-16.11.2008- A rest day

Today has been a rest day. The wind blew so hard that I decided to stay put and spend the day in my tent. I wasn't sure that I would have been able to set up my tent in the evening considering the wind. The wind was so strong that even the clouds were compressed from the wind end.

Air pressure dropped quite drastically from yesterday noon, but seems to be rising again this evening. Hopefully the wind calms down during the night, because that would mean that tomorrow might be a skiing day. Rest days are nice, but I feel anxious to proceed and rest days this early on feel a bit involuntary.

One of the expedition groups are bringing with them a compass that belonged to Ernest Shackleton and they are travelling the same route to the pole that Shackleton did. Two members of the group are actually related to Shackleton. At Patriot Hills I was able to see the compass and take a picture of it. More information about their expedition can be found here: www.shackletoncentenary.org.

Coordinates:
S80° 26.146'
W80° 09.508'
Route travelled (as the crow flies): 0 km

-15.11.2008- Windy for a change

Today the weather was quite windy. At it's worst the wind blew 15m/s and average wind speed was 12m/s. Temperature stayed around -15 degrees and eventhough the day was actually sunny it didn't feel like it because of the hard wind.

I maintained a slow but steady pace all day. When the wind grew harder I decided to put up the tent and camp the rest of the evening. When going solo, one must be careful to keep an eye on the wind to be able to set up the tent in time before the storm hits. Here it can happen pretty drastically. Tomorrow's going to be windy too, so proceeding may be slower than normal. I'm expecting some low grade skiing tomorrow. The wind carries the snow from one place to another forming snowdrifts that make the skiing feel a burden sometimes.

Coordinates:
S80° 26.146'
W80° 09.508'
Route travelled (as the crow flies): 13,2 km

-14.11.2008- The better day

This day felt a whole lot better than yesterday. I woke up at 08.30 am and was surprised not to hear wind blowing at all. Outside the tent weather was very serene so I tried to get skiing as quickly as possible. However, I was ready to go (not sooner than) at 10 am.

During the day wind got heavier and temperature stayed at -15 degrees. I finally managed to get over the hill, but there where a lot of crevasses waiting for me. Crevasses didn't surprise me, but still I wasn't too happy to see them. Most of the crevasses were narrower than my ski, but couple of them were as wide as motor highway. I wasted some time trying to decide what to do next. It seemed that the crevasses went on for kilometers to both directions, so I made a decision to just go over them as safe as possible. It wasn't the first time I had to do that, but it's something you never really get used to I guess...It's scary as hell every single time.

The snow here is nothing like the smooth snow in Lapland. Here the snow is quite rugged and it takes a lot of effort to prevent the sleigh from falling to it's side while skiing.

This season there's more than 15 expeditions on the ice, and two of them are from Finland. Pasi Ikonen and Poppis Suomela are doing the first Finnish expedition unsupported and I'm doing the first Finnish solo-expedition also unsupported. So this season Finland is strongly presented at the Antarctica.

Coordinates:
S80° 19.046'
W80° 10.770'
Route travelled (as the crow flies): 16.8 km

-13.11.2008- From bad to worse and back

Morning was pretty windy today and temperature was around -17 degrees. I learned that I didn't set up my tent exactly straight in view of the wind last night. Considering the wind was difficult, since yesterday evening the wind was pretty mild. Today I headed West to avoid crevasses, but I couldn't avoid them there either. I had to come back eastwards, so I pretty much spent the whole day zigzagging.

At daytime the freeze grew heavier, circa -21 degrees. Considering also the wind, overall the freeze dropped down to -32 degrees. I ended up in the middle of a sastrugi-field that I didn't think I would see here, and reasoned that it was time to quit for the day. Tomorrow's schedule includes some more uphill climbing. Hopefully things will get easier after that.

In the evening the temperature was -13 degrees and the wind calmed down to 7m/s. Let's hope for a favourable weather tomorrow, eventhough hoping such things seems a bit useless here...

Coordinates:
S80° 09.979'
W80° 07.508'
Route travelled (as the crow flies): 8.8 km

-12.11.2008- A tough ascent ahead

I crossed the 80. parallel of latitude this morning at 09.15 am and started my official expedition to the pole. Right from the start I have a tough ascent ahead that presumably takes couple of days with the heavy sleigh. Yesterday the plane left me and couple of other skiers a bit far from the original starting point, so in the evening I made a new route plan which cuts some curves. I headed straight to the uphill from Hercules Inlet, eventhough I was aware of the existence of few crevasses in the area. I had to go over three crevasses on the way but all of them were narrower than my ski. Still, the first crevasse is always quite scary thing to see and go over...

The first uphill skiing takes a lot of strenght, especially now that I've cutted some curves. The ascent comes more rapidly than with the original route plan that went trough the Nantucks. I skied about 7 hours and proceeded about 12 kilometers (as the crow flies). I still had to zigzag every now and then so overall I skied about 15 kilometers today. In the afternoon the wind got little heavier and the wind chill dropped down to -25 Celsius. Eventhough the weather was cloudy all day, visibility was still quite good. I had to put on my facemask since my skin isn't quite used to the cold breeze yet.

Tomorrow I will continue climbing the hill. After the hill, skiing will hopefully get a bit easier. Tomorrow I will move a bit obliquely to West, aiming to the 80. parallel of longitude which I will follow for a while to South.

Coordinates:
S80° 05.427'
W79° 58.895'
Route travelled (as the crow flies): 12 km

-11.11.2008-Blisters and sunburn

Today was the day that I'd been waiting for a long time. Morning was as calm and sunny as it was yesterday. In the afternoon we flew to Hercules Inlet and I finally got to ski a bit. Yesterday my face got little sunburnt and now my face looks pretty reddish. I also gained my first blisters to my thumb while taking of the cover tapes from the bottom of the pulka... Legs and toes are still intact.

I'm spending the night at Hercules Inlet. In the morning I will cross the 80. parallel of latitude and start my day of uphill skiing. So officially the expedition starts tomorrow when I cross the 80. parallel. Today I skied a few kilometers from the plane to my current coordinates, where I also camp for now.

Coordinates:
S79° 59.938'
W79° 40.627'

-10.11.2008-Flight to Patriot Hills

In the morning I finally got the phonecall I had been waiting for. After the phonecall I headed to the Punta Arenas airport with all the other expeditioners. The weather was beautiful and our Russian made Ilyushin-cargoplane took off at 10.30 am. The flight was crowded but went well, although the landing to Patriot Hills (iced) runway felt pretty slippery and the plane seemed to side slip at the braking.

The weather at Patriot Hills is calm and unclouded so stocktaking my gear was easy, even though it took some time to unload the plane that carried 50 passenger's expedition gears.

It has been an interesting day and I feel really enthusiastic and ready to go! Tomorrow includes some gear testing and packing the pulka. I might start skiing day after tomorrow!

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