Today Richard Webber did all of his navigation using a compass. Due to the whiteout conditions there we no other navigations aids available. Ususally he uses visual clues plus the position of the sun to guide the expedition. Everyone sounded in tired but in good spirits.

“Today was definitely a tough one for us, ummm we went out and the skies were grey and it.. you know it sort of set the mood, but we none the less had fun, pushed on, went uphill quite a bit and I spent most of the day dreaming about all of the food I would love to have right now; ummmm… namely I could really scarf down a pizza, which would be absolutely fantastic. Not to say that our pemmican has not been absolutely delightful. We’ve been eating very very well, very high calorie, and it’s been keeping us keeping us going, lots of energy. We look forward to coming in and hanging out in the tent, the three of us laughing ahh… at the end of each day. We’ve been walking for about eight and a half hours, we’ve been out for a total of about nine with breaks, and ahhh so far so good. We’re really enjoying each others company and we’re ahhh… working hard when we’re out there. So fifteen and a half nautical miles today, I think that boils out to somewhere around twenty nine kilometers or something like that. tomorrow we’re going to if the weather permits add an hour and as our sleds get lighter we’ll actually be able to do more mileage each day. That’s our goal if the weather sticks with us, here’s Kevin.”

“Hey it’s Kevin here, ummm polar trekking is you know aaahhhh about getting into some strange zen state …??…feeling…. ……..”

“Hello Richard here… Today was ahhhhh…a tough day. We had ahhh…quite a big hill to climb and it was kind of weird because the light was weird and it was kind of hard to see you were actually climbing but sleds suddenly felt really really heavy, and the light was very good so we had to navigate with a compass but ahh we still did good mileage.”

Another 15.5Nautical Miles (Audio)

“Ummm today was another great day, we had a bit of wind, ummm but it was basically the same slogging uphill in deep snow and I continued with just my boots today, which you can see from the photo that kevin took of my boots. That’s the configuration I’ve been wearing, the boots with the crampons; and you know my ipod was kicking in and out today. I had the solar charger on it, we had a bit of cloud so I wasn’t charging on full the whole time. Most of the day I spent thinking about Kathy and Mia, my little girl today, and ahh thinking about how I wish they could see this beautiful place as well and I could share it with them. What a great day; and walking with the guys and pushing our way uphill, making sixteen more nautical miles toward the south pole. Here’s Kevin.”

“Hey everyone…….. It was a very beautiful day today. I too was ahh ahh walking, I got some blisters in my shoes and have not been able to ski very much so far. My hope is that now the surface is getting a little bit softer it would be much nicer to actally be on skiis, and to be able to sort of drift over the soft stuff. Umm I’m far less tough than ahhh.. than Ray. I’d be more than happy to hop on my skiis if I can, but ahh the hope for me is that I can ski tomorrow, but otherwise walking along. The walking to be perfectly honest with you isn’t all that bad. It’s ahhh beautiful out here and it’s ahh and it’s just a wonderful place to be. Talk again tomorrow.”

16 More Nautical Miles (Audio)

“Today was fantastic, we covered fifteen point nine nautical miles. Which is approximately thirty kilometers, twenty nine and a half kilometers…. You know right in the range that we want to be at this point ummm.. It was a beautiful sunny day, we had a great time errr, you know snaking our way, dragging our sleds. Of course because it’s so sunny we’re able to use the solar panels that we have on our sleds to charge all of our equipment as we made our way up to camp tonight. So it was and absolutely spectacular day, I think we are starting to get a bit fitter and things are coming together. So Hi to everybody and here’s Kevin.”

“Hey y’all, umm we are actually sticking to a schedule now of our first march is ahhh is two and a half hours, we take a fifteen minute break and then follow that with a two hour, two hour, and two hour march, each with a fifteen minute break between, so it’s doing eight and a half hours of work. Ahh we plan to up that in the near future, our speeds are really good, we’re still very tired when we come in, but we are getting fitter, we’re still psyched, that’s all that matters, we’re having fun, talk to you tomorrow.”

Listen to Audio

Ray wanted me to thank Iridium and Rhodes communication for all their help. Their generous sponsorship has made all of these blogs and messages possible. Not to mention keeping the crew in touch with their loved ones. Many thanks. In case you haven’t noticed on www.southpolequest.com if you select the live tracker and zoom in. All of their daily positions are plotted against the continent. Hercules inlet is the actual coastline though it’s tough to tell because it’s buried under so much ice and snow. (Anton Stranc)

“Hi all this is Kevin here, we just completed our march today and ahh managed fifteen point three nautical miles. Ummm we’re very happy with that over the course of eight and a half hours. We are slowly building now and feeling strong. Lots of hill work today again and aahhh lots of snowdrifts that we had to negotiate but things are looking good, our sleds are still heavy so as time goes by the sleds will get lighter, we’re going to get fitter and we’re going to get faster. So ummm things are looking good, weather’s good, not too cold, not too windy. Here’s Ray”
“Hey guys it’s Ray here from the south pole quest. As Jim (?) says another spectacular beautiful day on Antarctica. Just trekking and skiing, of course I’m still going, I’m committed now to keeping my showshoes in my sled for as long as I possibly can, just wearing my boots, but ahhh what an amazing day and and to do another fifteen point three nautical miles in aahhhum eight and a half hours trekking is fantastic. We’re just getting our legs used to the miles. We’re not pushing too hard, incidentally that’s about twenty I think that’s somewhere eight and twenty nine kilometers. Ahh so we’re feeling really good and ummm keeping to our schedule, lots of surprises coming round the corner. Hope everyone’s doing well and thanks for checking us out. OK Bye”

