Category: South Pole

polar explorer ben weber in Antarctic tent

Day 19 Deafening wind, 20km day and music debate

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

Strange beginnings, deafening roar 20km and the Killers as music debate of the day and live opening of Advent Calendar on audio diary!

Another day and another 20km done! It was a good but, as always, tiring day though the conditions were good. Clear sky with a stiff head wind. I had to adjust my course to head more SSW as ALE have left my medical resupply at S82 00.11 W080 35.09, so anyone looking at progress on the map will see how I changed direction today.

But that’s not the strange part… as I was getting ready in the morning, it was pretty windy and there’s that normal sound. The tent flapping, the howling of the wind over the snow and ice. All normal. Suddenly though there was this quickly increasing roar, getting louder and coming towards the tent. It passed like a jet fighter, so quickly and it was gone. Rolled away. The ice literally shifted as the wave hit. Very bizarre and a bit disconcerting! Maybe there was some shear of ice somewhere – I know how vibrations can travel hundreds of miles through the ice. Maybe it was a katabatic wind or something. I have no idea! Nothing like that has happened since.

But aside from that the day was pretty much uneventful! The winds have died down now. The sun is out so the tent is like a greenhouse again – can’t complain! Going to open the advent calendar after I have eaten – will open it live on my audio post to the map! Haha! As Eden said in a comment on Facebook, chocolate and alcohol… always good! Difficult to control myself and not eat them all at the same time!

West hills by the killers – debate

Music of the day that was in my head: West Hills by the Killers. Brilliant song on a brilliant album. Very different from their other albums. Especially the more recent ones which had me and several others going off them as they were… I dunno… too pop. Would go to see The Killers in concert just for songs from the album but West Hills is brilliant. Nothing formulaic about it or indeed the entire album. Each has song a connected story with various motifs spanning through these stories. Definitely worth it.

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View out to Antarctic ice from tent blue sky and snow

Day 18 Beautiful day, 20.5km and warm tent!

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

Such a lovely day today! Okay a little wind at the start but nothing too strong. Very clear and sunny – sun always to my back of course. Progress continues, with another 20.5km… a little less than yesterday, but good all the same. Not sure in kilometres how much I have done in total though the GPS says 123 nautical miles (very roughly converted that’s about 220km, but you’d have to check that!!). Most important now is that I am at S81 43’ which means I have 497 more nautical miles to go..! (Yay?!) It’s strange, while I am tracking with my watch in kilometres, nautical miles just seem to make so much more sense here. But I think my mind is just wandering too much!

Anyway, I was saying… not as good as yesterday…

sastrugi

While it was a beautiful day today, the sastrugi fields were about with a vengeance. The sastrugi are formed by the wind and in a constant process of creation and destruction. Quite interesting really and much more complicated than I know it could explain! When new snow falls, this all gets pushed around by the wind, and new formations. With continued wind and spin drift driving across the snow, the newer and softer formations are more susceptible to change, either by the wind itself or spin drift particles driving into the snow piles. The new sastrugi form and harden as the wind compacts them. So you can actually use sastrugi for navigational purposes as their patterns will be in alignment with the prevailing wind.  The problem here where I am now is that we are getting southwesterlies and south easterlies. Add new snow into the mix so the sastrugi are forming everywhere with no real pattern. They are also big! So yeah despite Sir Sledmund’s diet, it is still tough to pull him through and over there! I was just glad there was good visibility today otherwise it would have been a complete nightmare!

There was also a lot uphill skiing at the same time, just to add to the equation!

warm tent!

But at least it’s nice and warm in the tent. It’s too hot to get into the sleeping bag even!! I do need to get some sleep though. Ah well!

For this journey I have my playlists and audio books though it’s strange: I hardly listen to anything while am skiing. Not sure why. I like the sound of the wind and I end up humming and singing various songs as I go. Today I had “oh what a night” in my head (forget the artist!); “sorrow”, Pink Floyd; the tune from the London Marathon and the music from Jurassic Park… quite eclectic! Keeps me entertained though!

