Arctic Training Blog - Day 8

Day 8: 5th November

After a long arctic night sheltered in our tents everyone was eager to stretch our legs for the day. On foot we practiced dragging our pulks up and down hills across the tundra to replicate the effects of sea ice.

AJ & Henry

Joe

  

As we came down one hill someone at the back of the group fell. The alert was raised and we all rushed to help Joe with his sprained ankle. Quickly we worked to keep him warm and grabbed the first aid kit. It was only half way through that we realised this was a drill. The team leaders watched as we worked to shelter the group under the bothy. Once secure we all huddled together to discuss first aid in the Arctic environment. It was quite a test and a dramatic way to begin the day. We battled against a growing wind that afternoon, grateful to make camp that evening.

A cold day on the plateau!

Arctic Training Blog - Day 7

Day 7: 4th November

Today we took to skis for the first time! The day was overcast, but with extra snow during the night we were able to don our skis, hitch up to our pulks and head off for the day as proper polar explorers. It turns out there is quite an art to cross-country ski-ing whilst pulling a laden pulk. It was not something I had ever done before and going both up-hill and down-hill proved to be quite challenging. 

Pulling pulks up hill on skis.

Everyone managed a spectacular fall at some point or other during the day. Antony gave us lesson on how to turn on the spot, go up-hill and control our speed down-hill. It was hard work but we began to progress and were rewarded with a prolonged lunch break under the shelter of our lifesystems bothy – a giant dome of orange material everyone can huddle under in bad weather. Altogether a great day.

Pulk bags finally laden into our sledges.

Camp site huts - if only they were open for use!

Arctic Training Blog - Day 6

Day 6: 3rd November

A fantastic day for training. There was a rare break from the mist and rain and we were greeted with sunshine and fresh snow. We woke refreshed for a day of distance walking. 

 

 

Packing up the tent proved problematic as we found all the guy ropes and straps frozen solid. Trying to release them, whilst wearing giant gloves was challenging - a great test for Antarctic conditions. Finally we were underway and making a good pace across the plateau. 

Rest Stop on a Gorgeous Day

  

Sami Flag & Tent

 

We were greeted half way by our Norwegian guide. There was more snow on the trail ahead so we would be able to use our pulks. We trotted along in good spirits, taking time to look at the local herds of reindeer that were wandering across our path. The conditions were so good we arrived early at our camp site, in time to enjoy the scenery before dark.

Henry & Joe enjoy a well earned snack break

Is that Reindeer on the horizon?!

Arctic Training Blog - Day 5

Day 5: 2nd November

We woke to another spattering of snow, excited that we might finally have the opportunity to practice sledge, or rather ‘pulk’, pulling. We loaded our packs on the sledge before stepping into our harness – improvised from a day pack. We were able to practice pulling our sledges across the hummocky, often water-logged terrain of the plateau.

Geoff Somers adjusts the length of me trace.

Pulk Pulling:  The system we practiced with consisted of a plastic sledge, in which we placed our rucksacks, tied down by bungee cords.  A ‘trace’ or rope is then used to connect you to the sledge.  I used a single trace (so one attachment point) to connect me using a karabiner.  The harness we used was essentially a day pack with a rope attached.  It might sound simple, but it was actually a very effective system.  In the above picture Geoff Somers is adjusting my trace, making it shorter and so easier to pull the pulk over the uneven tundra. 

Ali and I practice pulling our sledges over the tundra.

Away we strode for a few hours pretending the hummocks we had to heave our sledges over were the sastrugi (snow ridges) of the Antarctic. It was a lesson in how to manoeuvre your pulk, anticipating how it moves and when it might roll.  Geoff's an old hand at pulk pulling and nimbly follows us as we try and navigate our way around boggy patchs and steep slopes.

Geoff pauses for a rare photograph by a local cairn.

The afternoon was strength training, pulling large farm tyres uphill in the cold to replicate the kind of weight we might have to drag when in Antarctica. After a few hours we were exhausted and happy to collapse back into our tent as it began to snow.

Arctic Training Blog - Day 4

Day 4: 1st November

South Pole Party: Bowers, Oates, Evans, Scott, Wilson (image from the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK)

100 years ago today Scott set out for the South Pole. I woke similarly excited to find myself in a tent and surrounded by a winter wonderland. It had snowed overnight! We enjoyed hot muesli snug in our tents before heading off. Our trial night out was a success. As we plodded out of camp in the snow we shared a thought for the excitement and anticipation Scott and his men must have felt as they headed off. 

