Lou and Ness On Top

Wednesday 8th April: Heading North

2010-04-08T02:52:00.000-07:00

Back in Spitzerbergen but with 24 hours of daylight - extraordinary! But stunning with blue skies and the mountains and half frozen sea in full view at the moment. It's only a few degrees below zero at the moment so we are hoping for a cold front to come through - I can't believe I am wishing for colder weather!!

A huge attempt to get to the plane after Philie and Vatches amazing wedding - so so touch and very embarrassed I had to dance to 'Doing it for the Girls' with the band in front of everyone as my north pole dedicated song! David Attenborough kept me company (a few rows in front) on the flights from London and should be in base camp when we are there, and David Hempleman Adams was chatting to us last night, so we are in the very best company - obviously including all of our little team; Inge Sohleim (Norweign Arctic legend) Henry Cookson (need not say more), Danny, Kevin, Sals, Farz and, Lou & I being the girls. All fantastic people and we are very excited to be going on such an adventure with them. It's also great Lou and I have the advantage of all our training to keep an upper hand on the boys. As well as almost feeling like locals being back in Svalbard again only 3 months later.

We've done phase 1 and are fully kitted up, food sorted, pulks packed, more fur brought for our jackets and now waiting for our flight to be dropped off on the ice as there is a blizzard. All keen to get out there and raring to go. Hoping walking on a frozen ocean will be less dangerous than ski doo-ing which we did yesterday. Lou was a complete speed demon and took on the boys including Henry and I was out of control, so much so I went up a super steep slope but gave too much gas at the top and gained 6ft of air which was interesting. Especially as I had just been caught stuck on a sheet of ice going up a less steep slope by some locals....humm I don't think ski-doos and I were meant to be.

Thinking of everyone and hope you enjoy following our hopefully smooth progress!

xxx

Sun 7th February: Guesthouse 102

2010-02-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Heads are a bit sore this morning but our sleeping bags are aired, our clothes washed and our bags packed. Off for a spot of last minute gift shopping (sealskin rug for Ness's bro Sean/ cuddly polar bear for my son Hamish etc) and then the airport for 1pm. Land 10pm London tonight, all things going well.

It's now really quite light and already we are noticing many more people around (everyone is young here - the average age must be 30, virtually no older people - perhaps it's too dangerous for walking sticks on ice?!) carrying powder skis and shotguns (by law, all must carry shotguns when out of town - those big, white bears are not so cuddly after all). Is a strange sight seeing people heading into town at night with shotguns slung over their backs but there we go. There's also zero crime here, which is a relief. (No fear of shoot-outs then!)

This is where we're staying: http://www.gjestehuset102.no/eng/aboutus.html It's 2km out of Longyearbyen and a gem of a find. Trond runs it, and has been amazingly good to us. We would recommend it highly, if you happen to find yourself out here - the gateway to the N Pole - one day.

See you all V soon! xx

Posted by Lou

Sat 6th February: Back at the ranch

2010-02-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

We're back, we're safe, we're done!

It's been a great trip. We've learnt a huge amount and, importantly, have learnt that we thrive on expeditioning life. Phew. Bring on the North Pole in April!

Arrived back at the guesthouse in Nybyen (means "New Town") yesterday afternoon. Naturally, there was a mad rush for the showers. And naturally Ness and I both bagged the first ones after packing up/ hanging out (to dry) our kit in uber-quick time!! Which, also naturally, is most unlike us normally! Needless to say the shower was H.E.A.V.E.N.L.Y. The best of my life. There were fears for my mental state after the team discovered I had gone for a second shower 2 hours later - but when they saw my hair, they understood: my rasta dreadlocks have been brushed out. Finally. Ali and I had right birds nests up top. Thank God I'm not going to return home a skinhead after all...

By 5.30pm we were in the sitting room celebrating Mary's (team Doc) birthday before heading into town for a pizza/ steak. Can't tell you how much we are anticipating dinner... Or how much we want to get home. Will never take family/ friends/ kettles/ anything forgranted again. So, so special to hear "my boys'" voices again and see them on Skype.

Now bring on that vino!

Posted by Lou

5th February 2010: Day 12, Adventdalen Valley – Heading Home - Claire Mcaleer

2010-02-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

N78 11 34
E16 03 18
Distance travelled yesterday: 12.1km

Well, here we are at our last campsite on the penultimate day of our training expedition. It definitely seems like we are coming back to civilisation now. Having not been able to see any light at night other than starlight for the previous few days, tonight we can see the lights of Longyearbyen in the distance and even the mine that had become clear at the start of our expedition is now behind us, seen as an orange glow halfway up the mountain.

Marcus is leader today and decided on a relaxed style of leadership which apparently makes miracles work as even myself and Yolanda had our tents down and our pulks packed ready to go ahead of schedule. It snowed during the night so we all woke with a nice dusting of snow on our tents this morning and the skies continue to be overcast all day today such that even after the day got lighter our surroundings were distinctly grey and eerie still.