G’ night!

Photo – a view from my door! Not really very different from other days!

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Ben Weber polar explorer Antarctica

Day 17 Great Progress South in 24hr Daylight

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

I really am not entirely sure what day am on! I think day 17 of the expedition. There again it might be 18 Time is blurring and, with there being no “night”, all the days just merge together.

On this subject of time. It really is what we make it to be here in Antarctica. I decided on my rest day yesterday to go to bed early and get up at 6am instead of at 8am. In terms of light, there’s hardly any difference. It all seems the same (the sun will just be just a little lower in the sky). The main reason is that my call with ALE is always at 8pm. I prefer to be in the tent when I call them rather than exposed and in the open. I would be cooling down way to quickly!

daily routine

Another record distance on the skis. Once I do get out of my sleeping bag, I generally take around two hours (or longer if windy or if am feeling particularly lazy) to have breakfast and get everything packed and into the sled. In a normal 8hr ski day, leaving at 10.30 would just about give me enough time to ski, setup my tent and call in, but if I wanted to extend to say 9 hours of skiing, then it’s pushing it a bit. Today, leaving at 8.30am and I was able to ski for nine hours with no worries, and now go to bed nice and early. Why stay up late..?!

And it was a good nine hours. It was a complete whiteout for seven of them. So again it was just skiing through a white void. Have you seen The Matrix? It’s like the construct for the matrix, when Neo says “guns… lots of guns”! Only definitely no guns. Or anything else of note really. Aside from sastrugi that seems to take pleasure out of tripping people up and slowing them down! But then again, while it’s nice seeing where am going on cloudless days, and being able to avoid those sastrugi traps… now there’s nothing to see in any direction anyway so am not really missing much!

record distance

But yes, it was a good nine hours: it was my longest day in terms of time travelled and despite the neck issues, I felt pretty good. Also, managed to get my best distance in: 21.25km, so very happy with that! There’s still a lot of weight (food!) in the sled that will be eaten away slowly but surely. So managing this distance and travel time now gives me cause for hope. Lots of doubts have come into my mind over the last couple of weeks since the neck pain started, but I might just manage this. Onwards and southwards!

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Ben Weber with advent calendar in tent in Antarctica

Day 16 Stormy Rest Day and Advent Calendar!

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

The strong winds from yesterday increased over night. The clear blue skies were replaced by dense cloud and heavy snow. Not nice conditions so with the neck “problem”, I decided to stay put today. Doing exercises, trying to massage it, using the hot Nalgene bottles on the muscles, and reviewing medical stocks….

I have spoken with the ALE team and we are going to organise a medical resupply. I wanted to do this journey without being resupplied. But I didn’t anticipate this injury and it taking so long to recover. I don’t think anyone could have really. While yes, you get shoulder pains from the harness, it is unusual for such issues to continue for so long. It’s a shame, but it’s much better than any of the alternatives. They have confirmed that it is possible so it’s just a matter of working out the logistics of it all.

I was starting to feel a bit down thinking about going through this journey with that constant pain. So, making it even harder than it already is. The idea that I can get more meds is a definite positive. That in turn has reinforced the belief that I will be able to make it to the Pole.

chocholate liquer advent calendar!

On another positive… 1 December! So, one of the perks to help with the journey, out came my advent calendar!! I got a chocolate liquor calendar and the first day was Famous Grouse… nice! Almost Christmas!

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Steaming feet in tent Antarctica expedition

Day 15 Onwards, southwards and a 20km day!

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

Putting the pain aside, today was pretty decent. Windy: strong south westerlies so pretty much going into my face. After the first hour of blanket cloud cover it became perfectly clear. The first hour was spent thinking… is it really going to clear? No whiteout today? Really?!?! So it was nice when it cleared up.