Joe prepares breakfast in the comfort of the tent porch. Hot muesli - yum!

Packing up camp in the snow.

We quickly restocked at base camp for our main 6 day hike. As we set out, I wondered what it might feel like to set out in Scott’s time, knowing you had months (even years) to go before your return home. It’s a mental and physical challenge. We walked until the light began to fail and set up camp for the night, growing more confident in our expedition routine.

Morning snowfall at our camp site.

Arctic Training Blog - Day 3

Day 3: 31st October

Today was to be a trial run for our main trek. So we spent the morning discussing nutrition and preparing our food rations. Thousands of calories go into every expedition. I like the idea of being able to eat almost continually, but it sounds like you need every last calorie. Forming a breakfast production line, I was in charge of vacuum sealing pouches of muesli, milk powder and a good helping of sugar.

Bagging muesli for breakfast

Sealed muesli breakfast bags

Muesli pre and post vacuum packing!

Once prepared, we headed up onto the plateau, this time with tents and stoves. We found a local spot to camp and quickly set up the tent and started a fire. It soon fell dark and we broke out our dried rations for the first time. Enjoying a warm meal around the fire, discussing expedition life, was a great feeling. The day was topped off by a show of Northern Lights, green streaks dancing across the sky.

Walk up to the plateau

View across the plateau

View across the plateau

Camp Site!

Camp Fire!

Arctic Training Blog - Day 2

Day 2: 30th October

Training Base Camp, Gargia, Near Alta, northern Norway

Today’s focus – camp life! Carefully we dissected each part of a camp stove. We learnt how they worked, how they break and, most importantly, how to fix them. We took it in turns to light the stoves and cheered when each successfully burnt blue and fierce. 

 

Ali with the Primus stove

 

Henry with the MSR stove

Tents were next on the list. We were able to practice setting up those we would be using over the next few days whilst up on the plateau. We all had endless questions trying to understand the practicalities that make a successful expedition. Establishing a slick routine is clearly essential to the safety, efficiency, and comfort of a team. It’s something Scott and his men would have had to perfect in their journey to the pole and the obstacles we may face in Antarctica, 100 years later, are the same they would have experienced. It really brings home the unchanging challenge of polar exploration.

Tent set up and kindling ready for camp fire

Joe, Henry and Per-Thore enjoy the fire

Arctic Training 2011 - Daily Blogs - Day 1

Day 1: 29th October

Great excitement on arrival at the airport and seeing everyone again. We made it to Gargia, near Alta, late that night, to be welcomed by a hearty traditional Norwegian meal of Reindeer stew. We settled into the cabin that was to be our base camp and slept well in anticipation for the next day. We began early with a kit check, a critical component to any expedition. We had endless question on what to wear and when, to stay warm and dry, but we couldn’t resist the outdoors for long and headed p the mountain to stretch our legs. The walk was a great opportunity to take in the scenery (including local lemmings!) and begin to test our kit. It was already dark when we returned at 4pm! Over hot cups of tea we discussed communicating via satellite phone and waited eagerly for another great Norwegian feast and bed.

The ISCE Team (left to right)

Joe Woodward, Antony Jinman (expedition leader), Me, Henry Evans, Ali Negyal

Training Leaders

Geoff Somers: British Polar Explorer

Per-Thore Hansen: Norwegian Polar Explorer and host whilst in Norway.

 

Training in Arctic Norway

Only 1 day remaining before we head off to Norway for 10 days of Arctic winter snow survival training.  This time tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane over Norway heading for Alta in the far north.  Alta is located in the Finnmark region of Norway almost 70 degrees north and well within the Arctic Circle (66 degrees north).

Half the excitement of an expedition is in the anticipation and of course the packing.  I’ve been going through all my kit trying to figure out what will work best in that environment and if I have an excuse to buy anything new and fancy.  It’s just deciding what not to take that’s tricky!   I’ve kept up my training since the Half Marathon (sponsorship money is still coming in so thank you everyone!) so I hope I’ll be in good shape for the rigours of sledge pulling. 