These conditions make it difficult to judge the contrast of the terrain ahead but as usual we ploughed ahead at a steady pace led by Ali our navigator at the front. Over the last 10 days we have definitely become more skilled at pulling our pulks at a steady pace and today while skiing next to Ali and looking back at the rest of our team skiing in formation I felt really proud of what we have achieved.

As the valley opened up on the route home we had our closest encounter yet of several caribou. It was at this point that Howard had decided to delay our progress home by getting us to simulate skiing in whiteout conditions by tying up to together in our lines and staying close to the person ahead of you. The caribou watched for a while before heading off uninterested and we continued to experiment with ways of tying ourselves together.

The grey conditions also made distance perception rather tricky today and it was slightly bewildering to find that although we could see the spot we were heading for quite early on in the day it never seemed to get any closer until a few hours later all of a sudden we arrived.

We have reached the road back to town now and decided to make camp next to an old disused building which would once have been used when the mining industry here was more active. Simon has built a Taj Mahal style luxury snow latrine to celebrate our last night camping.

Tomorrow we will trek the last 7km back to the guesthouse where I’m sure there will be lots of queues for the showers where we can all get ourselves properly clean. I think everyone’s looking forward to getting back for a nice meal that is not rehydrated and a warm bed with no bear watch to wake up for. The mood of the team is buoyant, we’ve all learned a lot and I think it’s safe to say that we have all enjoyed ourselves and worked well together.

In case this is the last diary entry I’d like to say a few ‘thank yous’ to our staff, Howard, Em and Mary for keeping us safe and happy and to the rest of the team who have shared this experience with me, thanks for being such a great bunch of people and here’s to many more years of adventure and exploration.

4th February: Day 11, under Trango and Marmot – Ness Lindsay

2010-02-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

N78 11 09.8
E16 16 26.7
Distance travelled yesterday: 10.9k
Average speed: 2.9km/ hr

From the dulcet tones of Lee snoring to the very cross and assertive wake up, or rather "get up", call from Simon at 7am for our planned early 9am departure (I’m sure Simon enjoyed it a bit too much!)...

At least it had been a mild night, so getting up wasn’t too painful and with Lee as leader ('leading from the top') it was already a big day. After a brief meeting, a few friendly reminders from Howard, our guru guide, about shovel hygiene (it is vital that the shovel used for the loos - the aptly named "shit shovel" is NEVER used for shovelling snow into our stoves!!) and final dashes to the loo, we were off just after 9.30am – our earliest departure to date.

After a couple of kilometres heading right and west up the valley and some animal spotting (still yet TBC whether it was an Arctic fox, wolf or caribou - dear) Howard called us to a halt for a little hauling exercise. An hour and a half later, all pulks and people had been hauled up to the top of the 80ft valley wall, thanks to with some over-excited crevasse kit use. (Howard then told us about a much simpler and quicker way of getting up the slope!)

A lunch-bothy stop at the top and we were off again to find a spot to belay us down to the valley floor again. After a brief discussion, each person was tied up and sent off over the edge, some were lowered more quickly than others!!

Unfortunately there was a small omission of bringing down Howard’s skis and an ice axe, which meant Howard had to climb solo back up and bring them back down himself - sorry Howard, we promise to make it up to you!

With us quickly cracking on pulk-pulling along the Valley and Phil and Mark back navigating in front, we caught up some ks before finding camp for the night just after 5pm, having had time to add our own impromptu assault course down a slope and various freestyle methods of getting down it with the pulks at our heels, most involved getting acquainted with the snow!

The camp routine is getting slicker and more designer loos were erected - I never knew there were so many different ranges!

It’s been a very mild night and it’s strange to be in sight of the lights of the coalmines and orange hue of Longyearbyen in the distance again. I’ll miss the starry skies, night-time lightshows, frozen snowy white valleys and hills. At last for me it’s time for an early bear watch then bed. It’s hard to believe there is only one more night on our snowy mattress and with our tent partners: what will I do without hot blackcurrant drinks made by Lee every morning?! Oh well, I’ve got 20 hours to decide what my last rehydrated meal of this mini-expedition will be... Oh the dilemnas!

Good night and sleep well all.

P.s. Lee’s leadership tip of today: “The leader is only as good as the people around him.”

This post was written by Ness Lindsay.

3rd February 3: Day 10, Adventdalen Valley - Ali Kershaw

2010-02-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

N78 11 29
E16 30 37
Distance travelled yesterday: 10k.

Getting up for bear watch is never a great feeling when you climb out of your toasty sleeping bag, but once you are out and a hot drink in hand it never feels too bad and last night’s shift was particularly enjoyable, as not only was the sky littered with more stars than I have ever seen but Dom and I were treated to two hours of nature’s very own lightshow with constant green dancing auroras which filled the sky. The two hours spent staring into space on reflection were probably not our most diligent bear watch to date but certainly one of the most enjoyable.

Today has been another great day with clear skies most of the day and spectacular views around us. We packed up as usual and set off at Dom’s request, who is leader today and I think everyone was very pleased to get moving after last night, as it had been the coldest night we spent here so far.