I am not a fan of strong winds. Especially headwinds. However it is good when it’s clear (within reason!!) as you can see the spindrift blowing across the surface of the snow. Nice for navigating together with your shadow and compass. So, 20km in these conditions, and it feels like close to half way through the 81st degree already after the labour of 80 degrees south!

steamy feet

I was a bit sweaty by the time I camped though, which isn’t good. I need to be careful with this. If clothes get wet because of sweat then you get colder quicker once you stop moving. In the mantra of my polar instructors: if you sweat, you die! At least when the sun is out here it’s warmer in the tent, which helps dry things out afterwards, but still.

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Antarctic explorer on Antarctic ice

Day 14 Another whiteout and Cottage Pie for diner

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

18km

It started off okay, with stiff winds and a bit cloudy. However within an hour, the Antarctic clouds descended and it was just skiing through a whiteout from then on. Tough but okay progress, another 18km down.  Unfortunately though… and I am so sorry to come back to this… the pain in my neck and shoulders is becoming… well, a pain in the neck! (Again am sorry if I made that joke before… I probably have but ah well, I’m all by myself so you’ll have to forgive me!!) It’s all a bit demoralising. While I try to tolerate it and put up with it, it’s just hard having to be careful with everything I do lest I cause a spasm of pain to ripple through me. Tiring!

cottage pie for diner

So, a short post today. Have just eaten and taken a painkiller which has helped a little. A nice cottage pie for dinner! Just need to sort out the bedding and will try get some sleep. Sounds like the wind is picking up and it’s snowing again, just to make tomorrow even tougher! I am sure looking down at my compass which is on a harness mount in front of me isn’t helping the neck! Also, in whiteouts really need to pay attention to the tips of the skis, in case coming up to any sastrugi or other obstacles that only become visible when you hit them!

wind tapes on ski poles

In today’s image the wind tapes on ben’s ski poles are blowing horizontal giving an indication of Antarctic wind strength.

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Sled and ski poles in the Antarctic snow

Day 13 81 degrees South and a record 20km day.

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

A hard but rewarding day. This is really a nice landmark to reach! I started off at S80 degrees, and had been slow and literally tortured progress. Sometimes it has just been so hard and undermining the confidence with the pain and the enforced rest days. The neck pain remains with the number of painkillers left in the kit going down quite a lot! I had to take one tonight; would have liked to have taken two but have to ration myself. But anyway, back to the point… the landmark! Feels really great to make it this far. I have to travel 10 degrees in total, so there is plenty more to do. The first degree is so hard with all the climbing up from sea level and avoiding all the crevasse fields. It was good to do it today with another personal record and a daily distance of 20km travelled! Super happy with that. Hopefully will be able to really start speeding up over the next degrees and get those miles in.

Today started off well. I did more than 3km in the first hour but then it clouded over and it seemed to get steeper. It was hard to see all the fresh snow patches. I called the snow puddles yesterday but that doesn’t do them justice. Today it was more like snow swamp!! These conditions slowed everything down. In some of the patches I would sink down at least a foot into the snow even with the skis on. Then dragging the sled through that. Oh, and the patches were so deep they would often hide the hardened compact sastrugi beneath. I’d end up running into them, losing balance and taking the occasional tumble! Fun!

Sir sledmond hillary

A word about Sir Sledmund Hillary the Sled! A sturdy steed! He’s 210cm long and around 50cm wide in the middle and 40cm deep. As a result he has a lot of carrying capacity. Without anything in, he’s 9kg or so. At the start of this journey, including the weight of my daily water supplies (I melt snow every day for water) and gas, it was around 135kg. Sir Sledmond definitely needs to go on a diet! I guess around 13 days have gone so he’s probably lost around 17kg or so, which helps. The sled is designed to effectively float over the snow patches… which I guess it does, but it’s still tough!! Sledmund has been around the world already! Made by Icetrek in Australia, I picked him up in Svalbard. Of course, he came back with me to Scotland before flying over to Chile and now Antarctica. A well-travelled Sled! Hopefully we’ll make it to the Pole together… it’s a love hate relationship really. Sometimes I am cursing him and the way I have to really push myself to pull him over obstacles. However at the end of the day he’s a loyal Sled! Arise, Sir Sledmund!

