Hey everybody, it’s just a short blog today, it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team. Errr… we’re exhausted, we’re just making some food; having a nice hot milk drink that we have every night, with maple sugar in it? Mmmm sounds good eh, and ahhumm, basically relaxing after doing another twenty nautical today, so, Two err.. actually is our third day in a row of twenty nautical miles, (background coughing) but the second day in a row of our goal of trying to complete 88 degrees in three days, so 20 more nautical miles to do that. We’re up on the plateau, it’s incredible, ummm it’s it’s like a big vast well it’s a desert. That’s exactly what it is, it’s a desert. It’s this huge flat snowy desert, it’s incredible (I guess he’s never been in Winnipeg in the winter). Ahhh that’s Kevin coughing in the background, still suffering a little bit of altitude sickness. I hope your all enjoying your holidays and ahhh keep reading the blog through the weekend. Have a great night, K bye.

Getting Closer (Listen to Audio)

“Hey Everybody, it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team, filling you guys in, hope you’re having a great new year. Happy new years day to you all. Ahhh.. we had our second consecutive day of twenty nautical miles, we’re pretty excited about that. Ahhhummm, and ahhh.. the two guys, Kevin and Richard, my partners of course are skiing, and here is a photo for you of ahhh the binding system that they are using, which has been incredibly reliable to this point. They’ve really had very little go wrong with it at all, and we’re all wearing the same boots. You guys have seen my boots before and it’s the same boot that’s in the binding there, keeps you very warm. Ahhhumm.. but ahhh yeah from the photo of this.. the binding system that Richard has more or less developed and invented for use on ahhh… trips like these, to the poles, both south and north poles. So ahhh have a look at it and enjoy the photographs and as well ahhumm.. . Just thought I would fill you guys in on the altitude. It is getting really tough up here. Ahhhumm.. the snow is getting a little bit deep and so ahhh.. I’m using snowshoes right now ahhumm. and trying to keep up with the guys on their skiis. and we’re having a blast though, we’re really enjoying ourselves. so happy new year to everybody, and ahhh.. we will talk to you tomorrow. bye bye.

Day 28 (Listen to Audio)

“Hey everybody, it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team. Ahhhummm.. finished the day in 18.2 miles, nautical miles, in absolutely white out conditions. Probably the most white out conditions we’ve ever had as an matter of fact it’s probably even snowing a little bit. We couldn’t see at all. It was like, it was zero visibility and really bad sastrugi. But on the plus side we’re back in the tent right now and about to sit down and chow down to a huge bowl of pemmican and pasta and butter and bacon, and as you can see in the photo there. that’s how we’re adding calories to our meals right now. Becasue we need to be prepared for the last days. The last days…. yikes that sounds kind of scary. Ahhumm… the final days of the expedition as we head towards 88 degrees. Sooo we will be enjoying our dinner, I hope you guys enjoy you new years and please check in for the blog tomorrow and you’ll hear our plan for 88 degrees. OK bye.”

Day 26 (Listen to Audio)

“Err hello everybody, it’s errr day 27 the title of the blog is “Happy New Years Eve”. We’ve just come through two of the toughest days we’ve had of soft snow and whiteout. We had fresh snow which make the going really, really tough but were ahh, we still managed to do 20 miles today in 11 hours of trekking…… and were planning to average 20 miles a day for the next three days to cover the next degree from 88 degrees to 89 degrees. Hope everyone has a happy new years eve ans we’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Happy New Years Eve (Listen to Audio)

“Hey everybody it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team, ah, you will be hearing from Richard and Kevin in the coming days as well. Richard’s got a very special announcement actually, about our plans for 88 degrees. I think you will find that very exciting, so keep tuning in. So today, what I’m calling in about,  to talk a little bit about was something that I alluded to yesterday when I talked about gear and how we sort the gear. And the fact that Richard and I are carrying the group gear and Kevin is carrying the film gear. So, I thought I’d talk a little bit about that. One of the… This expedition has many unique things about it that make it very special. One of the little quirks is our educational programs and all our educational partners and all of our great volunteers and the people that are involved and of course we are attempting a record from Hercules Inlet to the South pole. We are trying to be the fastest to get there unsupported. Also, the fact is that we are all using different disciplines.  Richard and Kevin are skiing and of course, I’m trekking and snowshoeing. But, one of the things about this expedition that is very special is something that Kevin and I discussed a long time ago and that was that we wanted to document this expedition on film. So, all that gear that Kevin’s carrying…we have a fantastic camera, we have video equipment, we have everything and we are capturing the entire expedition on film and it’s no small feat when you are, you know, gong after ah speed record and ah and Kevin is trying to ski and do everything else and ah you’ve got to shoot this expedition. So, on a daily basis or at least every second day, we try and get as much film footage as we can. Sometimes I’m even allowed to use the camera. You can imagine that’s a challenge to get that out of Kevin’s hand judging by that photo that you see there.  But, ah, none the less, we have a lot of fun doing it and we hope you have something that, um, ready for everybody to see and to share with everybody so that they are able to experience the expedition, um, from our point of view. And we’ll get to that hopefully sometime in the New Year. But I just thought I would drop a few hints of what it’s like trying to film an expedition in the freezing cold and when you are trying to go really fast and everybody is tired. It is really tough. ”

dec27 (Listen to Audio)

