Hollinger in Antarctica

The last 24 hours have been incredibly tough, possibly the hardest 24 hours of the expedition so far. First there was sleep deprivation from the storm last night and then the haul from hell for the human huskies today. The storm last night really got going in the early hours of the morning. By 6.30am the noise was incredible and it was snowing gently in the tent. The noise comes from the wind whistling through nearby mountain passes and then from the shaking and rattling of the tent. Every camp we get to we build a snow wall about ten metres upwind of the tents that stands about half the height of the tent; my measurements with an anemometer suggest that it lowers wind speeds by 10mph, making tent collapse less likely, but that it increases turbulence making the noise greater (if any physics students can suggest superior heights and distances from the tent in winds averaging 30mph then I’m keen to hear them!). The snowing in the tent is due to our breath freezing onto the inner of the tent and then being knocked off by the gusts. So after some sleep deprivation (which was one of the tests during the selection process) we headed out towards the pass that ‘is not too steep and has no crevasses’ (informed source who works for ALE) with two heavy sledges full of non-essential items. Our plan was to depot the sledges then head back to camp, pack up and get all the remaining sledges up by early evening. After 3 hours of thigh burning, stomach churning, lung expanding work we had got one sledge to the top and the other to half way up. Another hour and a half later and both were at the top. We had climbed 500m from our overnight stop to a height of 1562m (Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles is about 1300m) and in the last two days we’ve gained 700m in altitude (the height you gain as you walk up Helvellyn in the Lake District). And all of it with heavy, heavy pulks on our back. The whole way up was very, very steep and our route crossed many crevasses, one of which temporarily swallowed Amy’s foot and calf; so much for our informed source’s prediction! The photo above is of Phil (one of the other teachers) at the top of the pass looking happy that it is all over!

We had left camp at 13.30 (we had waited for the winds to subside before setting out), we returned at 19.00 and decided that no more sledges will move tonight, instead we will do a lot of eating! Over the next day or so we will move the remaining pulks up to the pass and then decide what to do from there; it is very unlikely that we will be able to haul all the way back to Patriot Hills as time is against us. Due to the extreme effort required to get up to this pass and the fact that it could well take us two days to move the remaining four sledges up we may not send a dispatch tomorrow. To carry all the gear we need to be safe and the 10kg of laptop and case may be too much. However, I am still hoping that I will be speaking to some of the Y7’s at Tapton tomorrow in a live link up via satellite phone. Happy birthday to Ibrahim 10DN, Gabrielle 9KR, Jake 9WO, Jake 9KK, Tegann 8IA and Eleanor 7TP.