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Ben Weber sleeping in tent in Antarctica

Day 12 Whiteouts, new sleeping attire and record 17.5km

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

Oh, wow today was hard!! Really hard! It started off with very strong winds to greet me as I had to pack up the tent, just to bid me good morning! It was bright at least at the start. This however soon changed as clouds sped overhead. Within an hour or so visibility deteriorated to a complete whiteout. I never tire of saying how strange it is in a whiteout! You know you are moving but it feels like you are staying in the same position! There is absolutely nothing to see to judge your movement…

Until you land right on top of a sastrugi that comes as a complete surprise as you can’t see them… they are all just white! There were plenty of sastrugi today, and the winds never did let up. There was also a lot of fresh snow, creating what I described to myself as “puddles of snow.” The wind blows the snow into hollows between sastrugi and other snow formation forming ‘puddles’. That makes life even harder. When you are skiing and pulling the sled over the hard compact snow, it glides okay and just bounces along. However when you get to these snow puddles and you sink into them. And there is no more glide! So, it’s harder to pull the sled! Exhausting stuff! Oh, and then my neck and shoulders. They just never seem to want to get better properly; painful throughout the day but as I say… just about tolerable! I think I am going to have to work out how to live with the pain for the expedition as there are only so many painkillers left in the medkit!

sleeping in 24 hr sunlight

So now have camped and about to eat and sleep. It’s quite hard to sleep here because of the 24 hours if sunlight. I cover my head with my hat. I also have an eye mask and a buff in which I have cut a hole for breathing. Otherwise it would just get wet from my breath. Looks quite funny really but it just about works. My air mattress as a puncture which for the life of me, I have been unable to find. Very annoying! So, I have to spend a few minutes filling that up as well each night. Oh well.

It’s snowing again meaning tomorrow is going to be hard as well. Never an easy or simple day here.

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sled in snow Antarctica with Three Sails Mountains in distance

Day 11 Storms, Sastrugi, Three Sails Mountains and stunning views!

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

14.5km/ 9miles

Last night… wow! That was a terrific storm. As expected, it reached its strongest from around 3-5am and it really was strong. Very happy with the tent – always felt very stable and no problems at all. I have doubled up the guy lines and the tent poles to increase its strength, and yup, all very steady in the midst of the tumult!

The winds did take some time to die down though. Normally I would start getting out my sleeping bag at around 7.30am but there was no point this morning as it was still way too bad. By midday they had eased a little; enough for me to start packing up but still they were strong enough to make life very hard putting the tent away! As I put all the bags into the sled the spindrift would get blown into my face making it hard to see, and into the sled, giving more unnecessary weight to it! By 1.15pm though I was ready to go.

The conditions from then on though continued to improve. Visibility was great so I could see all the sastrugi ahead of me and the winds calmed down further to, within a few hours, effectively just a gentle breeze. Still wind chill of -35C or so apparently though!! There was some uphill for the last few miles, but nothing very steep. The main concern, as it had been for the last week or so, was my neck. Definitely improving, though still uncomfortable. I still have to keep rotating and stretching it, and occasionally when I turn it to stretch I feel a wave of agony that forces an involuntary cry from my mouth… but it’s getting better. The worst is when I camp – maybe because am not moving it so much and it becomes stiffer. But fine… it’s tolerable!

Amazing views

The view from where I am camping tonight is incredible. I can see the mountains of the Horseshoe Valley and the Three Sails that I passed back in the distance… spectacular! I imagine this is the last night I will see them as I will get further away and there will only be flat white snow ahead of me and in every direction. The next mountains will be the Thiel Mountains in around 25 days… if all goes well. Until then… nothing!