“Hey everybody it’s Ray calling from the South Pole Quest Team. Richard’s cooking away and Kevin is right now prepping up to send a photo for this blog, so I’m leaving the blog today. Ahhummm… a lot of question always come up, they say an people ask us and and my family has asked. “Well you’re on snowshoes, or you’re in your boots, and the other two guys are skiing. How do you guys decide ummmm… who carries what in their sled?”  And I thought it might be a great topic for today ahhh.. seeing as now everyone is probably re-distributing some weight after all of the holiday feasting and everything. Ahhhum.. actually the way it works is this. Richard and I carry all of the gear for the three team mates …………….. cary our own compliment of food. Kevin has all the high tech equipment to not only make our own film, )because don’t forget we’re filiming this entire expedition), but our communication equipment and our solar stuff as well. So that’s how gear is distributed between the sleds and they all pretty much weigh about the same, and that right now is way too heavy. so hope everybodies is doing well. I’m not sure if I mentioned it already 18 nautical miles today, on Boxing day, day 22, and we’re at 86.24.7. We’re getting there talk to you soon bye

dec26 (Listen to Audio)

It’s a tough day to be away from family. So we did the best we could and sent Ray a picture of Kathy and Mia.

“Hi everyone this is Kevin from the South Pole Quest Team, and err merry Christmas to all. It’s a beautiful day today here in Antarctica. Ummm. We passed 86 degrees today and ahh  feel like we’re really moving towards the pole. Ahhh… conditions have ahhh changed a little bit. Ahhhh…The snow is softer now ahhh.. making things ahh… ahhhumm more difficult for ahh Ray, but ahh… ahhh… not as, as hard for us with our skis. Ahhumm but it’s sort of magnificent weather today and made us made ahhh… really happy, but unfortunately we’re still very sad that  we’re not home, with our families, it’s a tough hike. And our distance today was actually 19.2 miles, which ahhh, nautical miles, which is ummm.. a good effort considering the conditions. So keep tuned and we look forward to speaking to you all, K, bye now.”

dec25 (Listen to Audio)

“Hey everybody it’s Ray calling on behalf of the South Pole Quest Team. The guys have got their hands full doing Christmassy things, their wrapping gifts, they’re doing all kinds of stuff in the tent (no just kidding). They’re very busy and so I’m calling in on their/everybodies behalf today to wish everyone a happy holidays and to make special note, and to say special thank yous to all the people that are making South Pole Quest possible. And that’s the people that are voluteering and are working tirelessly ahhumm, day in and day out. Ahhumm behind the scenes and on the scene to make things happen. Some of those people… Dr Ewan Affleck who put together an incredible educational program for us and he’s just been amazing. He’s an amazing man and he’s as funny as he is intelligent. Anton Stranc… ahhh logistics genius ahuumm he can make anything happen and he’s been helping us out so much indispensible . Bob Cox executive director of impossible 2 possible (i2P) and one of my best friends in my entire life… just anything you need bob is there. My incredible wife Kathy who has been non stop, I speak to her every day and she’s been working with everyone for media onward… ????  ummm …. Dr. Affleck as well as a research, educational research team which involves ummm his umm mother in law as well, I’m afraid her name escapes me right now because I’m in Antartica exhausted after a long day. And I believe that I’ve just about covered it off on most folks and if I’ve forgotten anybody I’m very sorry and of course you are in our hearts as well, and thank you to everybody. I hope you all have an awsome holidays and ahhh we covered another 18.6 nautical miles today on Christmas eve. Be watching out for us tomorrow and please read our blog so that we’re not lonely on Christmas day. Have a great holiday K, bye.”

dec24 (Listen to Audio)

)“Hi everybody ahhh just ahhh. finished doing 18 today and it was really quite an amazing day. Ahhh… Ray last night ahh.. got a some sort of food poisoning and ahhh was really really sick all night. He was out going to the toilet all night long and you can imagine how difficult that would be when you’re stuck getting out of a tent, in Antarctica, to go out to the toilet all night long and ahhh he was in a really bad state this morning and ahhh managed anyway to somehow suck it up and continue on with us. We did 18 nautical miles in complete whiteout conditions, ahhummm …with this…. with Ray basically not eating or drinking, which is quite incredible actually. So today that says a lot for that ahhh… that day in my mind his ability to just push himself is just truely astounding. Also I’d just like to say that we finally went beyond a road, and it’s an interesting thing that we’ve been kind of seeing in our visual periperhy for quite some time now, is that there is this cat track that ahhh… the people at ALE, they’re the outfitters that kind of run the operation here in Antartica, had pushed through all the way up to the Theil mountains. And the reason being that they needed to do sort of a cache depot for teams that need support as well as for fuel for the airplanes. Well this cat track could effectively be used by people if one was so inclined and would speed you up because it’s very much like a groomed trail; and we saw and ahhh the line went straight up 80 degrees like we wanted, but ahh… you know you only come to Antarctica once and and ahh.. we haven’t mentioned it yet because ahh…we just didn’t want to bring it up until we were done with this road, but we never touched it, and ahhh… we could see it in our visual periphery and we never skied on it and we never trekked on it and we just wanted to establish that as for the record just in case for the future. Ahh you got to do something right when you do it right, but now were past it 85, we see the Theil mountains to our west, and we’re psyched man we’re heading to the pole, we’ll talk again.”

(Anton) I think a little context is needed for this blog. I talked with Ray earlier about the road made by the snow cat. It appears that when investigating what the road was they saw tracks on the road, we don’t know who made them, but after 18 days of plowing through snowdrifts the team wanted to go on record that the tracks were not theirs.

dec22 (Listen to Audio