Day 11: Good news: I've got my sled back!

File pic of Howard and sled on his North Pole expedition

84:25.909S 76:44.455W

A pretty productive day today, 26.5 kilometres and most of it because I got my sled back! About four hours into the day the soft snow and plough were things of the past..Well hopefully! I put it down to a certain elevation level, where the main snowfall from weeks back dumped itself. After all this is supposed to be the driest continent by far.

The day was a variety of weather. I woke this morning to a grey day outside, and a light dusting of snow on the tent and sled. I had a bit more light snow, then thee oppressive fog and limited visibility, then a 20 knot (50 km/h) headwind. As usual the wind chill picked up. It seemed a bit colder than I 'd had before, because at one rest break, I temporary froze the toes on my one foot, but unlike normally, I couldn't get it back to full feeling on the ski. I battled for 90 mins, with no luck, so resorted to my real cool (warm!) Forty Below, neoprene overboots. They did the trick, and felt real good... Thanks Joel, they are the right ones, and very easy to fit over my ski boots. (I'm trying quite a novel footwear solution, Richard's idea, and seems to be working well.)

Solo but not Alone takes on new meaning: Way off in the distant horizon today I saw another expedition..! Gee, who could that be? Not Ruth's group as they are about 3 days behind me... It can only be the Norwegian group that started 2 days before me... Hey, that's great news... I thought they would have made time on me. They must have struggled with the snow.

Today was garbage burning day! I have been keeping all the plastic wraps for my food, and it finally started bugging me so we had a little bonfire, and the bad deed was soon done. Pretty good, hey: all my garbage for 11 days fitted into a 'standard' supermarket carry bag. Real sustainable living getting closer!

So comment / questions answered:

Fuel: Yeah, I use about 230 ml of camping fuel each day to make water from ice, and also to cook my breakfast and dinner.

Spares: Weight is a critical part of sled pulling, and each item put in the sled must be carefully thought whether it's needed or not. A few kilograms of extra sled weight make a huge difference n speed and calories needed to pull it. So deciding what spares one takes a long is a very important process, and one cannot use the multi redundancy approach to take out risk. Adventures, by definition 'must' have risk, it necessary but not liked!

Why did I have a shaving razor with me, if weight is a problem? I don't shave on the expedition, but I do know of people who had facial hair frosting / icing problems that caused havoc, so just in case. However more importantly, I'm hoping there will be romance at the Pole, so I better look the best I can... haha!

I finally feel I have a way of life now that is pleasant with it's 'to look forward to' times, sustainable and daily repeatable. At the end of a day skiing I'm totally exhausted, but good, hearty food (Thanks again, Josee!), tent time, and good sleep, I wake as good as I was the day before, and ready to do the job out on the ice.

That's all for today. Short Blog so I can have an extra hour's sleep!

See ya'

H

Day 9: A big one!

84:03.190S 74:19.142W Elevation 1096 metres!

Well, this update won't be long because I'm really tired... But don't let its brevity detract from the REAL big day it was.

Last night I told you about the wind outside. Well I woke to a strongish headwind, which made the day's toilet a bit of a chilled rear affair! Someone asked: No secrets, and no innovation, just have to find a bit of protection behind the tent then drop the pants and be quick! I dig a hole first and cover up afterwards... Pristine environment, and I'm doing my very best.... I haven't droppped one single bit of stuff that hasn't come 'out of me'... I even use a piece of ice as toilet paper! Ok, back to the wind...

Well I dressed for a big headwind, and that's what I got the whole day. I estimate it reached 40 knots (about 80km/h) but I raised my game and actually revelled in the conditions. Most of the time loose snow was being driven off the ice, forming like a rapidly moving smoke carpet, spiralling around the sastrugi...very eerie, but beautiful.

The I saw a few kilometres off to the east what looked like a sea iceberg protruding out of the otherwise flat almost whitehorse capped sea terrain shimmering in the sunlight. It was my first Nunavat... The peaks of the mountains below the ice just sticking through, and totally ice covered. Really nice, and makes me wonder what's under the ice I'm walking on. There were about 4 peaks, total length sticking out was about 300m long and a maximum height of maybe 15-20 metres.

Last two hours were tough as the surface was soft, like snow, causing the sled to sink in the snow making it very hard to pull.

The wind area has changed, as I was walking in the same direction as the sastruggi vs the 70 degre angle before. I do hope the wind drops tomorrow, but it is still blowing outside. I had my first real high wind tent erection, which went well. It's a great tent - the most wind friendly you get.

My pole repair worked like a dream... Oh, until 20 mins before end of day: It was stil working good, but looked as if something had moved a bit, so I thought I'd just test it. Well it just creaked in my hands, and oopsie, I knew all was not good. On inspection later in the tent it became aapparent that my razor shaft had also broken... Gee these poles take punishment, hey.

I've spent the last two hours looking for another solution, and have just completed repairs using a better quality tent pole (the other was from an old tent of mine, this time I cut the spares for the tent I'm sleeping in. They are much stronger and don't appear as brittle. Anyway that was the only option I was left with... Hmm, quite stressful, and I was hoping for a quiet early evening! Another nailbiting pole day ahead tomorrow...

