Hollinger in Antarctica

I’m writing this update listening to the wind whistling past the tent. As a look out of the small window I can’t see another tent which is little more than 100 metres away. The wind is swirling at the door and every so often we get up and shovel snow to allow us in and out. After 30 days out on the ice, we are back in Patriot Hills and have had our first real food that is not dehydrated (it’s only a one off at the moment to welcome us back)! We were due to leave Antarctica yesterday but as I have come to learn over the past 5 weeks, nothing here is certain and as I mentioned in yesterdays blog the plane can’t land in bad weather. The current prediction is for better weather on Thursday so we have been (and will be) looking for ways to entertain ourselves. I was hoping to do more science but the weather has prevented that. Instead, last night we earned our dinner by giving a presentation about our expedition to other clients at Patriot Hills. It was really well received (both the presentation and the real food!). Today we have occupied ourselves with the game Balderdash, a lecture about Scuba Diving in Antarctica and Die Hard 4 on a rather small laptop screen! Now it is a question of waiting and keep our fingers crossed we will be home for Xmas! Many thanks to Susan, Tina, Beth, Emma, Sam and the CASTMAS Team for your messages. I look forward to having a look at your website when it is ready and I hope to be able to answer your many questions tomorrow. Happy birthday today to Naima 13CH, Levi 10DN and Toni-Jo 7ZN.

After a tiring few days it is great to catch up with some of your emails and questions. Patriot Hills is a permanent base in so far that there are people here all year round. However there are no permanent buildings and everybody sleeps in tents. There are a couple of communal tents for meeting and eating in. While we are here we are still using our own tents and we remain self contained. The air strip where the Ilyushin Jet lands is created naturally by the high winds that blow snow off the ice leaving a natural blue ice runway! The Ilyushin Jet takes off from Punta Arenas in Chile on a standard concrete/asphalt runway and using wheels (not skis) but then when it comes to landing here it needs almost perfect conditions to land. Unfortunately the wind that keeps the runway free of snow will also blow the plane off the runway and if the visibility is not good the pilots are unable to distinguish between land and sky. There is no air traffic control to guide the pilots and there are no indicators to show where the runway starts/ends or what direction they should land in. Fortunately, the Russian pilot and crew are experienced in landing on snow and ice. The ice runway is almost 3 KM long and in order to stop the plane the pilots shift two of the four engines into reverse and use their anti-lock brakes. Happy birthday today to Michael 12NB, Aalia 11GD, Anisah 11DV, Antony 11JI and Georgia 10PJ

Yesterday evening we set up camp knowing that it would be very brief. The fine weather and continuous daylight giving us the opportunity to reach Patriot Hills before the unpredictable Antarctic weather changed again, perhaps trapping us for yet another day on the Glacier. We ate and drank as much as we could and bedded down for about two and a half hours before striking camp and setting off towards the still-distant line of Patriot Hills at about 11.50 (just before midnight). This time we walked in Mukluks, rather than using the skis on our sore and blistered feet. Of course the weather did deteriorate. A phenomenon of low contrast – sometimes described as being in the inside of a ping-pong ball – causes difficulties seeing any features on the glacier. Heaving heavy pulks over sastrugi that you can’t see until you fall over them is a pain. However, we had the incentive of the end of our journey and pushed on through the night, leading in turn through the murk, until at last we got our first clear view of Patriot Hills camp when we were about 5 km away. Eventually, we all walked into camp at about 5.00 am. We had dragged the laden pulks over 32 km in 17 hours (including our break for food and sleep). We all now have an enormous sense of achievement and relief. In spite of fearing that weather and terrain would not allow us to do it, we did indeed walk all the way back to the base.

After lots of hot drinks, we all caught up on a few hours sleep and then started working away packing up the gear that will need to be flown back to Punta Arenas. We have also been weighed by Phil for his project and we have nearly all lost some weight. We are now trying hard to put it back on as we will spend the next few hours catching up on more sleep and eating! Tonight the staff of A.L.E. at Patriot Hills have asked us to tell them all about our expedition, so preparing that will be our next job. In some ways this marks the end of the main part of our expedition but there is still a huge amount to do – and some time to go before we will make it back to the UK. I will try to carry out some further research on the blue ice near Patriot Hills tomorrow. Our scheduled departure from Patriot Hills back to Chille is tomorrow however the poor weather is unlikely to allow this. Carl has just pointed out that this could be our home for the next ten days as we wait for a weather window to enable the plane to fly in. Right now we are all dreaming of a proper wash and the flight home. Let’s hope that the weather is good to us!

