South Pole solo

Camp: South 81-14.816  west 79-45.034 Distance: 10.1 nautical miles (about 18km) Time: 9.5 hours Weather: back to blue skies and 15km knot head wind Snow – absolute slogg fest.  Tough day at the office!! Every Mark needs a Simon and every Simon needs a Mark….that’s what Glenn Capelli, a great mentor of mine, summarised after [...]

Camp Is at South 81 05. 87  (made my first degree) west 80 00.094 Distance 7.15 hard sought nautical miles Time: 8 hours Weather: complete whiteout Snow: Like dairy bell icecream – just soft!! The day felt like walking on the moon all day –  in slow motion. It was my first whiteout, which I [...]

                                  Camp:  South 80 57.913 West 80 02.462 Distance:  10.3 nautical miles (19.07km) Time:   8.5 long hours Weather:  nice and crisp blue skies and wind moderate all day at 5 knots Snow:  terrain is crap Tired today as the wind was about 35 knots during the night and the tent flapped very vigorously and [...]

Camp:  South 80 47.657  West 80 08.010 Distance:  12 nautical miles Time:  approximately 9 hours Weather temperature:  -15, wind chill from 15-20 knot head wind Snow:  good in the morning, ok in the middle of the day and glue at the end Snow conditions filled my head today as big struggle during middle of day [...]

Where am I:  South 80 35.762 West 20 11.088 Distance from Camp 3 is 11.1 nautical miles (not happy!!!). Time: 8 hours 45minutes plus some breaks Weather: a lot colder, 10 knot winds in my face all day and freezing I have also climbed to around 786 metres in elevation from being dropped off at [...]

Where am I?  South 80 24.799 West 80 20.821.  This is from Camp 3, 12.5 nautical miles (23.15km), time travel 8.5hrs, weather nice today, blue skies and light winds.  Terrain variable and still very heavy snow, hoping for better terrain soon.   Still getting into the groove of things here and toughening up my muscles.  I don’t [...]

Started the day in pretty good weather and went as long as I could.  I had to call the day early as I did a ski tip. Hopefully this is not too debilitating, I have done some repairs which I am hoping will hold together for the rest of the journey. Then my stove didn’t [...]

Second day on skis dragging my sled and first time I got out my headphones to try and motivate myself and to continue through a 35 knot wind straight at my face.  I got my iPhone out and listened for the next hour to Thunderstruck by ACDC. I accidentally pressed the repeat button when selecting [...]