Oh well, 27 kms done today, under difficult conditions, I should be happy with that...

I have to say I feel enormously challenged at the moment... positively, and REALLY feel alive dealing with all this. The conditions today made it bitterly cold, the rest times were what many would describe as nothing short of miserable, but I enjoyed using my skills to survive and be relaxed in the whole day's conditions...

Ok off to bed now... I wish I could share more of the specifics, but this already is longer than I had planned!

Bye

Day 8: The real game begins! Hmmm, I WILL get to the Pole unsupported, no matter what.....

83:49.436S 73:13.202W

Another tough day at 'the ice office'. Well, it looks like it's going to be nail biting a bit earlier than I imagined.

I awoke quite relaxed as I thought I had a very good pole repair solution. There was quite a strong headwind, so it was pretty cold with wind chill, but by 6h30 I was on my way, fired up for a 30+ km day, and happy that I was now post capitulation and starting to enjoy the unfolding game of this expedition. The days before this I was constantly trancing off into the past, thoughts about going sailing again, and the inevitable male fantasy world! (Haha, just covering myself, not sexist!) These are signs one isn't in the now of the adventure, but today was different. 


I was thinking about nature, how it all works so amazingly, and how extreme the range of weather / temperatures are for what is really quite a small place. I aked myself: "So do you really think there is a Mother Nature? Why do you always refer to her then?" I got quite carried away with the whole earth thing, and how bad we REALLY are treating our planet. Much of it is just linked to greed, fame, and instant pleasures, without real appreciation. I looked at all this ice - I was walking on hundreds of metres of ice - and we say the world is short of water... It's not. Nature has stacked all this ice for us to use when we get really short... The day will come when we need this water, and will be prepared to pay the price to use it, just like we pay for other scarce commodities. It hasn't got to that yet... But 'Nature' has provided and then I wondered what I should be doing to try and increase awarenes of how much waste takes place....? I guess you get the gist of my thoughts at the beginning of today, being out here in Antartica was starting to move to a more spiritual journey.. The exploring was starting in earnest. Then....

Well 4.5 hours into the skiing, after performing amazingly, I hit a huge sastrugi precipice and lost my balance, and in strying to stabilise myself the repaired ski pole took all my weight, bowed like they do, but then just snapped with a devastating rifle shot sound. The design concept was good, except for the two tent poles inside the pole, they surprisingly are very brittle. Fortunately I'd thought through the scenario, had even practised walking / skiing with one pole, which was sort of manageable. I had decided I'd resist setting up tent to fix it, just soldier on and try do 25+ km. 


I started that, still with the strong headwind, but soon my left arm, the one I couldn't use (no confidence that side on the pole!) started getting really cold, from the now lack of use. Amazing how fine in heat balance one gets! My arm started aching, even after adding another layer of mitts to that hand. I tried poling with the left hand, but the sastrugi was real bad again today, and it just felt awkward. I sensed I was risking falling and damaging my one and only pole. I had no option but to take a break and don another top layer. I made this decision just in time, because just as I was finishiing the rather lengthy process I was VERY cold, shivering and my left arm felt 'strange'. This was a good practice, as unlike the North Pole where other team mates were around in emergency, I was here alone and need to be just that much more proactive.

In this whole process of breaking the pole, I went through lots of 'stuff' of wondering if this is the start of the end of my expedition, but my spirit of adventure rebounded me and I made a commitment to myself that: You WILL get to the Pole, and it WILL be UNASSISTED. That was important and sucked me deep into this new game, making it a real challenge. Knowing that, I knew I had a single pole ski to at least 4pm and hope that's about 25km. Then I'd have 2-3 hours for a new repair solution. I finished early yesterday, and cannot afford to lose these part days in this Race against fuel and food.

I struggled for 4 hours, and made it to 4pm, with the GPS showing 25.3km, almost 'normal' pace but very tiring and awkward.

I used the time on the ski to think through new repair solutions, going through each piece of 'stuff' I have in my sled, backpack, and on me, trying to find a stronger replacement for the spare tent poles. It was amazing how effective and valuabe that exercise was. It turned up 4 potential sources, and by the time I got to my tent stop site, I was tired, yes, but more importantly excited at setting up tent as a workshop so I could try all the options. Well the best one turned out to be a combination of the shaft of my razor, wrapped in a few layers of stove reflector tin, to make it a real snug fit inside the two broken pole tube sections. I had the stove going, heating up the pole ends to make them round and then shrink them onto the shaver connector. The job was soon completed with the final attachment of a hose clamp over the join. It seeems really strong, but tomorrow and another 28+ days is still the real test.

I also managed to repair the other one, but because of its bad bow, it will always only be a backup. Tell you tomorrow how it went? Hmm, it's QUITE important!