To answer your question Neill – Yes we melt the snow for cooking and all our drinking water. Happy Birthday to Elizabeth 13CO and Robert 11DV.

Todays update is hopfully going to answer some of your questions. First of all some of you have been asking about the pulks we are pulling - here is a photo of our train of pulks that we have been hauling around carrying all our equipment, food and poo for the last few weeks! A few people have asked me how I have been coping with 24hour daylight – well it takes a bit of getting used to. If you just put your head inside your sleeping bag and cover your face then you wake up in the morning with a wet sleeping bag where your breath has condensed. The number of hours sleep I get per night varies greatly, depending on temperature, how tired I am, what the weather is like and Amy’s snoring! On the day I did the phone link up with Tapton and Ballyclare High Schools I ate dinner at midnight (as we had moved camp very late due to a weather window) went to bed about 2am only to get up at 6am to take the phone call from Ballyclare High School! If the weather is bad and we can’t do either science work or man hauling then it is a good opportunity to catch up on sleep. The lowest temperature I have recorded in the tent is -15 and I didn’t get a great nights sleep! Finally, Amy said that if her snoring got too bad just to give her a nudge and that seems to work!

Thanks to Michelle, Jen, Bob, Carol and Sue for their messages. Bob – the power shower would win every time. Carol – I think you would enjoy ‘The call of the wild’ - one of the books I have read while in Antarctica, given the lecture you attended. I will lend it to you in the new year if you remind me. I haven’t hallucinated yet – except I keep thinking I see a bird or animal in the distance but since the nearest animals are about 500 miles away that is probably quite unlikely and it must just be a cloud. Well done to all the Totley crew who did the Percy Pud – I heard the weather wasn’t great (I can sympathise!). Good luck to all the Tapton Staff who are currently in full flow of rehearsals, perhaps there are some hidden talents waiting to be uncovered! Good luck to all those who are starting to put up their Xmas decorations. Happy birthday to Emily 13SP, Sebastian 11CR, Holly 11CR and Jessica 10JH.

How many steps do you take in 5 hours of man hauling and 15.4kms? I calculated that I take about four steps, or ‘swooshs’ of my skis per metre so that works out that I have taken 61,600 steps in the Horseshoe Valley today. It’s amazing what mindless sums your brain does as you walk in the vast white landscape. I walk along in my own little world. My hood is up, my goggles and face mask are on and I can drift off thinking about anything I want. Today it was food, a shower, how much longer, how much further, what would I buy for Xmas presents, what meal am I most looking forward to when I get back, how are my Y10s behaving themselves in 211 at the moment, how are my Y13s and can they remember what a nunatak is? The only break from my dream world was when I had the occasional check over my shoulder to make sure there was someone behind me, or when I stumbled into the pulk of the person in front. On a couple of occasions Carl said “Ruth!”, I said “What?” and he said “We are walking across Antarctica” and it was then that I had to ask myself which is the reality – home or Antarctica? It sometimes feels like I’m living in a dream here. There were some great displays of facial frosting today but I kept my face well and truly covered up thanks to Carolyn’s Darth Vadar mask. The UV light triggers the virus responsible for cold sores and both my lips are badly blistered and painful. The 15.4kms we covered was a massive distance for virgin Antarctic explorers, especially given the weight we are pulling behind us and we are 15.4 kms closer to Patriot Hills where we will fly from (weather permitting) in four days.  Happy birthday to Edith 13CM, Amelia 13MF, Kathryn 13CM, Ashton 12KH, Sophie 12RK, Emma 9RD and James 8BE

After the last few days of utterly exhausting physical effort, today was a real pleasure. Not what most people would call a rest but a wonderful lightening of the burden after our multi-stage 500+ metre pull up a 30 degree slope (or worse!). Today we set off in a relaxed fashion from our high camp at around 11.00 am Chilean time and before long reaching the lip of the pass that drops down onto the top of the Horseshoe glacier. This glacier is an enormous plain of snow and ice covering thousands of square kilometres and is ringed by splendid mountains. In the distance we can see Patriot Hills but its’ apparent closeness is an illusion. It is 60 kilometres away. Antarctic distances are notoriously difficult to judge. The crystal clear air means that from a high vantage point you can readily see to the horizon and perhaps as far as 200 kilometres. With no human objects or growing things (Houses, people, trees etc) there is nothing to give you perspective. We had to lower our pulks on a rope for the first few metres and then we were able to toboggan a considerable distance before we had to start pulling. The whole journey today has been flat or downhill all the way so pulling the pulks has been easy and quite enjoyable. On three or four occasions we were able to give the pulk a push and jump on for a free ride! This was not always without problems as on one steep slope, the famous poo sledge (loosely fastened to the back of Ian’s pulk) overtook him and wiped him out. I’m happy to say that the contents of both sledge and pulk remained firmly secured in their respective containers!

