Halfway to the South Pole
The 2009 Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race is underway. It started January 1st.
Here is the race website:
Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race
Here is the
page on what it is like:
WHAT IT'S LIKE
What�s it like to live as a competitor on the South Pole Race?
Imagine that all of the comforts you have in your everyday life, like hot water, a warm bed, electricity, a convenience store around the corner, are taken away from you... Instead you are living in the driest, windiest, coldest place on earth, with no creature comforts.
All of the food that you need, you have to pull behind you in a pulk. All of the fuel you need to heat that food, you have to drag behind you. It�s so cold, that everything freezes, including you - if you do not use the equipment to stay warm, your only shelter is the tent you are carrying... your daily routine becomes very different to the life you have at home!
An example day (all in freezing temperatures!)
Wake up in the tent
Brave getting out of sleeping bags into the icy cold of the tent, get dressed, pack away, get out all the things you have been keeping warm in your sleeping bag, such as batteries, store them on your body to keep them warm.
Scrape ice from tent inner � this has been created by your breath freezing on the tent inner during the night while you have been sleeping.
Put the stoves on (make sure you are wearing gloves, you don�t want to touch any metal which is extra cold � it will stick to you!).
Melt snow for hot water.
Breakfast: Porridge, muesli/energy crunch, raisins, milk powder, sugar
Lots of tea/coffee/ hot chocolate!
Fill all flasks and water bottles with hot water to last the day (e.g. 2 � 3 litres each)
Turn the Stoves off. Refuel stoves � be very careful not to spill any fuel on yourself as when the wind hits the fuel on you it will freeze rapidly, risking frostbite.
Daily wash routine. Make sure you put on lots of sun lotion and lip block, sunglasses! (The UV rays are so strong that you will burn to a cinder if you do not put on sun block, even though it is freezing. You must wear sunglasses to prevent snow blindness from the strong UV rays reflecting off the white surface)
Then the real joy of the morning, put your feet into icy cold boots.
Pack up tent and all equipment, pack pulks. Prepare navigation. Skis on.
Pray for a good visibility today.
And I grouse about the cold weather here!
Posted by DaveH at January 4, 2009 7:00 PM