Encourage Archives

Birthday Boy!

May 15, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

From Bengt: We started the day with a happy birthday song for Keith. Bridget made a fantastic birthday card that we all signed, which Keith got after the song.
Keith is the one who is documenting this trip and therefore is the one who always have to walk the longest in a day. He needs to be ahead, in the back, far away, and in the situation – all at the same time… a job that Keith does very well, we all look forward to seeing the result. We did 8 hours of walking yesterday, that gave us 20km. Some wind straight in our face, but realy nice surface. We are now almost at 1800m above sea. We even saw signs of life, two packs of geese. Camp is 52km from Dye2

Antarctic Heritage Trust

No Dogs in Sight

May 14, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

Antarctic Heritage Trust

From Bengt: At 0630 the wind settled down, and we quickly understood that we could move. We used a long time to dig out the tents, but finally could start moving.

In the second break, what we thought was a dog-team yesterday came skiing towards us.

It was an English team of six, which is also crossing the cap. No dogs there 🙂

We spent some time talking before we headed away on a slightly different course. In all we did 8 legs of 50min that gave is 17km – all good!

Hunkering Down

May 13, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

From Bengt: Approx. 0400 the wind came in and at 0600 when we normally start our morning it was quite clear that today would be a tent day. Wind has been stable right under 20 m/s with gusts way above. We have been outside only to do work on the camp.

Ousland Polar Exploration

Camping on the ice cap – Ousland Polar Exploration

Who’s in the Rearview?

May 12, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

Antarctic Heritage Trust

From Bengt: Another sunny day! We are truly lucky with the weather. Surface is gettin’ better and better and our routines is also getting there. We did 9 legs today, that gave us 19km. There is something behind us that moves, we think it is a dog-team, that is also crossing. Guess we find out today. All good here, cheers!

Update: Still beautiful weather. Routines while on the move are really good now. We’re like a train that steady moves towards DYE2. The terrain is flattening out, with some tiny hills here and there. We’re using the sun as the main indication for navigating.
Behind us we now and then can see another team, we think it’s two dog-teams. In the second last leg a goose flew past us. We built our camp for a stormy night since we know there is weather coming in tonight.

Bearing with Us

May 10, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

From Bridget: Today we started our journey from dog camp. A camp with no dogs or in fact any camp at all. A perfect white flat spot amongst 500 kms of flat white spots. We skied for two hours in a straight line before Bengt let us take over the navigation. A poor mistake; each of us had our own style of trying to stick to a bearing. Curving back and forth to a non descriptive point on the horizon. It was a day like no other where we skied for eight hours dragging a sled. Perfect weather though and some great conversations.

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Nansen’s Expedition Reaches Land

May 10, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

“I have no doubt there was a pretty general consensus of opinion among us that we had had pleasanter work in the course of our lives, but these opinions we kept each to himself.”

Having finally made it to land, Nansen and his team had to haul their sledge-loads up a steep and uneven gradient, which made dragging the sledges hard work. After three or so miles they set up their camp for the night (pictured below), and Nansen described the “pleasure almost divine” of having multiple cups of hot tea with condensed milk as they settled in to their sleeping bags after their first spell of sledge-hauling (we’re pretty sure the team will relate to this!).

Public domain

However, as the group were about to go to sleep they discovered that they had left their only piece of Gruyere cheese at the point where they had stopped for dinner. While they couldn’t stand the thought of leaving it behind, none of them were particularly keen on going back to retrieve it after the day they’d had, until as Nansen noted, Dietrichson volunteered, declaring ‘there was nothing he would like so much’, as it would give him a chance to take a walk before bed!

Dog Camp

May 9, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

From Bengt: It is a good feeling to have reached one of our goals. Today we came into Dog Camp. A place that looks like anywhere else here on ice, difference is that we have walked towards this point through the whole icefall. Our next goal is the old radar station DYE2 that is far into the ice.

We did 15.5km on 8 legs of 50 minutes yesterday. Cold and sunny weather.

The team - Bridget, Hollie, Brando, Keith

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Over the Bumps (for now)

May 9, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

Antarctic Heritage Trust

From Bengt: Beautiful and cold day! We are done with the bumps, now its more or less flat, but still going up. Sledges felt heavy in the beginning of the day, at the same time we had wind straight in our face. During the day it got warmer and warmer, with good sliding. Last leg before camp it was back to high friction and cold. We did 8 x 50min of walking, and are now one day away from Dog Camp 🙂

Mysterious Vehicles

May 8, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

Antarctic Heritage Trust

The team put their feet (skis) up and take a break.

From Nigel: Another day ascending the icefall. Good weather. Powder snow on blue ice and heavy pulkas made for challenging spots at times. Late in the day the terrain mellowed a bit. Nine hours on the skis with breaks. Bodies will take some time to adjust to the new routine. Weirdest thing – late at night we saw three large modified vehicles crossing the icefall! Who ordered UberEats?!

First Update from the Ice!

May 6, 2018 - Inspiring Explorers'™ Updates - 2018

Antarctic Heritage Trust

From Hollie: I’m walking across Greenland. Pretty sure it’ll be mostly flat. Wrong. So wrong. Day 2 will be known as a constant burn to the thighs, but in a landscape of breathtaking beauty. Starting off at 9.20am (a little later than expected) with snow falling lightly, the first hour whizzed by. Taking our first scheduled rest we downed our high sugar and fat snacks before heading off. With Bengt leading the charge, we snaked our way up and around the icey-blue frozen mounds. It became a challenge to see if we could stay ahead of our pulka as we slid down the banks, then an even bigger challenge to see if we could drag it up the other side. The girls of the team were very thankful for the boys’ help on more than one occasion. As the sun poked through, the hills only seemed to get steeper, but after a big day on the skis we set up camp for the night just after 4.30pm.