So we walked at a comfortable pace through this extraordinary and beautiful landscape with almost no wind and glorious sunshine. The minus 17 that Phil recorded this morning was a mere minus 5 when we stopped to camp here at about 5.30 pm. A true Antarctic summer! So we had walked with only one pause for over six hours and we still counted it a rest after the previous few days. The one pause was because I had dropped my camera. As you can imagine  have taken so many photographs of this amazing experience in this amazing place so there was a moment of panic before I remembered where I had last used it and I hurried back and found it (phew!). Our aim on this long haul was originally to walk all the way back to Patriot Hills but the climb out of Connell Canyon means that this is now very unlikely. We may have to call in the cavalry. (Stand by for the story). Happy birthday today to Olivia 8JM and Thomas 8GO.

We have just had an extremely gruelling 48 hours hauling our 6 sledges and our poo sledge up to the top of the mountain pass. The view from our tents (photo posted yesterday) has to be one of the most spectacular in the world. We are 1,562m high with views across a mountain range onto the polar plateau. It is almost worth the effort it took to get us up here! We must have 4-500 kilos of kit that we have hauled to a point higher than Ben Nevis. Over the last two days we have dragged heavy sledges uphill for about 9 hours. Most sledges have involved at least 3 people pulling one sledge and some have involved all 6 of us. I can’t think how many times we have been up and down this mountain! Our bodies have taken an absolute battering. At some points our strides were just 10cm as we inched our way up, clinging on to each centimetre with our crampons. Last night we got to the top at about 11pm. We were all exhausted but as soon as we stopped our sweat froze making it was freezing cold. We then had to pitch tents at a bitterly cold -20 degrees. Believe me at that stage it was the last thing I wanted to do! We were all covered with frost with frozen hair (see photo) and barely functioning hands. Amy and I could hardly think and we kept putting the poles into the wrong places. Part of pitching our tents is to cover the side valances with snow to ‘dig them in’ in order to keep the tents secure in the wind. Digging snow up here on this pass was like digging concrete. It was brutal. After a 6 hour uphill haul with no dinner it was a real test to get our tent safely dug in. I’m feeling really proud of what we’ve achieved as a team over the last few days. It has been a huge feat to haul everything out of the canyon. To start with we didn’t think it was going to be possible, it really shows what can happen when you have 6 people who aren’t going to give up! Our guides were great motivational sources and Carolyn was on a personal mission with our poo sledge, dragging it up the mountain single handed. It was an inspiration to all of us! It was after midnight when we finally had dinner and didn’t get to bed at 2.30am as we were scraping ice from our boots and defrosting our clothes. We will now be heading down into Horseshoe Vally and then hauling ourselves and our Pulks back to Patriot Hills.

It was fantastic to speak to staff and students at Ballyclare High School as well as those at Tapton. While we have been here the only contact we have had is via the emails people have been sending. It is lovely getting emails from people but it is even nicer to hear voices on the other end of the line. Well done to all the excellent questions you asked me over the phone. I hope you will have even more to ask me in 2008! Ballyclare High School - unfortunately the line wasn’t as clear as hoped but I hope you enjoyed talking to an ex pupil over 20,000 miles away! Thanks for the emailed questions from Joel, George, Elliot, Jessica, Marcus and Tom. The coldest temperature we have experienced (if you include wind chill) is -60 degrees (pretty cold!). We are currently about 600 miles from the coast. It is so cold that nothing survives here so we haven’t met any animals. All the animals in Antarctica live at the coast. The highest peak in Antarctica is Mt Vinson which is 4,948m high. George – I am not sure how penguins can jump! The warmest outside temperature we have experienced is 2 degrees, although fortunately it has been warmer in the tent – probably stretching to a hot 20 degrees when we have had the stove on to melt snow for cooking! Since we have been in Antarctica it has snowed on about 3 days but it is much too cold for rain. I have taken lots of pictures and will show you lots more when I get back. Happy birthday to Thomas 13MF and Ben 12PW. Also, congratulations to Mr Rippon on the birth of his baby daughter.  