With Mary and Mark setting a perfect pace for the group we climbed our way back up the valley we had passed through yesterday and sadly it’s time for us to head for home. I say sadly because the last few days have given everyone the chance to really see some beautiful scenery and I know many of us would have liked the chance to go further up the valley. However we were hampered at the beginning of our expedition by the bad weather and so last night’s camp will be our furthest for this trip

I think everyone enjoyed today’s walk, with perhaps the exception of poor Yolanda who wasn’t feeling great but battled on like the true team player she is and I know that everyone hopes the clear weather we have had for the last two days continues.

At about 4pm we started looking for a suitable stop to make camp and as we were looking we came to a stop where we could make out the movements of a large animal ahead; we lost sight of it in the darkness which was quite eerie put proceeded to prepare ourselves with flares at the ready and, although we don’t know if it was a bear, I for one will be slightly more nervous on bear watch tonight which will be from 3-5am.

We’ve made camp and the usual hustle and bustle of camp can be heard from everyone sat in their tents: stoves are roaring away heating water for dinner, drinks and water bottles; ice axes are chipping away to make room for ice screws and guy ropes; people are chatting, reading, or writing diaries and the occasional yell for "Who's got a shovel?" or "Water?" (fuel is precious so spare hot water is distributed to the team for drinking or filling flasks or hot water bottles), can be heard.

So what have I learnt whilst I’ve been here? Well, lots. But some thoughts I have for now are...

I’ve learnt that I:

- I hate the wet cold ice on my sleeping bag in the morning
- I love walking through the spectacular scenery we are surrounded by
- I’m a lot happier in my own company when skiing single file than I thought I’d be
- I miss daylight
- I hate getting up for bear watch
- I love the time on bear watch to appreciate my surroundings in silence whilst everyone else sleeps
- If I spill my food, I can just wait for it to freeze and flick it off!
- Dehydrated ration packs are a commodity that can be traded
- How much I miss Charlie (boyf), friends and family
- But most of all I’ve learnt that for me surviving in the cold is going to be a challenge but one that I’m keep to pursue.

To me this has been the last big stepping stone on a 2 year plan of getting to the point where I can undertake a polar journey, although I know that it will be tough, I’m looking forward to the next step of my Arctic adventure.

Thanks to Ali Kershaw for this post.

2nd February – Day 9 - Eskerdalen Valley - Louise Cameron

2010-02-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

N78 12 46
E16 54 55
Distance travelled yesterday: 10.7km
Temperature: -22°C

This is what it’s all about! Today, Day 9, was magical - really great. My excellently efficient tent mate Simon was team leader and more than rose to the challenge. After a 7am wake-up call, he had us all in the meeting room (the big 8-man tent) by 9am, fed, watered, flasks filled and pulks packed ready for the morning meeting. Soon after, we had tents down, were harnessed up and moving out, with Nessy (navigator) heading the charge and Simon leading from behind.

It was with mixed emotions that we left camp as realisation dawned that a week today we will be back home and at our desks. Of course we can’t wait to see loved ones and friends (who are more and more in our thoughts as the days go by) and return to creature comforts (steak, red wine, showers, baths, beer and pizza, seem to be the most vocally missed). But as it was such an incredibly beautiful morning we also savoured the moment as we realised just how special it is to be here.

At last the eternal night/ twilight is lifting; we woke to a vast expanse of light blue and a gently cloud scattered sky and were teased by a suggestion of the sun behind a distant mountain.

This, combined with a nose-dive in temperatures (ironically, none of our thermometers seem accurate - they read up to 8 degrees differently - but this morning was noticeably colder with a real bite in the air) and another good dusting of light powder snow last night, meant that we were all eager to get on the move and spirits are high.

Nessy kicked out of camp at quite a pace, turning right (heading East) back into the valley. Adventdalen stretched out before us in all her magnificence – a rolling white wilderness of low mountains either side and a long, snaking, wide frozen river ahead and behind. Watching the group walking down the valley in parallel lines was an impressive and endearing sight; we are beginning to feel like the Ice Warriors we all hoped we might become.
Some six hours later we had made good ground passing through the Brentskaret and into the Eskerdalen Valley heading towards Sassendalen. We are beginning to work quite efficiently as a team now and only stopped for three short (5 min) water, loo, and nosebag breaks today.

At 4pm, having covered almost 11k at a speed averaging 2.7k an hour (it sounds slow but it really isn’t – on skis, pulling the pulks uphill), we stopped to camp behind a "pingo"(knoll) which proved a welcome shelter from the wind. Already night was closing in and we needed head torches again.

Now it is 9pm and camp is quiet apart from the crunch of "bear watch" feet outside. Skidoo tracks and an old mountain hut are the only signs of life out here, along with reindeer trails and the odd sighting of Arctic wolves.

