next time. Next one will be a frozen beard, perhaps."
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