The only bad thing is that I just can’t believe we are almost at the end of the selection process.  I was utterly thrilled to make the final four and I just don’t want the process to end.  However, a winner must be chosen and come the end of November we should all know one way or the other.  It’s been an amazing experience to date and I’m just going to focus on enjoying Norway for now.  I can’t wait!

Look out for blogs from the team – I think either on the ISCE website or with the Daily Telegraph.

Scott and Photography

Last week saw the opening of a new Antarctic Photography exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London.  The exhibit is showing images from both Robert Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition and Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.  Dr. David Wilson, Trustee to the ISCE and great nephew to Dr. Edward Wilson (best friend to Scott), was interviewed on BBC Breakfast News talking about the Terra Nova images, drawing on his unique connection to the men and the expedition.

Scott was actually the first to really draw upon the use of media and advertising to promote his expedition.  Scott approached numerous well known companies and brands, including Colman’s and Shell, asking for funds in return for promoting their products during the expedition.  This was the first real example of commercial sponsorship that today is so common place and often essential for expeditions to take place.  Similarly, he was the first expedition leader to take a photographer specifically to document the expedition in photography and film.  The man he chose was Herbert Ponting, who produced numerous iconic images from the Terra Nova expedition.  Many of these will be on display at the Queen’s Gallery.

What many people don’t realise is that Scott also took many of his own photographs from the expedition.  His skills as an amateur photographer and in the harsh environmental conditions of the Antarctic were actually quite remarkable.  David Wilson has recently released a book showing some of Scott’s pictures for the first time.  I have to say, I grabbed a copy and it really is a lovely book. 

Photography is an area that I’m interested in.  I don’t do as much as I used to unfortunately, but at school I loved black and white photography and producing my own black and white prints in the dark room.  I’d love to go to Antarctica and create some of my own images in black and white. 

Half Marathon

It’s been a while since my last blog but life seems to have been busy busy busy!  Last week I was able to give a school talk on the International Scott Centenary Expedition and the legacy of science that Scott left from Antarctica.  It’s great describing the science carried out by him and his team and the knowledge that work has provided to later generations living and working in Antarctica.  I love talking about the exciting new research coming from the continent, even if it’s not directly in my field of research.

Then of course the weekend was taken up by my Half Marathon!  I took part in the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon to try and raise sponsorship for the ISCE and of course to help drive my fitness training for the expedition.  The atmosphere in London was really great.  The race route takes you past some really great tourist sites: Big Ben and Westminster, the London Eye, the Royal Albert Hall, and of course much of Hyde Park.

 

I had great support from a number of friends cheering me on through the race.  It’s always interesting to see how your body and mind reacts throughout the course of a long race.  How you can motivate yourself to keep going, to run faster even, despite the fact that your body is hurting.  There was quite a head wind at times and it was really quite muggy at the start, but I must have been doing something right as I completed the course in under 2 hours!  Needless to say I was completely chuffed by the outcome.  Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who supported and sponsored me. 

Can’t wait for the next challenge.  Norway here I come!

Inspiring Education

Today I’ve been preparing a school talk on Captain Scott, the ISCE and Antarctic Science and it’s got me thinking about the role exploration can play in inspiring young children.  From my perspective, I guess I’m a prime candidate.  I learnt about Scott’s expedition when I was seven and I became hooked on the outdoors, expeditions and adventure and somewhere along the way that also transpired to a love of Polar Science.

The ISCE are working to promote Scott’s legacy of Polar Science and try and inspire young children to follow their dreams and ambitions, whatever they may be in life.  The organisation Education Through Expeditions is a fantastic not-for-profit company that was established by polar explorer Antony Jinman, with a similar ambition.  His work enables teachers to actually interact with explorers and polar scientists whilst they are away on expedition.  Children can send in their questions to explorers from the classroom and hear first hand what it’s like to be at the poles.  I think it’s a fantastic idea!  I know I certainly would have got a buzz from being able to interact in that way when I was at school.  Again it just amazes me how far technology has come and how incredible our capabilities are today.  If only Scott had had a satellite phone!

Scott's Antarctic First Aid

Phew!  Managed to pass first aid course today.  It made me think how Scott and his men would have had to deal with all of their injuries.  You see those images of their hands completely swollen and blistered by frost bite. I can’t imagine how painful that must have been.  On the return journey from the South Pole, Captain Oates suffered terrible frost bite in his feet.  He must have been in agony every single step.  I believe they had to cut open his sleeping back to help get his feet inside at night.

