The home team of the Shackleton Centenary team reported, “ they weren't expecting the Beardmore Glacier to be one huge sea of blue ice - the obvious benefit is that they can now see all the crevasses, less helpful, is the feeling of walking on concrete wearing spikes for 8 hours a day.” Live image courtesy of shackletoncentenary.org (click to enlarge)
Map of the Shackleton Centenary Expedition’s route and the Breadmore Glacier courtecy of bbc.co.uk (click to enlarge)
Lars from the Hvisterk Happy Feet home team reported about their last crevasse encounters, “They started out in full safety modus and Christian led the way with his crevasse stick. The slower pace and the whiteout made it a very cold ordeal. And a few hindered metres before breaking into the 87th degree they came across the first a five huge crevasses.” Live image over Contact courtesy of antarctichappyfeet.com (click to enlarge)
Poppis and Pasi: “We also enjoyed the halos during the day. Circles forming around the sun seem special and fancy. In the air there were freezing floccules of water, which improved our mood even more.” Live image courtesy/copyright Poppis Suomela/ thepole.fi (click to enlarge)
Poppis and Pasi: “40 days of constant physical stress is starting to take its toll. Add to that, an elevation of 3000 metres, a temperature close to 30 degrees Celsius below freezing and poor sleeping, and you have a challenging package. All of this is slowing us down, despite the increasingly light pulkas. In ten hours total, we barely advanced 30 kilometres. Previously, we clocked several kilometres more in an hour less.” Live image courtesy/copyright Poppis Suomela/ thepole.fi (click to enlarge)
Ray: “There's nothing as nice as curling up into our down sleeping bags, into our little home which is our helsport tent for the period of this expedition and chow down on some pemmican and some pasta. I'm tellin ya it's a little bit of heaven in Antarctica.” Live image over Contact courtesy of southpolequest.com (click to enlarge)
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Antarctic wrap-up: Todd at the Pole; and the brutal Beardmore Glacier
Posted: Dec 22, 2008 11:35 am EST
(The Poles.com) Well done to Todd who has arrived at the South Pole on Sunday! Todd’s official time will be announced after his exact start and finish times are confirmed.
In the meantime teams are arriving on the Plateau in full force. The Norwegians from the Messner Start average a distance of 35 km per day, while the Canadians say poor visibility slowed them down to 18 nm (33.336 km) on one of their days (see Canadian's speed comparison below).
On the Beardmore Glacier the Shackleton descendants experience the toughest terrain they have faced yet, with concrete hard blue ice and “crevasses to the left and right of them as far as the eye can see,” reported their home team.
Unsupported, unassisted
Mark Langridge (solo, UK)
His home team reported he is at an altitude of 8,672 ft (2,643m), position 87°22S, 82°08W
Temp. –22C.
Todd Carmichael (solo, USA)
Like Brian from Todd’s home team said: “With no word from Todd since December 19th, these last few days have been particularly nerve wracking for everyone following his progress.” Todd had satellite phone problems and therefore couldn’t communicate. His home team got news via ALE’s base camp at Patriot Hills. Brian reported that Todd will be at the Pole for the next few days as Patriot Hills are experiencing bad weather and will be unable to send a plane to the Pole.
Chus Lago (solo, Spain)
Day 40, 21 Dec. position 86° 14.750’S, 81°13.003’W
Distances: 15.5 km, 24 km, 25 km
Check out Chus’ blog for a video showing her training at home, waiting in Punta Arenas and getting ready at Patriot Hills; as well as the Ilyushin landing on the blue ice at Patriot Hills.
Kari Poppis Suomela and Pasi Ikonen (Finland)
Poppis and Pasi said it is much colder on the Plateau, but they have adapted to the cold and do a lot of work with their bare hands. The guys added more skiing hours per day and described the conditions on the Plateau, “After many weeks the snow is again flying with the wind. It means also that a lot of places have fresh snow, which is slowing us down. At this moment the snow seems to be very grainy and crystalline. The surface is full of sharp snow crystals where the sun is brightly reflecting. The snowfield is covered with rime, which softens the shapes of normally sharp sastrugi. The surface looks beautiful but, unfortunately, the friction is extremely high and skid is poor. The sledges were resisting the going effectively.”
Distances: 31.4, 30.1, 30, 0, 34,
Position: 88°36,734S, 079°56,822W
Gavin Booth and Adam Wilton (UK)
The guys are well on their way in 88°. They say they feel the cold more and are wearing more hand protection to try to stop their hands from freezing.
21 Dec. “Today we decided to increase our work rate from 10hrs to 10.5. We are both extremely tired having man-hauled for 41 days without rest but we can see the light at the end of tunnel.”
Position: 88.40543S,82.98179W
Richard Weber, Ray Zahab, Kevin Vallely (Canada)
Team HET speed comparison:
Richard, Ray & Kevin Day 15, Dec 19:
84.1190S, 080.0149W
Hannah Day 15, Dec 3:
83.3121S, 080.0082W
Todd Day 15, Nov 26:
82.84643S, 080.06686W
Richard said they ski 9.5 hours per day, not including the breaks. On Saturday Ray said a white-out slowed them down to do 18 nm (33.336 km), “very dark day for us, really long hard trudging, still had to keep our faces covered though, because the UV is still there even though you can't see five feet in front of you.”
