-09.11.2008- Flight still delayed

A moment ago it came clear that the flight will take of this evening at the earliest. The most likely moment is still Monday morning. It has been quite windy today here in Punta Arenas and the weather has altered between heavy rain and sunshine all day.

At the moment I'm waiting for a phonecall confirming tomorrows flight schedule. Nothing much to do for now but to wait for the winds to calm down...The first flight to Patriot Hills carries about 50 people so I'm guessing it'll be pretty crowded...

-08.11.2008- Flight delayed

Today it became certain that the flight will be delayed due to harsh winds in Antarctica. The flight might be possible tomorrow, but Monday seems more likely at the moment.

Because the Fjällräven jacket is still jammed at the Santiago customs station, I had to go and buy a new one from the local outdoor store. The jackets here do not fully compare with the Fjällräven polar jacket, but I bought the best one available and that will have to do. As I bought the new jacket, I had to update my clothing plan as well. I'm taking another underwear jacket with me so that I have enough clothes, even for the extra cold days.

I dropped by at the ALE office with Todd today to show the YellowBrick locator to Steve Jones. Steve tought that the YellowBrick will be the locator they are going to prefer in the future. The direct and (almost) realtime tracing really helps the ALE personnel and at the same time reduces the margin of error, because there's no secondhand communication involved. Steve was pleased to see that Todd and I are doing the pioneering work testing the YellowBrick in Antarctica. The ALE personnel will be interested to see how well the YellowBricks meet the demands of Antarctica.

-07.11.2008- More problems with the jacket

This morning we had an official ALE briefing concerning the details of arriving to Patriot Hills, as well as dealing with the already known areas of crevasses and reaching the South Pole. Tomorrow is the first possible day to fly to Patriot Hills, but the weather there is still very windy, so couple of day's delay seems more than probable.

This afternoon all the equipment and food needed in Antarctica were picked up and taken to the airport storeroom to wait for the flight to Patriot Hills. Total weight of my gear was 103 kilos, so my aim of 100 kilos was actually pretty accurate. 103 kilos is a bit more than the weight will be on the ice because the gear was weighted with packingbags that are not coming along with me. Also the pulka had a protective cover around it. After my gear was weighted, it was time to give me the same treatment. The result was 77 kilos. That's a good number to start achieving the ideal weight...

There's still some problems with the windstopper jacket. The jacket has been in Santiago customs station for two days now and it's not moving anywhere because of somekind of strike of chilean custom personnel. There's still a slight chance that the jacket gets here tomorrow. That would be ideal as I could use the jacket I was prepared to use. But if so happens that the jacket is not here by tomorrow, I have to start hunting a new one right away because the plane to Antarctica may be leaving on Sunday.

In the evening I went for a walk to the shore. I also checked out the famous Punta Arenas cemetery. There were some quite impressive family graves with famous (local) names on them. Unfortunately I was there in the evening and the quided tours were over for the day. A few kilometers walk felt really good after spending couple of days not doing much else than packing.

-06.11.2008- A restful day

Today I went shopping for food and some other stuff, but since everything's already packed up and ready to go, this day has been pretty relaxed and quiet.

I'm taking some extra food with me to keep the safety margin. Now I have full food packages for 52 days and some extra food for 10 days on top of that. That should do it. At the present moment all of the food is waiting to be transferred to ALE's airport storeroom and from there to be loaded on the plane. At he moment it seems that the flight to Patriot Hills may be delayed a couple of days, but as I've said before, the weather here (as well as in Antarctica) changes rapidly, so nothing's definite yet...

As I got some spare time today, I went to see some Statues here in Punta Arenas. There turned out to be quite many of them for a city this size. The most famous is propably the Statue of Magellan (in the picture). The tradition is to touch or even kiss his toes in order to get good luck. Apparently I wasn't the first tourist to do so...as you can see, in time his toes have been worn pretty smooth.

Todd and I had an enjoyable time with some of the ALE personnel this evening. It turned out that the runway at Patriot Hills has been finally cleared! We had a long and interesting discussion with Mr. Peter McDowell about the previous years on the ice. We also talked with Mr. Mike Sharp about the upcoming season and it seems that this year there will be a great number of people going to Antarctica so the flights are almost fully booked. For our luck, Peter and Mike promised that Todd and I will be on the first flight to Antarctica. Tomorrow morning we have an official ALE briefing concerning the flight schedules and going to Antarctica in general.

-05.11.2008- Snowfall!

While packing the food in my hotel room, I suddenly saw snow falling from the sky here in Punta Arenas. Unfortunately I was unable to reach my camera in time and the snowfall disappeared as quickly as it came. So now the weather's almost uncloudy and shiny again.

I dropped by at the ALE office today to discuss the details of my expedition. We went through my equipmentlist and other necessary issues, so all that is left is basically just waiting for the flight to departure. It seems that the first flights may be delayed a little because of the snow situation in Antarctica. There has been snowing quite heavily and the people at Patriot Hills haven't been able to clear the iced runway yet. Luckily there's still couple of days until Saturday and you never know, things may change before that...

-04.11.2008- Re-arranging my food supply

I have spent the whole day re-arranging my food supply. All of the food needs to be repacked, so that I won't need to carry the cardboard boxes with me to the pole. By repacking the food, the size can be compressed to half of its current size. So we're talking about very important matter here.

The new Windstopper jacket is on its way to Punta Arenas. Let's hope that it gets here by friday or else I have some last minute shopping to do...

-03.11.2008- Quite a coincidence

The flight from Santiago de Chile went safely and I arrived to Punta Arenas late at night. I checked in to my Hotel at 01.00 am. My taxidrive from the airport was quite an experience, the wind was blowing really hard. The vehicle changed lanes by itself in the wind but the driver didn't seem to mind...He was driving pretty fast and every now and then he even leaned over to the back seat facing me and telling how hard it is to keep the car on the road when the wind is blowing hard...yep...it might be a little easier if you kept your eyes on the road?

I got my travel gear delivered to the hotel in the morning. When checking the gear I was quite surprised NOT to find my vital windstopper jacket anywhere!... Apparently it 'got lost' in Santiago, where the bags went trough somekind of 'security check'...goddammit! What can you do but to order a new one...Let's hope it gets here in time!

I also went to meet ALE's doctor today. He went through my medical kit and medicines, gave me a green light and told me that everything is how it should be. After the meeting I walked to the downtown to see what it's all about. Seems like an ok place to spend my few days before the ice.

-02.11.2008- Santiago de Chile

The flight from Madrid to Santiago took over 13 hours and I have to admit, it felt pretty numbing. Luckily I managed to doze off most of the night. I also have to give some credit to Iberia Airlines for their spacious legspace in the economy class.

The arrival to Santiago felt amazing. Couple of hours before landing I had the pleasure to admire the beautiful Andes! Numerous snowy peaks and ice fields sparkled in the sunlight like a pure snowy rollercoaster that went on forever.

Today's schedule still includes a flight to Punta Arenas, where I'll be arriving late around midnight. Late lodging to the Hotel and I can call it a day and get some rest.

I'm in a pretty good mood. After the last flight to Punta Arenas I can really concentrate on preparing the gear and start setting my mind on the adventure ahead.

-01.11.2008- Departure day

Finally the day I've been waiting for! The route goes from Helsinki to Punta Arenas through Madrid and Santiago de Chile. I'll arrive to Punta Arenas on Monday 3.11.2008 and immediately start checking and re-arranging the gear.

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