After two really hard days hauling the pulks up to the col it was fantastic today to be able to speak to the Y7’s in Miss Smith’s Science lesson at Tapton school. The phone connection was perfect with virtually no delay which is amazing when you realise how far away I am! This made it pretty easy to have a conversation. The questions varied from Josi Neath asking me ‘How many cryoconite holes have I found and how do I know where to look?’ to Giovanni Lanera asking ‘How are the toilet facilities and why do we not have to bring urine back with us?’. Some of the other questions I was asked were: Sarah Dowdeswell – ‘How deep are the cryoconite holes and what do I do with the holes when I find them?’, Charlotte Pearson – ‘What do the lichens look like?’, Ben Hartley ‘What is the best thing about my trip so far?’ and Rhiannon Hume – ‘Do I think that lots of people should go to Antarctica or should it be left alone and kept as it is?’. Thanks to all of you who asked me such excellent questions. I understand you were interviewed afterwards by some journalists from the University of Sheffield so I hope that went well.  

Not only did I get to speak to the lesson but Peter Fuchs, Steve Bull and Teachers’ TV went to Tapton and took part in the lesson. The class tried on the clothing – boots, coats, gloves, hats etc and which hopfully gave everybody a good understanding of how many layers we are wearing and just how cold it is here as you baked in the classroom! They also all tasted my favourite food – the Sweet & Sour Chicken (I hope you liked it!) and had a look at a tent and sleeping bag similar to the ones I am using. Thanks to those of you who stayed on to ask more questions and to Alex Grech, Philip Beck and Marco Wood-Bonelli who had an interview with Teachers TV at the end of the lesson. Over the next couple of lessons the class will be analysing the weather data so far and creating human-sized bar charts of wind speed and temperature. These will then go up in the school for everyone to see. Happy birthday today to Danny 9RJ and Edward 7KA.

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.

I was surrounded by palm trees and the sun was shining but for some reason I was very cold. Then, as I awoke I realised I had been dreaming and the reason I was cold was that it was cold! I checked the thermometer on my watch and it read minus 12 inside the tent at 6am! What a pleasant way to start December I thought. I needed the loo but couldn’t face going outside and the wind was howling around our tent. I could see where snow had managed to find its way inside, through small cracks in our snow wall barricade. I had little option but to reach for my pee bottle. This is perhaps my biggest dislike about Antarctica – being female you either pee into a bottle or go outside in minus 30 and get a very cold bottom. My pee bottle is probably my favourite piece of kit! Regardless of needing the loo, I would have to get out and dig our tent in again to stop the snow problem worsening. I began the morning by brushing the snow off the inside of the tent before donning my thermals, fleece trousers, fleece, windsuit, hat, gloves, mitts and goggles and setting off outside, armed with a snow shovel. I paused and took in the view – despite the cold it’s not a bad view to start December I thought. Once our protective wall was reconstructed I got back into the relative warmth of the tent. As the wind continued to howl it was clear that we would do relatively little today. We had a large snow slope to scale to get us out of the canyon but it was too much to undertake in such strong winds. By mid afternoon the wind had eased and Carl, Carolyn and Phil moved a pulk and 50kg of poo further up the valley while I wrote my diary and drank a cup a soup. Later, at around 5.30pm we packed the pulks and moved our camp 2kms further up the valley to the foot of the slope we would scale tomorrow – weather permitting. It’s going to be a tough haul but I’m sure we can make it.

Thanks to Katie and Bob for their messages and I am glad you a re enjoying the updates. I sometimes feel under a bit of time pressure to get them done as we have limited time on the laptop as it’s only fair that each teacher has their turn (basically that’s an excuse if my spelling is a bit poor – I have had to type in a rush!). Thanks to Sylvan for your questions. Antarctica is a big place – about 64 times the size of the UK so there are different times and time zones depending on where you are. I have mentioned in yesterdays blog entry about the times we are using but basically the sun is highest in the sky (at midday) which is 5 hours and 20 minutes later than the UK. I don’t really notice it, as we have 24 hours of daylight anyway so one day seems to blend into the next. The moon is sometimes visible – right throughout the day if there are no clouds – and it appears to follow the path of the sun. I suppose that it may seem strange as we usually associate the moon with night time. At the South Pole the time can be anything you want it to be! There is a large American research base there now so the Americans working there are using US time to make it easier if they are contacting their colleagues back in America. I hope that answered your questions. Happy birthday to Laylah 12BK, Harry 12HB, Georgina 12RK and Angelina 8NM