Listen to Audio

“Day three, fifteen point one nautical miles, twenty eight kilometers roughly covered today. Ahhh…. today was spectacular, the weather was perfect. Ahhhummm. We started our day with a really long ascent and assured ourselves that we weren’t going to go out super duper hard. We stayed on the go for eight and a half hours of trekking and made some really good progress. So ahhh in the coming days we will start to test our engines out a little bit more and see how we feel; and we’re really excited it was so beautiful today the landscape is incredible with the mountains to the right…. and once again… just reminds you of what an amazing place it is that we are in.  Ahhum… so far I haven’t worn my showshoes and I don’t plan to unless I need to, I’m just wearing my leather boots, Here’s Kevin”…..

“Hey y’all.. were just sitting here in the tent now after a fairly long day, we’re all feeling pretty tired, and ahh… we’re just slowly trying to get accustomed to eating the food prepared for …. prepared for our ..???..and extremely high in fat, ah and ahh we’re taking ahh these enzymes actually, to make us digest the fat ahh… the extra fat.. I’m still finding it a bit of a struggle to get all of the cheese down, but ahhh none the less evenutally our systems will be running so fast that we’ll be able to consume it all. But that’s my word for now… OK cheers.

Listen to Audio

“Today was a great day, we went out with just the intention of still building our mileage and getting used to, you know dragging these sleds, and and keeping moving, so we didn’t, we didn’t knock ourselves out and we still managed, aahhh… 13.7 nautical miles which is roughly 25 kilometers towards the south pole. We started the day by finishing a really long steep climb, ahhhh… and we negotiated several crevasses, but the crevasses are done, at least for now and so we are on some flat terrain, we are really excited. It’s been sunny today, beautiful today with just enough wind that you needed to cover up everything but it kept you cool while you were walking so… here’s Kevin”
“Hey y’all errummm the first half of the day today was poking through the crevass field. We thought it was all over yesterday but today I… right in front of me I saw Ray go up to his knee in one crevass and ahh uum ahh myself, I found myself looking down little holes here and there everytime my foot would puncture through, or my ahhh my pole would…. amazing day though, beautiful sun, wind died down and we got views to the three sails here, which is really the gateway to the antarctic plateau. So we’ll talk to everybody tomorrow, cheers and thanks for following along.”

Listen to Audio

“Day one  ahhh…as things started out and we got a chase of energy … when we left Hercules Inlet and started snow shoeing……. the wind was very strong…. all day long… and of course got….. seals, very interesting…… here at one point…..and one of the sleds almost fell into a cravass hole but ahhh…… absolutely……. realizing today…… ourselves and still managed ten and a half nautical miles……. we are going to ramp things up tomorrow, that’s all for today. We had a great day and thank you very much, K bye. “

Setting off for the South Pole; The journey has begun

Friday, December 5, 2008

Ray: Today was absolutely spectacular.  We already got to experience what the continent has to offer.  The minute we left Hercules Inlet we were struck by unrelenting winds that reminded me of being in a sand storm, but it wasn’t sand it was snow and it was very cold!  We pulled the 160lb sleds uphill all-day and crossed several crevasse fields. Kevin is an expert in crossing the crevasses and while crossing one of the crevasses I happen to be the third person to cross and my sled broke through the ice and started to fall backwards into the crevasse and so I had to hang on and drag my sled out.  So that was the drama for the day.  A beautiful day and we are absolutely blessed to be here, and this has been an amazing day.  We managed our pace today, just getting warmed up and letting our bodies adapt.  We traveled about 10 and a half nautical miles today toward the South Pole.

Song of the day was: bohemian like you, by the Dandy Warhalls….my favorite sandstorm song so I used it during the snowstorm

Kevin: The journey started today.  There is an old saying, all journeys regardless of how big they are always start with one step and that is what I was trying to tell myself today. 1130 kilometers ahead of us is a long way to the pole and starting out into a windstorm that was snow blasting us from the start.  We pulled on our hoods, strapped on our goggles, kept our heads down but none of that could soften the sting of our freezing faces, but even with that said the temperature was still ok.  The crevasses were entertaining.  The larger ones were bridged quite well, but since we are not carrying a rope we have to be very cautious.   We probed with our poles and the big ones seemed to be solid but the narrow ones were only about three to four feet wide and not so solid as you would probe through, a deep hole would open to the hallows of the glacier.  It was one of those weak bridges that Ray’s sled slipped into, it was a tense moment and I can remember looking over there seeing Ray being pulled backwards from the weight of the sled and desperately trying not to be dragged in.  Scary.  In the end Antarctica is throwing what we expected, we received a good taste of her power today, a power that demands respect.  Beautiful, magical are words that continue to come to the forefront of my thoughts.  We are a million miles from everyone else, and loving it out here.

Song of the day:  Bob Dylan’s – Hurricane – very apt song for what we faced today