I'll be up again at 1am for my two hour stint under the galaxy of stars outside (v v beautiful tonight - breathtakingly so), I’m going to snuggle down in my sleeping bag and bid goodnight. I’m going to fall asleep dreaming of my boys and hoping that tomorrow will bring another day like today… Thank you Jim, Howard, Em, Mary and TEAM!

30th January: Day 6, Adventdalen Valley - Marcus Liddiard

2010-01-30T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today we escaped! We finally managed to leave the vicinity of Longyearbyen town and venture out into the wilderness, much to the relief of all the team.

The dawn broke with slightly cloudy skies, but with no wind so we were able to safely break camp and head off. To make the process slightly easier we had arranged with our local “fixer” called Trond to transport the pulks as far as possible by road (we had no choice - pulling the pulks along the gritted ice road sides ruins their metal running tracks) and then we skied to that same point to pick up the pulks and pitch camp. We are now camping at approximately 8km from Longyearbyen town but have not quite been able to escape civilisation as on the mountain ridge behind us there is a large coal mine, which looks a bit like a bond villain's lair looming above us, and there are a few local cabins scattered around.

Our trek here was made alongside the road which is not very inspiring but it was great to get some distance on skis under our belts and everyone seemed to cope very well (although it will be interesting to see how achy we are in the morning due to our heavy pulks!).

The plan is to progress up the Adventdalen Valley before heading up one of the valleys which join this one. However, this completely depends upon the weather.

The forecast tomorrow is for strong winds and snow which could stop us in our tracks. Hopefully it will be wrong and we will make some progress. It will be great to get to a place where we can see no artificial lights and are not interrupted by snowmobiles.

Thanks to Marcus Liddiard for this post

27th Januray 2010: Day 3

2010-01-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

Despite high winds, we headed out this morning for the first time with fully laden pulks. The high winds / low temperature combination meant some challenges in preventing frostbite on faces, and the first kilometre or so featured many headgear adjustments!

With significant food on board, the pulks were noticeably heavier too which meant skill was required on downhill and effort uphill. A group of 18 people (15 team, 3 staff) is also hard to pace but Marcus did a sterling job! After a while we got better at moving at a constant pace to stay warm.

After 3½ hours we reached the far end of Longyearbyen, the wind was howling so we erected the emergency shelter and had a brew and some food. We lost a Thermorest (sleeping mat) to the wind – not something we want to repeat and was a good lesson learnt. Whilst taking a break, we decided to go back to town and see how the conditions changed.

Some of us took the opportunity of last minute purchases – gloves for some, camp seats for others, boot liners for me. We then hauled our pulks all the way back to the Hostel, at which point the wind died down somewhat. Good news - we can finally pitch the tents without shredding them. The majority decided to head to set off, so walked up the glacier to make camp. And off we went.

And so FINALLY! We made camp, pitched tents, storm proofed the tents, melted snow and prepared food. Camp making is very lengthy and we are still learning to speed this up, but it all makes us appreciate the dehydrated food more and keeps us warm.

The mood in camp is good – relief, anticipation and excitement rolled into one, now that we have got going after so many false starts. It is now 23.30 local time and I am on bear watch in 3.5hrs time so will go to sleep now and look forward to another day of adventures unknown tomorrow.

This blog was written by Dom Larose. (Each day a different member of the team writes up the diary.)

Tuesday 26th - The Exped Begins. At last!

2010-01-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of the Exped (Day 15 out in Svalbard)

We're off, hurrah! Won't have any internet or mobile access for the next two weeks so no more blogs for now. But we will be sending a "daily dispatch" back via satellite phone (phoning in the copy to Lori, who will be typing it up and sending to friends/ family - to email addresses we have pre-supplied).

We will publish our posts on our return (13 days), filling you in on all our antics then.

Ness Weather Bound in a Guest House

2010-01-26T15:46:00.000-08:00

If it's not one thing it's another, having meant to have started on our training expedition yesterday we were stopped by the rain as it would ruin our kit (only made for extreame cold and dry weather!) and today we were stopped by the beyond gale force winds (I'm not sure if there's a technical term for that!) so we have been in the guest house for another 2 nights - I am certainally not complaining as much as I'm looking forward to getting out there. I've never actually seen ice form on the inside of windows when there is full central heating on - honestly feels like the windows are going to blow in at the moment and it was a stuggle to open the door out of the guest house earlier and we had to rope it up to get out, to try and stand and walk about in the wind/get used to the chill and not getting frostbite on our faces, only about -20.... Even the one or two locals we see go by have left their bikes at home today. They litterally ride in all other conditions including over the black ice which is currently on most of the roads which make getting arround quite interesting. Most of us have had bambi moments on at least once a day over the last few weeks! May be we should have invested in some spikes which the locals fit on their shoes for getting about.

We did have a good little ski session this morning though - much easier to do on snow than around Hyde Park on wheels after a rather amusing first session on ice out here....Lou is keeping all the boys quiet (Simon) with her speedy pulk pulling and efficent skiing; apparently she had given an impression of being a dizzy blonde during our training in Dartmoor?!