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anarctic gales bow across snow and ice

Day 10 Wind like an express train

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

Nothing much happened today: just an Antarctic storm that started blowing up from around midnight last night. It was all so calm as I setup the tent yesterday evening but the storm warning I received from ALE Antarctic Logistics Expeditions was accurate and it was good that I tightened all the guys and made sure the tent was well pitched.

The winds have been terrific! While the sun has been out, giving a deceptive brightness and warmth to the tent, outside has been ferocious – difficult to really show in a static photograph. It has been like an express train passing the tent constantly at full speed. So, no progress. My mobility has been affected by my neck, and putting the tent up and down in winds like this would be hard even at full fitness, it would have been very hard in my current state. I understand several other teams here also took the day off today.

But at least, it has given more time for my neck to recover and this is a definite positive. I didn’t feel the need to take any painkillers today and while this has meant feeling uncomfortable and with very tight shoulders, I am starting to feel my mobility returning. Doing stretching exercises and massages in my neck in the tent is helping with this as well.

The winds are expected to reach their peak strength at around 3am, so hopefully will get at least half a day in tomorrow. Will be good (and essential!!) to get out again.

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Ben Weber relaxing in tent antarctica

Day 9 A slow and painful 10k

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

10k/6.2miles

But at least it is another Antarctic 10km done!! Today was always intended to be a shorter day considering the pains over the last few days. I wanted to see how I’d be able to get on with the neck and how the neck would react to more exertion. At the same time, I didn’t want to overdo it and hurt my muscles even more than they have been.

So, after speaking one more time with the doctor in the morning, I set out at around midday. Complete whiteout for the most part – low cloud meant that only very diffuse light was getting through making it hard to see the obstacles (sastrugi!!) in my path. Fortunately, the sastrugi seem to have eased somewhat; they are smaller than earlier and less prevalent, which is a relief. It still meant also navigating by the compass and using the wind. I am currently wanting to go south southeast and the wind is coming from the southwest, so just keeping the wind coming across from my right helps keep me with the right heading. The cloud also eased a bit towards the end of the day which helped a bit.

Progress was certainly slow. I had to stop every couple of hundred metres or so to try rotating my head around, up and left and down and right; repeat a few times and reverse. It did kind of help. It meant that by the time I did stop to camp at around 6pm I wasn’t in agony this time… which was a welcome relief. Still painful, just not quite as bad!

Storm on its way

So, I have had my evening call with the people at base. I need to come in further east as am quite near a crevasse field to my southwest, but am just about okay where I am. There is also meant to be a storm coming in over next couple of days, with winds getting up to around 100kph. Good test for the tent! And maybe a bit more time for the muscles to recover as it would be dangerous to ski in such conditions!

After note: And now, at 11pm, the sun is bright and high in the sky, making the tent feel so warm; like a greenhouse! Just the wind blowing though it’s easy to forget how it’s -20c outside at the moment!!

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cooking equipment inside expedition tent Antarctica Ben Weber

Day 8 Another tent day

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

It’s definitely frustrating. Another day in the tent. It’s difficult not to think of the time lost and the distance that would have liked to have covered today. The weather has been windy but nothing worse than normal. There has been pretty decent visibility. So, it would have been a good day for skiing. But, the most important is to feel better and allow the muscles time to recover. This is a long expedition and it makes no sense to ruin chances of success by hurting myself at the start and doing too much. This, specially considering the pain I was experiencing. Been sometime since felt something quite like that!

So today has just been spent listening to an audio book (Dune – loved the film, and it’s great listening to the book. Very glad I got it plus Dune Messiah and Children of Dune… and all the nine books of The Expanse series!!) and relaxing. Plus taking the medicines that have in my med kit; the anti inflammatories and pain killers, plus another medicine to protect against some of the negative effects of the ibuprofen. Am definitely feeling an improvement, though I am conscious that I felt this by the end of the other rest day. I will have to be careful when I get back on my skis again tomorrow as I don’t want this to keep repeating.

