Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By the time we landed on the blue ice runway at the ALE camp
near Union Glacier tonight, I had realised that my worries that Eric did
not respect me were baseless. He believes in me and has promised to
do everything in his power to get me to the South Pole safe, sound and
as quickly as possible. It is now entirely up to me to show the world
what I'm made of and reach the South Pole in time to catch that plane
out on January 19. (Eric thinks January 26 is more likely, which I must
talk to him about.)
After we landed, true to my word, I started running as soon as I
reached the bottom of the steps and put my bags down. It was an easy
8 kilometres to the main Union Glacier base. There, we met our driver,
Scotty, who informed us that our support vehicle wouldn't be ready
until the day after tomorrow. So, after all the concerns about using ski-
doos, we'll have to manage with them for a while.
december 30
I was able to clock up 70 kilometres by the end of my first full day. Just
outside the Union Glacier camp there were lots of crevasses, which
meant that for the first 30 kilometres I had to use snowshoes or skis to
give me a greater surface area on the snow and less chance of falling
into a crevasse. After that, it was strictly my new snow boots all the
way. I would never normally run in new footwear, but there is nothing
normal about this run!
The weather has been reasonably fine so far, with good visibil-
ity. I need to get my big kilometres in before the weather turns sour.
One thing this run has taught me is that things can and will inevitably
change, for better or for worse, so it's important to make the most of
good situations.
The snow is very soft, and although I am light I'm still sinking into
it with each step, which makes progress a struggle. The temperature
is around -33, but this quickly drops to -40 or lower when the wind
increases. Unlike at the North Pole, I have hand warmers in my mit-
tens, which are staving off the aching cold in my fingers.
The major difference between the Arctic and the Antarctic is that
down here there are no leads or pressure ridges impeding the way.
There are, however, lots of crevasses. Fall down one of those and
you're dead. The great Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson lost his
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