Must get to bed, thank you so much for your supportive emails, really means a lot. Bring on nightly bear watches (sorry M&D I promise to be safe), using a shee wee (gulp), the cold..., and sleeping in a tent with Lee who apparently snores, although he is a fire officer so he can hopefully look out for any interesting stove lighting moments I hope not to create...

xxx

Day Off - Sunday 24th (Day 13) - On skis finally & packing for exped

2010-01-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

13 days of Arctic "rat packs" - how much food?!

6pm
It's our day off but we woke to refreshingly clear skies so headed out on skis for the first time. Hilarious. Took a few priceless wipeouts which left us flapping on the ice like penguins as we headed off down the path beside the road going far too fast but having no idea how to break (turns out you still snowplough, it's just fairly ineffectual due to loose bindings, poor edges and it being more ice than snow out). Once we got onto the flat we looked a little less like a beginner's ski class and actually not bad. Simon, Dom and Ness even managed to look pretty pro. Not quite sure how we're going to deal with pulks behind us though...

This afternoon we headed into town for a team "nose-bag" grab. Won't have time to stop for lunch once we're on exped so went for a supermarket sweep to buy lunch snacks for the next 2 weeks. Was a bit like a school tuck box shop all over again. which we'll keep somewhere handy to snack on. We all have our own systems: mine is in a chalk bag around my waist so I can get at it without taking my glove off.

You'd think a £130 (£10 x 13 days) stash of Toblerone etc would be heavenly, but looking at the amount of sugar we'll be consuming over the next two weeks it just doesn't appeal! What have we got? We've each chosen our own but basically Japanese crackers (mmm), dried reindeer meat, salami, cheddar, yoghurt-coated pineapples, dark chocolate, M&Ms, apricots, cranberrys, papaya, pineapple, mango, raisins, cashew nuts, chilli nuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, prunes & muesli bars... Exciting, eh?! Still it's much more appealing than Mark's which basically consists of fish and fish sweets (made from real fish - seriously). Full of protein, I'll grant that but the smell from the dehydrated fish was so bad that Jim's banned it for fear polar bears will hunt us!!

Amusing moment: after finding she was under budget, Ness made a mad dash across the supermarket to the cheese counter, to the amusement of the team. General consensus was she hasn't been so excited about anything all week - apart from maybe the balaclavas (everybody calls them "gimp masks" because they do look rather scary - when Ness saw them she had a fit of giggles) and dancing (Ness was up on the table before we could blink - good lass!).

Also waved off Jack, who's been an awesome addition to the team for the last 2 weeks after joining us to train for his unsupported North Pole push next year. His jokes will be missed - by SOJ (Simon - aka Son of Jim) at least! Turns out the taxi was late and he missed check-in but managed to wing his way onto the plane... Uh oh, there's a theme going on here.

After dinner, we route-planned our upcoming 2-week exped. The plan is to head up-valley to camp within a mile of the hostel for the next few nights, until we've sorted a good camp routine and the storm that's hovering has passed. Then we're going to head down to the river valleys of Adventdalen, a 30-kms valley that follows the Adventdalselva ("Advent River Valley"), which is basically the main valley near Svalbard that leads up onto the surrounding glaciers. We're all looking forward to getting out there and away from the (albeit welcome) lights of town.

WEEK 2 in Soggy Svalbard: Advanced polar training, January 18th-24th

2010-01-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

View of Svalbard from Nybyen

Saturday 23rd Jan - Day 12

WOO HOO. Our skis have arrived.(Finally, after what feels like weeks of delays and days of trying to track them from Oslo to Tromso to ???.) The boys turned the breakfast room into a workshop and spent the morning drilling holes, gluing holes, screwing bindings, getting the skis good to go. Simon was the demon on the drill, Marcus the glue-sniffer and Lee screwed them all up (sorry, the boys humour is catching). Jack, Mark and I sorted out the cookers, re-attaching them to their wooden boards with metal ties and on aluminium paper (to stop them burning, as they were before - not ideal, seeing as they keep us alive out here!), whilst the rest of the girls did a full kit inventory to get things ready, mended and allocated for our expedition next week.

At 5pm Bjorn (Erlingson), the IW sea-ice scientist who is with us this week, sprung a surprise. Earlier in the morning, I'd found him hovering, almost hopping outside our door (he's in the room opposite Ness & I). After enquiring if he was OK, I found out he was more than alright, his third granddaughter was born this morning... Congratulations Bjorn! To celebrate, he organised a shindig with an old friend and sea-ice professor at the University of Svalbard, who kindly invited us into to his wonderfully cosy house for drinks (will upload some pix when we get a chance) and told us stories about his life exploring the ice in weird, wonderful and remote places, which continued until pretty late. It was a very special, and memorable evening. Quality "team bonding".

Thursday 21 - Day 10

7am
After a low-spirit evening last night (sea ice reports from the Arctic aren't good right now, so our expedition "proper" is looking dicey), we've woken to find it a Good Morning here today. This is more like it. Everyone's biting at the bit to get their harnesses on and get out there. Wooaah.

