It was an incredibly warm night even though it was about -25 or -30 degrees Celsius outside. Because of the radiance and thermal energy from the sun, it got so hot in the tent I was sleeping on top of my sleeping bag in my skivvies.
We woke up to a gorgeous day; a traditional blue bird day. You could see forever. When you look out on the incredible expanse, you recognize that you really are just stuffed in this immense polar cap.
Looking at it, I said to Keith, “why did you choose this career?”, and his answer was, “because it was easy.” I think he was using his usual sarcasm.
Started out with tea with the boys and then we got on with the day.
On the trail.
It’s very easy to see that when you look out on the never-ending stretch of polar cap, it really plays with your head. By the time you’ve done pi to the power of seven and calculated that number, you realize you still have still got six hours of skiing and pulling left to do. Continue reading “Day 8”
Coordinates: S 89 degrees O3.871 by W 83 degrees 20.446
The team’s campsite
The team is promoting beadonor.ca throughout the trek
We woke up this morning and all of us were feeling the acute effects of the significant altitude. Even though we’re not as high as you might think of when climbing other areas or being in other areas of altitude, because the air at the pole is thin/stretched, it behaves much higher.
It’s safe to say everyonefeels like we’ve been hit between the eyes with a sledgehammer. Almost everyone at camp had a headache and some of us also had nausea and vomiting.
It made for a challenging day but we got going. We were able to accomplish about five miles today over five hours. The weather was not ideal; it was -25 degrees Celsius and the wind was coming in steadily from the north-east. Continue reading “Day 7: Sledgehammer”
Sat around waiting.. 3 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and finally at 5, they came in to tell us that the flight was a go.
The restored Basler DC3, which brought the team to the polar ice cap.
We packed up our stuff, got our sleds organized and made our way to the most incredible plane. It is a Basler DC3 that was made in 1944 for the Royal Canadian Air Force. There is a plaque in the cockpit that shows its lineage.
It was originally designed as a military plane for cargo and parachuting and it’s been refurbished. It is in impeccable condition and it is stunning. All Canadian crew. Continue reading “Day 6: Antarctica”
Cold – fog rolling in on the horizon, which has done two things: dropped the temperature and put our flight today into potential jeopardy.
Sleep is a challenge. Brilliant, bright, bright night – it’s so weird. Even if you use all the devices to cover your eyes, you still feel like you’re trying to sleep staring at the sun.
Dr. Ross works on her tan at Union Glacier
A twin-otter plane also landed at midnight, but despite all of this, everyone got some sleep.
At glacier camp, we had eggs, ham, pancakes and fruit for breakfast.
A well-stocked Antarctic kitchen
Today was day of organization. We practiced packing the sled,…ski bindings, poles with funny little pole covers – pogey or poggie (sp?) – to try and reduce hand frostbite.
Then we went for ski back towards airstrip. We stopped and set up group tent, which we’ll use to eat if the world is reasonable.
Then we practiced with all the different stoves – whisper light and a good old-fashioned boy scout two burner Coleman (Dad, I think they took yours.)
If all is well, we hope to be leaving at around 5 p..m. our time for a four or five hour flight to the last degree.
We still don’t know yet whether it will happen. It is completely weather and wind dependent. If everything goes well, the next blog will be from the last degree. Wish us luck.
The TYL smile for a photo after arriving at Union Glacier.
It’s only -7 and we’re 864 m above sea level.
Well, the plane took off and 5 hours later we landed at Union Glacier! We are here. Its 6:45 and dinner is at 7. Our luggage (so fun to call it that!) our gear will be offloaded shortly. It’s 8 kilometres from the blue ice runway to camp. We still need to set up tents etc….. will be a late night. Dinner at 7, briefing at 9 then we go out to set camp.
The plane is one helluva beast. Its kind of hard to describe what it feels like. But imagine BIG with no amenities. They did serve lunch to us!
When you deplane, it feels like you have landed on a lunar landscape – nothing but snow, glaciers and mountains. Distance is impossible to determine – you look at a mountain and it is 20 kilometres away and the glacier is 4 kilometres wide. You can see for miles.
The camp is pristine and its location makes it ideal for camping as the wind is minimal. We are putting up camp beside the main area. Then there are two large tents for eating – one for the ALE clients and one for clients guided by others: us and Polar Explorers.
Tomorrow we are supposed to break camp, ski out 4 kilometres and set camp, do some exercises (stove etc.), then we ski back and either set camp here or fly out to the last degree… We don’t know yet.
Dr. Delgado does his best airplane pose in front of the Ilyushin
Up since 6 waiting for word. We’re taking turns to be sure someone is always available in a room to be the messenger for the team – that’s me at the moment.
In today’s day and age, you’d think we could manage by cell but way too dodgy given the spotty cell coverage and the short time window between the call and the flight.
8:40 a.m.
Meteorologist at Union Glacier is monitoring clouds and plans to wait another 60 minutes before making a decision. We are in limbo.
10:30 a.m.
WE GOT THE GREEN LIGHT! We will hopefully be heading to airport in 30 minutes.
If all goes well then the next blog will be from Union Glacier!
Sorting gearPicking up some essentials!Diego, Michel, Dale and Heather weighing in their gear.
Today was the day of information overload. We had a briefing by Antarctic Logistics Expeditions (ALE) this morning – they weighed our gear and took our bags away.
A few major things we learned were that they take ‘biosecurity’ very seriously. This means that if there are any particles on clothing or boots, they need to be wiped, shaken or washed off. They are trying to ensure that there is no new flora or fauna introduced. We will step in disinfectant as we board the plane.
We were told to separate into carry on, packed gear, and city stay stuff. The airplane, a Russian Ilyushin, holds 17 tons of stuff and 20 tons of fuel. The decision to fly is dependent on weather, visibility and winds. And of course that the airport is open; a few years ago, the airport was closed for 10 days due to strike!
The plane will land on blue ice. This runway is created by wind warming the top layer of snow/ice as it comes over the mountains. This sublimates the ice into blue ice. It is a glacier that is slowly making its way to the ocean. They lose 20 cm of surface glacier per year. Traditionally, the wind on the runway is 30-40 knots.
Union Glacier is the new base camp and because of its location, the runway is a bit more consistent than the old Patriot Hills. This has to do with the direction of the runway, the surrounding hills, and a more consistent safe runway.
They moved the actual base camp eight kilometres away from the runway in an area where the wind eddies and that means it is less windy at camp. But around the camp there are a lot of crevasses. In fact they lost one of their ‘big snow cats’ – a snow machine – into a crevasse earlier this year and it took a couple of months to get it out, so, we are not allowed to go a-wandering. Camp is at about three to four thousand feet altitude.
We met the rest of the group tonight over drinks – and if all goes well we will be heading out tomorrow. In fact, they are predicting an 80% chance that we will go – though past experience tells me not to hold my breath. (Last time, we spent six days on call to get to the Antarctic.)
We camped out with Dino’s Pizza and beer in Diego’s room for dinner and now are off to bed.
