Ryan Waters and Cecilie Skog with the Twin Otter in tha background at the Berkner Start pulling they heavy load. Live image over Contact 4.0 courtesy of humanedgetech.com/expedition/an2009 (click to enlarge)
Eric Larsen: “Extra kudos go to the Russian flight crew who piloted the big Ilyushin and landed it on an undulating runway of ice.” Live image courtesy of ericlarsenexplore.com (click to enlarge)
The eight girls will be spending a few days at Patriot Hills to acclimatise and test out their kit before heading to the coast and their start point. Live image courtesy of kasperskycommonwealthexpedition.com (click to enlarge)
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Antarctic wrap-up: Cecilie Skog and Ryan Waters on their skis
Posted: Nov 14, 2009 11:11 am EST
(ThePoles.com/ updated 11.50 pm.) Cecilie and Ryan made use of the good weather to get to their start point at Berkner Island. During this season this coastal start point is the furthest away from the South Pole; 1300 km, with Hercules Inlet 1130 km and the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf 840 km as the crow flies.
Update: The good weather didn’t last long. The girls reported from Patriot Hills that the wind has been blowing “like mad”. See more details below.
Unassisted, Unsupported
Cecilie Skog and Ryan Waters
– Berkner Island Start
The team reported that they were lucky with the weather and had a great flight. They flew from Patriot Hills and landed at 6 pm at the Berkner Island start and “could not help going to ski some today” [13 November].
“Very nice weather, two happy campers satisfied with some kilometers!” Cecilie and Ryan reported.
Assisted, Unsupported
Eric Larsen (guide), Dongsheng Liu and Bill Hanlon – Hercules Inlet Start
Eric reported from Patriot Hills that none of them could believe their luck with the relatively warm weather and blue skies - so perfect were the conditions that they were more worried about sunburn than frostbite.
“This is truly one of the last great frozen places left on the planet,” said Eric.
”Being here now, I realize, I must double my efforts. This snowscape is so delicate. No longer immutable to change Antarctica, faces a dire fate unless we act now to reduce carbon emissions.”
Felicity Aston (leader), Era, Stephanie Solomonides, Helen Turton, Reena Kaushal, Kim-Marie Spence, Kylie Wakelin and Sophia Pang
– Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf Start
Era from Brunei reported from Patriot Hills, “We came in [12 November] on the Ilyushin and we had a lie-in to recover from the day.”
“Our health and morale is good. From 1-10, it's about maybe 8 or even 9 because the weather has been really good. It has got clear visibility and the sun is out and it's quite warm..."
Update: Stephanie reported on 14 November, “It's been blowing like mad around here, we've had a few issues with tents.”
“Lots of drama this morning a couple of guys of our tents came out of a few of the valances disappeared, some of the snow disappeared off the valances so the tents were flapping around.”
“The whole team had to get out and make sure that all the tents were secure and build massive walls around both tents because it's really really really windy and you know there is a great possibility of tents disappearing off in this wind if one is not careful.”
Links to ski teams:
Cecilie Skog and Ryan Waters (Norway and USA)
Meagan McGrath (Canada)
ANI Hercules Inlet team Eric Larsen (guide, Canada), Dongsheng Liu (Canada) and Bill Hanlon (Ireland/Canada)
Julio Fiadi (Brazil), Hercules Inlet, no updates
Kaspersky Commonwealth team (KCAE) Felicity Aston (United Kingdom, leader), Dk Najibah Eradah binti P. A. M. Al-Sufri Pg M-L Kahar or ‘Era’ (Brunei Darussalam), Stephanie Solomonides (Cyprus), Helen Turton (UK), Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu (India), Kim-Marie Spence (Jamaica), Kylie Wakelin (New Zealand) and Sophia Pang (Singapore) – Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf
ANI Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf team Hannah McKeand (guide, UK) and Arnold Witzig (Swiss/Canada)
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