At least in the tent, with the sun shining outside 24h per day, it is generally quite warm and comfortable. I have also been able to use the solar panel inside the tent to recharge batteries. Plus again, limited food rations considering that not exerting myself!! (Difficult not to feel hungry though!) but still a nice big portion of porridge in the morning and chicken and rice for dinner. Yum!

As I say, in planning for this journey, it was anticipated that some days would have to be spent in the tent. Maybe not quite so soon, but that’s fine. I still have time in reserve. I will hopefully head out again tomorrow though will speak with the doctors and team at base first. If I do, I will try not to push myself too much and aggravate this further. Just ease myself back into it and make sure am comfortable before moving on to greater distances.

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expedition food in tant in antarctica

Day 7 Up on my skis again and again… not

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

15k/9.3miles

So, it was a mixed day today. 15km covered and I felt pretty decent after the rest day yesterday. The pain in neck had subsided; uncomfortable but not bad. Great conditions at the start with a gentle breeze and clear skies. Perfect! Up and all packed up and ready to go by around 10am.

The omnipresent sastrugi was there of course just as you can’t have life too easy here. Really is endless! And Sir Sledmund Hillary has a bit of an issue with them as it’s really hard to pull his bulk over them, and if the sled comes to a large sastrugi at the wrong angle, it basically gets stuck. I have to look for ways around or just use all my strength to get the sled over them.

Looking for ways around the sastrugi becomes harder in whiteouts when you literally cannot see the sastrugi until you are right on top of them. And by around 1pm it had all clouded over and was pretty much whiteout conditions. Fortunately, this seemed to coincide with an easing in the frequency of the sastrugi, but still… not easy.

The last couple of hours I started to feel the pain returning a bit to my neck. Not too bad, enough to continue. But by the time I did camp, when I stopped, the pain suddenly became quite excruciating again when I turned my head from left to right. Frustrating and painful to say the least.

I managed to setup the tent and everything alright, but it was a bit of a tortuous process, and called base camp for my daily scheduled call. Discussed with the expedition manager and the doctor there and we agreed that best taking another rest day and more meds. Most important is for this to get better then get more distance out of the way. I still have plenty of food and supplies so it should be alright. Just a bit of a pain the neck really! hehe!

So, had a nice beef hotpot tonight, some crackers, cookies and a hot chocolate. Time to get ready for bed! Have a good night!

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ben weber in tent antarctica expedition

Day 6 Rest Day

by alanpolar, posted in South Pole

Not something I wanted to take quite so quickly but it was needed as the pain in my neck was in all honesty, pretty bad. It hurt as I was skiing yesterday, and I needed to constantly stop to try and turn my head and stretch my shoulders a little to help alleviate the pain. Then after I lay down in the tent, just simple things like sitting back upright brought almost excruciating pain… it wasn’t nice. The painkillers, muscle relaxants and rest have all helped though: it’s been a few hours since I took anything and while there is discomfort, the pain isn’t anywhere near like it was.

I think it was a combination of the extreme weight of the sled, over exertion and, worse than either of these, my harness not being adjusted correctly (entirely my fault, I should have adjusted earlier). The shoulder straps were too tight and the waist strap too loose so much of the sled’s 135kg in weight was being transferred into my shoulders and neck. Hopefully the adjustments I have made today will help when I ski again tomorrow.

So today, just eating away with my rest day rations – only around 3000kcal for days like this. A slightly smaller breakfast, and fewer snacks of chocolates, nuts, dried fruit, cheese, meat, and protein and energy bars during the day, enough to keep me going, but tomorrow back to my full 6300kcal intake – more of the same just in larger quantities! I also noticed that my one of my cheeks got a little burned as had been exposed to the elements through all the gear, so put some taping on my face—more pre-emptive than anything—to help prevent any reoccurrence. So not an entirely unproductive day.

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