Temperatures have plummetted back to -17 (after rising to -6 yesterday), all open water leads have frozen and there's a foot of snow everywhere & we're happeeee. Light, fluffy snow everywhere. It's a great feeling pulk-pulling with that crunch under foot with blue skies overhead. (Ha ha, got ya - Oh, for blue sky days!). Okay, with dark skies overhead, but it's still really invigorating, even with the dark.

Definitely makes a change from last week when it was warm (+2) & running torrents down the road - incredibly depressing freak conditions, which the locals say that they have never before seen in Svalbard at this time of year. Needless to say, there's been endless debates over whether or not this is down to climate change or quite normal, freak weather patterns, if you get me.

These conditions will sure beat navigating the lethal ice terrain covered with running water that has been so regularly wiping us out this past week. Has sometimes felt more like playing hopping stones across an Alpine river bed pulling an errant kayak than pulk-pulling in the High Arctic! After a few rainy days (when I sunk through the snow up to my mid thigh, and lost my boot. Ugh.) the water froze and it became so icy everywhere that cars where sliding off the road and being abandoned all over the place... Some of our guys resorted to night "dwarf tossing" on the way back from dinner. (Which basically involved persuading a reluctant "Mini" - Claire - to lie on her back while the boys took her feet and pushed her along the ice on her back, to see how far she'd slide... 20 feet. Not bad!)

What else have we been up to? Lots of super useful training, learning about snow laters, avalanche training, rope-skills, firing up the stoves in high wind (it takes 2 people around 4-hours nightly to melt enough water for dinner and to fill our hot-water bottles (Platypus sacks) and 4 one-litre flasks for the next day, stove-learning, rope-skills etc

Monday 25th - Day One of our training expediton... In theory

2010-01-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

Day 14 out here. Today should be Day 1 of our Training Exped... But it's not. See below to understand why.
V V Frustrating.

8pm Packed up and ready to go. Have counted and put EVERYTHING (spare batteries, needles/ threads, plasters) into seperate zip-locked plastic bags and then into bigger, marked-up dry bags (spares/ first aid/ electrical etc). We've had to decant all creams out of metal tubes and into small plastic tubs, so they won't freeze, and have even separated our vital five daily (weight is all important so that's our total allowance of loo roll etc - nice!) wet-wipes into 13 individual, zip-locked plastic bags (one for each day), so that they don't freeze into an unusable block.

Was supposed to be our first day of expeditioning and sleeping under canvas tonight, which we've been gearing up for over the last few weeks. but it's been raining torrentially rain all day AGAIN. We were meant to head out at crackadawn but had to raincheck to 4pm and again at 7pm. The combination of horizontal driving rain, high winds and night temperatures dropping to -23 means that it's pretty lethal just walking outside (it's one big ice-rink). The result? No skiing. No camping out. The danger? Getting soaked to the skin, not being able to dry anything out, then freezing into an ice ball at night. These conditions sound relatively warm but are some of the most lethal for these reasons.

Morale is pretty low as we're packed and ready to go but hanging around the hostel. Still, Ness and I looked have used this time as best we can, checking in with all back home. Hear my son Hamish (14 months) just wanted to play "ring-a-ring-a-roses we all fall down" (running around in circles then throwing himself on the floor) all Sunday long - even in the supermarket! V cute but poor Ewen! He's also learning to dance (was teaching him before I left). His latest move is a little head-banging dance to the "wheels on the bus go round and round"! Seems like I need to get home, before Dad ruins his dance floor groove for life ;)

Meanwhile, most of the team went swimming at the pool in town to vent their frustrations. (Ness and I went a few days ago so skipped.) They returned home soaked to the skin, despite wearing full waterproofs; this weather is unbelievable. V glad to be staying under a roof tonight!

Despite having a hob and kettle to hand, we're getting used to expedition food so it's Day One with nosebags and "rat packs" (rehydrated army packs) and already I'm over them. Nuts, more nuts, cheese, salami, apricots, chocolate, more chocolate, wine gums just doesn't cut it. I'm. Craving. Sushi.

V. excited about crawling into bed and under my duvet, while I still can. Tomorrow, we'll be slug-lets in our 3-layer sleeping bags...(We do look like green worms in them!) We're off for a good night's sleep while we can get it.

Night.