Ray said, “by our third or fourth march of the day, which sometimes last several hours, the three of us start talking about how excited we are for dinner to have our pemican, and to be able to relax and unwind in the tent, because that's when we're outside, and it's so cold and so blustery and we're so exhausted. There's nothing as nice as curling up into our down sleeping bags, into our little home which is our helsport tent for the period of this expedition and chow down on some pemmican and some pasta. I'm tellin ya it's a little bit of heaven in Antarctica.”
Read how Kevin explained about pushing themselves during the day and comparing it to cooking a turkey.
Distances: 20.1 nm; 20.2 nm (37.41 km); 18 nm; 19.2 nm
Position 20 Dec. 84.3120°S, 80.2300°W
Shackleton Centenary Expedition, UK (Henry Worsley, Will Gow and Henry Adams) – Ross Island start
The guys used crampons on the Beardmore Glacier, which gave them lots of trouble and slowed them down. “The crampons didn't hold up to much and it sounds like the team wish they had brought with them steel crampons rather than the aluminium which they have taken instead.“ the home team reported. ”They weren't expecting the Beardmore Glacier to be one huge sea of blue ice - the obvious benefit is that they can now see all the crevasses, less helpful, is the feeling of walking on concrete wearing spikes for 8 hours a day.”
Distances: 15.1; 16.4; 10.1; 8.8; 8.5 nm
Position Day 38: 84°36’, 168° 17’
Christian Eide (leader), Rune Midgaard, Mads Agrup and Morten Andvig (Hvitserk Happy Feet, Norway)
The team experienced the last of the big crevasses. “They started out in full safety modus and Christian led the way with his crevasse stick. The slower pace and the whiteout made it a very cold ordeal,” reported Lars from their home team.
From there on the temperature dropped to –30°C, with the wind making it even colder. They encountered, what they called, “some interesting sastrugi”.
The team has lots of fun and they plan to keep this pace to meet their target, “The plan is to continue as they do, and have said they see no reason to making a run for it. This pace should more than meet their targets, and they prefer to keep a bit in reserve for the ‘big IF’.”
Distances: 37.9 km (20.464 nm); 36.4 km; 35.7 km; 37.7 km (20.356 nm)
Position So. 21 Dec. 88.26589S,75.16161W
Return unsupported and sail-assisted
Mike Horn (solo, South Africa)
Mike is well into 83 degrees. On Saturday he reported a white-out and on Sunday strong wind.
Distances: 26, 25 km
Links to Antarctic 2008-09 expeditions
Antarctic crossing/return unsupported
Peter Valusiak (Slovakia, Novo-SP-McMurdo) Aborted
Crossing/return supported and sail assisted
Dieter Staudinger, Austria/Canada, and Armin Wirth, Germany (Neumayer start) Aborted
Unsupported, unassisted
Mark Langridge (UK, solo)
Todd Carmichael (USA, solo)
Chus Lago/ Caixanova Expedition (Spain, solo)
Gavin Booth and Adam Wilton/ British South Pole Expedition 2008 (UK)
Richard Weber, Ray Zahab, Kevin Vallely/ South Pole Quest Expedition (Canada)
Kari Poppis Suomela and Pasi Ikonen (Finland)
Henry Worsley, Will Gow and Henry Adams/ Shackleton Centenary Expedition (UK)
Christian Eide, Rune Midgaard, Mads Agrup and Morten Andvig/ Hvitserk Happy Feet (Norway)
Christian Eide, Rune Midgaard, Mads Agrup and Morten Andvig/ Hvitserk Happy Feet (Norway) map
Christian Eide, Rune Midgaard, Mads Agrup and Morten Andvig/ Hvitserk Happy Feet, Norwegian dispatches
Return unsupported and sail-assisted
Mike Horn (South Africa/Switzerland)
Supported or assisted
Eric Larsen (USA)
Doug Oppenheim and Jeremy Rogers (UK)
Daragh Horgan (UK)
Ross Maxwell (New Zealand)
Sarah McNair-Landry (Canada)
Thomas Davenport (USA)
Kari Gundeso (Norway)
Julio Fiadi (Brazil)
Partial routes
Teemu Lakkasuo (Finland, solo)
Doug Stoup (leader), Peter Turkstra, Steve Stipsits and Fred Losani (South Pole for Kids)
Jesús Noriega, Xavier Valbuena and Eric Villalón (Pol Sud Sense Límits, Spain)
Børge Ousland and team
Other Antarctic expeditions
ANSMET Meteorite Hunters
Remote Medical representative at Critical Skill, Tom Milne’s, Vinson Expedition
Duncan Chessell, Jamie McGuiness and team’s 80 km Ellsworth Mountain traverse and Vinson climb
Tommy Eriksson’s Icebreaker (Aborted)
Cristian Donoso and team’s Antarctic Peninsula Kayak Expedition
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