Snow blindness would also have been an issue and there wasn’t much they could do about it.  They didn’t have the protective sunglasses that we have today.  I think they were more like thick square frames that tried to block out light from the side.  Other things, that we don’t even consider today, such as scurvy, would have also affected the men.  Captain Scott took great care to test food rations.  He tried to devise the best combination of food for his men and account for the extra number of calories that they would need man-hauling in the cold.  Of course, at the time they didn’t realise that they would need even more calories to also account for walking at altitude across the Polar plateau.  It would seem that luck was not on their side.

Today we benefit from so much more scientific knowledge and the benefits of many years of trial and error.  However, much of this knowledge has been won as a direct result of early expeditions, such as Scott's.  This period of exploration was termed 'heroic' in recognition of the suffering that these early polar explorers endured in order to improve our understanding of polar food, equipment, travel and of course ploar science.

First Aid

This week I’ve been attending a First Aid at Work course.  I used to do a lot of first aid when I was a teenager and it’s been fun getting back into it.  Some of it has been quite familiar, some of it new.  Working in polar science, I’m lucky enough to do quite a lot of field work and that throws up countless opportunities for ‘things to go wrong’, requiring a lengthy risk assessment. 

This week I’ve been approaching the first aid course with thoughts of a trip to Antarctica - I hope!  Out on the ice with a small team an ambulance won’t arrive within minutes to rescue an injured party.  The team will have to make the best of any situation.  However, what’s amazed me about the course is how much you can do with just common sense, a clear head and the kit you have around you.  I hope I don’t have to put what I’ve learnt to the test, but I think at least I’ll have some skills that could definitely make a difference on an expedition if first aid was required.

The only time I’ve ever had any first aid ‘issues’ (fingers crossed) was when I was with a group trekking in Chile.  Our mountain leader, scouting ahead, looking for the best route forward, was swept some distance downstream by a river.  It took him ages to cross back to us and we had to treat him for hypothermia and a strained finger.  We all pulled together as a team though, setting up a fire, sleeping bag and bivi bag for him.  I remember we were all quite tense, but thankfully within 24 hours he was back to his normal self.  Luckily in Antarctica we shouldn’t be faced by any giant rivers, well…just giant rivers of ice! 

International Scott Centenary Expedition

In December 2010 I entered a competition to win a place on the International Scott Centenary Expedition (ISCE).  The ISCE is a registered charity working to commemorate the Centenary of Captain Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition (1910-13) to reach the South Pole.  I am currently working with the ISCE to support their vision of a centenary, marked as Scott and the Polar Party would have wanted: with polar science; with exploration; and with education for the public good. 

The ISCE has established a national education programme and international media outreach campaign to engage and educate the community at large about polar studies and the role Captain Scott’s expedition played in advancing polar science.  A key part of this programme will include an expedition to Antarctica in 2011-12, to visit the final resting place of Scott and his Polar Party, and hold a memorial service with relatives from the five families of the Terra Nova Expedition. 

I am now one of the final four candidates to be shortlisted for a place on this expedition.  I want to be part of a small team that will walk, man-hauling all our equipment and supplies, just as Scott did, to his last camp.  To be selected would be an amazing achievement and the best way in which I can pay tribute to the man and expedition that inspired me to where I am today.

 The charity needs your support to commemorate the legacy of Captain Scott’s contribution to polar exploration and science, the heroic endeavours of the Polar Party and the inspiration that provides.  Please, make a donation today!

Inspired by Scott

I first found out about Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition (1910-13) to Antarctica on a school trip to visit the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge.  I can only have been about seven years old, but I still remember peering into glass cabinets full of artefacts from the expedition and the final letters of Captain Robert Falcon Scott.  I was amazed by everything I saw, the feats of endurance that the men had to overcome and the vast icy continent that was Antarctica. 

This experience has stayed with me and as an adult, my curiosity for Scott and all things polar has continued to grow.  I feel I can empathise with the draw that Scott must have felt towards the Polar Regions. So, it is perhaps no small coincidence that this has led me to a career in polar science.

I want to use this blog to talk about all things related to Scott, Polar Exploration (both historic and modern) and Polar Science.  I also tweet @KatPolar.  I'd love to hear your coments!