29th January 2010 - Day 5 - Lee Howell

2010-01-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

Longyear Glacier

A day of extremes in terms of temperature and weather conditions. A completely still, beautiful night, the full moon clearly visible in the dark blue sky. The only sound being the crunch of our feet on crispy snow and our breath entering the frosty air from our warm bodies. A few hours later we were in the middle of the wildest storm we could imagine. Tents buckled and bowed under the sheer force of the wind and shook until they seemed as though they could be shredded at any second. An experience of nature, beautiful but dangerous, how I love this place and the opportunity to experience the task upon us. From a practical perspective today was one of consolidation. The strong winds meant we could not risk damaging the tents by taking them down and moving on, so in typical polar exploration fashion we waited and waited for the wind to die down; no chance. It was only after we had made contingency plans for tomorrow that the winds began to fade away. Time for more cross-country skiing practice in the dark and preparing our camp routine for our third night out. It is incredible just how reassuring it is to see the cooking stoves splutter into life and provide the heat needed to boil water for rehydrating our meals and hot drinks, which has psychological as well as practical benefits. There is also a real sense of independence which comes from being self-sufficient. Everything we have and need is packed into our pulks and moved physically from place to place. We have yet to experience the isolation that comes with travelling long distances in single file but this will come, I’m sure. Our commitment to sponsors, friends and family spurs us on, along with our polar dreams and aspirations, which whilst are different for each of the team members we are as one in our desire to get as much from this training in order to prepare us for the challenge ahead.

Thanks to Lee Howell for this post

Ness's Update from the Arctic Circle

2010-01-20T13:58:00.000-08:00

Where to begin??! Having in true Ness style almost missed the flight from Heathrow - running (or rather attempting to move one foot in front of the other) from the office with a North Face bag which was larger and almost as heavy as me and felt lined Sorel Glacier boots to Heathrow T5 via Paddington and the Heathrow Express was interesting...a quick conference call to Bex Comyn was needed on how to negotiate onto a flight when you are more than late after a few fair well calls as the realisation that I would arrive at the airport after the flight had closed.....It was closed but thank goodness as it was delayed I was allowed on - someone was on my side!! So the journey to Norway and Svalbard (1.300km from the North Pole) began.

It was not a straight forward thing however, having had a night in Oslo - highly recommend the Raddisson airport hotel - you can push your airport trolley into your room which is 10 minutes away - I almost kissed the information person at the airport when they told me and was the highlight of the journey for at least the first 24 hours! Day 1 flight to Svalbard or not quite. Having flown over what I could only see as snow, snow and more snow with occasional frozen rivers and mountains for we had to land at Tromso (think I've spelt that wrong!) in the far north and stay for the night due to unseasonally warm weather and rain the runway was too runway - slightly extraordinary for somewhere that is usually fully functional in temperatures of -25....thankfully I met up with one off the instructors so we made the most of the SAS airport flight delay allowance fund.

Finally arrived and met up with the rest of the team a day later and it was time to get used to 24 hour darkness....really hard to get used to - when on earth are you meant to shut the curtains?? It was great to finally start wearing my kit rather than carrying it and get stuck into putting up tents, pulling pulks, polar bear drills and lighting stoves in the cold. Unseasonally warm weather has meant we haven't been able to do as much as we were meant to outside but I'm sure we will be fully up to speed after a 2 week mini expedition which we are just about to embark on.

The town is a lot more civilized than I had imagined but still struggling with the darkness, and have discovered my fingers really aren't great in the cold so need to invest in some fat mittens to keep them functional. I've also had to invest in a merino wool bra which I suspect will be a little smelly after a few days out pulling pulks but is essential to keeping away pain from certain areas.
Seriously not looking forward to any potential encounter with polar bears - especially as it's still dark all day - although the sun appears for a moment for the first time at the end of this week which is pretty exciting and we saw the moon for the first time yesterday - no northern lights as yet....learning to ski on the cross country skis has been pretty interesting - especially as it's so icy.

Otherwise all well - great team bonding - and have managed a very fun night out in one of the 4 places to eat (including a cafe) in town - which resulted in experimenting with various gimp masks....you possibly might have to have been there for that one.

Will update when back from our training expedition in 2 weeks - seem to be lacking in dry bags so will be taking my Herve Chapelier bag with me - as well as more functional north face bag and rucksac (thanks H & M!), don't think that's the done think but anyway! Bring on the shower and pedicure on return!! Right must get on with dividing up my food into nose bags....

Big love xxx

ps read Lou's blogs for a more factual account of proceedings!

Lou - Arctic Bound

2010-01-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

Week 1 in snowy Svalbard: Basic Training, January 11th- 18th

Flicking through The Rough Guide to Norway on the plane (London-Oslo, Oslo-Tromso-Longyearbyen) as we flew to Longyearbyen, the capital of the Svalbard archipelago, was a disconcerting experience: "It is one of the most hostile places on earth, some 640kms from the mainland and 1300kms from the North Pole; two thirds of its surface is covered by glaciers, it's soil frozen up to depths 500m. The record low temperature is a staggering -46 degrees," I read as we flew into a blanket of ever more inky darkness and four weeks of polar night ahead of us.

So here we are in the High Arctic, the legendary land of Thule and the midday moon, where the sun never rises above the horizon between late October and mid February.

Yet despite being in a constant state of near total darkness, we have acclimatised surprisingly quickly and grown to rather love the dusky light, the stars overhead (when it's clear), the brisk cold and the gently rolling northern lights rolling... Though it is a little strange setting out for our morning pulk-pulling with head-torches on, and I do have a distinct urge to crawl back to bed and sleep, sleep, sleep after eating.