Lastly, on the pole problem, there is always a story behind eveything, and this one I'm not proud of but I better share it: As Peter from Wadongah. Oz, supplied me two brand new poles and I know will be following the Blog, is probably wondering how I could break two brand new poles! Well Pete, I'm embarrassed to say your ONE hasn't broken, it's been my two old ex-North Pole ones that have broken! The Arctic / North Pole is REALLY demanding on poles. Mine survived, and being sentimental, and preferring their long cork handles (can't get them anymore) they had a few dings, but looked OK, for what I thought was pole friendly terrain! The truths are, firstly, those poles shud have been retired off, and secondly, the pole environment is not as easy as first imagined! Lessons, lessons, lessons, so obvious in hindsight!

I have one brand new 'spare' pole, the partner to the other one I bought from you, Pete, at Union Glacier, waiting my return! Geeeeee!

Ok, hope the detail wasn't boring... Tthis is my life at the moment, and writing this helps me prepare for the VIP day ahead! The wind is still blowing outside, strangely it makes music as it whistes through my tent guy lines, but I'm snug in my tent!

Cheers

Day 7: So much variety today, I think I'm overstimulated now!

-83:37.259S 72:17.606W



I haven't been mentioning my climbing, but today (see below) reminded me: I'm camped here tonight at 923m, so I've climbed 795m from the start... All on skis I remind those who think skis are for going downhill! 



Some other stats: I’ve come 174 km from my start point. I estimate I have 766 km still to go. I'm still on a SW course not heading directly to the South Pole, as the Thiel Mountains and some crevasse have to be passed before I can turn left and just head South. 

After so many days of the same, today produced so much variety, I felt closer to 'you guys' in normal life with its entire stimulation overload! Not all was good but I'll leave that for last.

 

Firstly, before leaving I repacked my sled for better weight distribution, and improved the sled bag tie system, in an attempt to reduce the tipping over problem. A minor job in normal conditions, but on my own in the cold with mittens on it takes a while, fumbling and missing for the finer more precise stuff. Anyway I think it helped as I only had 5 capsizes today. 

Soon after the start I hit this pretty smooth, largely sastrugi free zone, so did away with my ski skins, and for the next two hours I hit a new record hourly average of 3.4km an hour. 

The terrain soon changed: 

I discovered Sastrugi City, a quite remarkable place: The gentle never catchable horizon climb that has been part of everyday was suddenly a finite reachable horizon, actually the top of the hill that then sloped gently down to a valley that formed the first part of the UNDISCOVERED Sastrugi City! Yeah, I was the first person to discover it...haha, but it really does feel like nobody has EVER been to these places. 

As I approached the bottom of the valley, it became a huge obstacle course with dense and large sastrugi. It's clear that with the slope the ice is all flowing down to the valley bottom, and the flow is the precursor to the vast sastrugi. 



The other side of the valley was a pretty steep (relative to what I've had) hill, where the 'rich' sastrugi live, with views back over the valley which was quite special with the sun angle highlighting the expansive white enormity of where I'd come from. This was the first time I had a varied hill and valley terrain and it was quite refreshing, even the hill looked 'interesting'! The sastrugi was amazing sometimes having a height of over 1.6 m, and its wind carved tail stretching for 10s of metres long. With this serious obstacle course ahead it was back to skins for traction. As the strain of the hill bit in, my mind searched for better ways to tackle it, and as the ice hardened it was soon time for skis off completely and I just fitted my small crampons that jus slip over my ski boots (Richard Weber's good idea.) Now this was fun and fast...It took me back to snowshoeing in the Arctic, I seem to be built more for that than skiing. The change of motion, was refreshing, and the pace awesome...I was hitting 4km/h at times. So now I have a 3rd option for travel, which makes me excited as long as there are not crevasse around! 

After about an hour the ice got too soft, and I was back on skis. Blog Question: Why do we use skis to walk on ice? I was into the last two hours of the day, confident today will be a record when Mother Nature decided to teach me a lesson: I slipped on some glass-like ice, and in the process of trying to break my fall, I put all my weight on the one ski pole which was now caught under the sled and snapped! Hmm, I'd looked at fixing the other one, was confident I could with a few options, but decided to wait and see if / how another breaks, because I could maybe use parts of it. 

Anyway, initially it was a huge feeling of despair; irrationally thinking my solo UNASSISTED status was lost. I soon got all rational, there was nothing else but to set up camp early and start repairs. I've done that, and managed to make what I think is a pretty good repair, using spare tent poles and a hose clamp. We shall see... I haven’t been as lucky with repairing the second one as it's really bowed. I'll have it fixed by tomorrow evening to, just need a bit more thinking time. 



Funny, I think today I crossed the capitulation line... All this variety helped, but more importantly I have became 110% taken by the challenge game, and the daily distance goals. I have come 178 km, almost 20% and am now COMMITTED. An example of this flip is how I go about marches: I add on time for sled capsizes, clothing change, ski change, because I want max skiing time, so I can get max daily distance. Initially these stop times were all part of march time, and an opportunity to rest. Now they are time thieves that prevent me skiing... So that's all good news.



Last night I had a lovely chat with Ruth by satphone. I think that also helped... Solo but not Alone!

 Some have asked if I put up my tent during my rests during the day? No, it would steal too much time. I just rest in the cold and wind, but I try and hide in the wind lee of my sled.



Hold thumbs for my ski poles!

Time to hit my sack!