This first week we've been learning the basic skills we need to become "competent polar explorers": managing our kit-layering systems (which has basically involved exercising at different speeds to work out how to cool off/ warm back up, that sort of thing); navigation, orientation and getting to grips with our GPS's, pulk packing and pulling (not always as easy as it sounds - when navigating steep, uneven, slippery or deep-snow ground it can be a bit like taking a pesky dog for a walk); putting up/ storm-proofing our 2-man and 8-man tents in cold/windy environments (securing, defrosting poles); belaying and ice-axe-anchoring on steep, icy slopes (awesome fun bum-sledging back down) etc etc.

It helps that we've been kept so busy that we've barely had time to think about anything, let alone those big, white, furry beasts out there. (One was spotted in town last week for the first time since the locals can remember... Which suggests that food might be sparce and they're getting Hungry... Errrrrr, glad we'll be camping out in the wilderness over the next few weeks then.) That said, Jim has been imparting his 26-years knowledge of polar bears and teaching us (ahem, trying to teach us) not to panic when we hear one pawing the sides of our tent, as one did on his expedition a few years ago... Ian (fellow team-member, mean shot and trusted gun-treasurer), we‘re trusting you. No pressure!! All this explains why, when out exercising, we always take the pen flares, Berry gun (warning shots) and rifle (last resort).

At night we return to our hostel, Guesthouse 102 (top), up in the far end of town(Svalbard has 2,000 inhabitants) in Nybyen (“new town“). It’s an old miners' hostel that's clean, homely and efficiently run by a nice man called Trond. It’s a cross between a youth hostel and a basic Norwegian chalet - a modern, flat-pack, Lego-looking one. Every night at 6pm we head down to a restaurant/ bar called Husset (“house” - getting the gist of the original names here?) for dinner. All in all it's much cosier than we'd dared hope and sure beats camping out at -25 on nose-bags and “rat packs” (Arctic freeze-dried ration packs).

The highlight of the week was undoubtedly the Lovely Ness arriving on Saturday after a tantalising two-day wait (so near, so far) in Tromso ("the Paris of the North" according to the guide book, but more "Northampton of the North" says unimpressed Ness-ster) for the freezing rains to stop in Tromso. Amazing that rain stops planes in the land of frozen ice but apparently the horizontal driving rains were washing away the grit, freezing and making tobbogan runs of the runway. Fortunately she had our equally lovely mountain guide Howard to keep her company over red wine and pizza. What else? Ah, the end of week team-dinner last night at the legendary local restaurant/ bar Krau in town on "Bond Street" (some amazing kit shops here) which turned into a Jaggermeister-fuelled affair. Naturally. Nessie's table-dancing, Phil's Irish accent, Jack's drinking games (and ability to know every lass's name in the bar - sorry Jack!!) and Yolanda's Spanish drinking style were other comedy moments. Who said this was all hard work?!

The lowlight has been the unseasonably warm temperatures. Day one was -17 degrees, the perfect start, but temperatures climbed as the week progressed, reaching +2, with driving sleet and torrential rain. Rather depressing as we came this far north to experience conditions as close to the Arctic as possible. Instead, southern Norway has had consistently colder weather than here. And even the northern parts of the UK, would ya believe it? Grrrr. Bring on (advanced training) next week, colder climes and getting those planks out.

Have a fantabulous rest of January all. If you promise to never take your kettle, bath or local forgranted again, we'll eat mountains of chocolate for you! Big hug (not a bear one), especially to my boys. X

1st February: Day 8, Adventdalen Valley - Phil Thompson

2010-01-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

N78 11 16
E16 34 02
Distance travelled yesterday was 7.5km.

An uncertain start to this morning as the weather changed through the night from still to blowy and then snowfall and then back again.

We were concerned the weather would not be good enough to allow us to continue on our route, however after waiting for the weather to settle the day remained as expected so the group took just two 5 minute food/ water stops through the day as we pulled our pulks through the Adventdalen Valley delta floor.

The highpoints of the day were glimpses of dark blue sky. Until now it has been pitch black. The sun itself won’t be seen until the 8th March but it starts to get light around the 18th February.

The lowlight reflects off the snow causing strange and unusual formations, so much so that we debated whether a cloud was the northern lights or not. We are now getting great glimpses of swirling northern lights - a greenish milky way hue in the sky above. Beautiful.

We had a great opportunity for building complex snow holes into the bank to outdo each other and impress the neighbours who were a bunch of reindeers.

The team is settling into a routine with bear watches through the night.

Administration around camp is improving. Setting up camp is straight forward although getting the job done is still slow but as we are working to the same pace we all finish more or less together.

Last night we broke camp and a mistake was made when a stove fell on a Jerry Can soaking my sleeping bay, bivvy and most of my kit in petrol. We tried our best to keep my sleeping system working but today I found my lunch has been permeated by the fuel. That could make me very ill in the night or hopefully just give me a bad headache. Just bad luck!

Thanks to Phil Thompson for this post.