Etelänapa 2008 - South Pole 2008 - Antarctic Solo Expedition

MISSION MOTOR ANTARCTICA DIARY EQUIPMENT PARTNERS

"I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward." -David Livingstone

DIARY

-30.11.2008- A skiing tour 2

Weather was serene and the sun was shining in the morning so I was tempted to go for another skiing tour to test my leg and side.

I started at 10 am and decided to ski around Patriot Hills. Patriot Hills is a small mountain range that climbes up few hundred meters above the ice. Behind the Patriot Hills and the Basecamp lies Independence Hills, which is slightly bigger mountain range. I climbed to the valley between Patriot Hills and Independence Hills heading from east. During the whole climb I faced a steady 10m/s headwind. As the weather was perfect when leaving Basecamp, I didn't take the facemask with me. I almost gave up during the climb but decided to push forward to the top to see if the wind blows to the same direction there.

Once I got to the valley, the wind subsided significantly and I decided to continue skiing. The views were pretty spectacular. I skiied the Patriot Hills side of the valley and the dashing Independence Hills could be seen couple of kilometers away.

At the midpoint I realised that the jet of my drinking backpack had been frozen, so that sealed my decision to make the rest of the round not stopping to eat at all. I had taken some cookies with me but I wasn't that hungry after the breakfast anyway.

There's two ways to go down from the valley. The first, called Windy Pass, shortens the round for 4 or 5 kilometers, but according to its name, it's very windy. So I chose the long but less windy option. I got to enjoy downhill skiing for a kilometer when I headed back to Patriot Hills Basecamp. The last 6 or 7 kilometers were very rough snow so it took 1,5 hours for me to get back to the camp. The total distance of the route was about 25 kilometers and it took 5 hours to ski.

I still have couple of days before I get to continue my expedition so I'll propably do a similar skiing tour somewhere nearby before that.

-29.11.2008- GIANT BLUE DINORAUS EGG FOUND FROM PATRIOT HILLS

A few days ago ALE co-owner Mike Sharp found a suspicious blue egg shaped object sticking out of snow near the Patriot Hills Base. After few days of carefull digging the whole egg shaped object has been revealed and I am confident that the science world will be excited to see the long lost Antactic dinosaur egg.

The egg is almost completely blue with a few odd white and black spots and the surface is smooth. We had to use shovels, hammers and even the Tucker snow-vehicle to dig the whole egg up and I am proud to be able to say that I had the honor to participate on the digging.

The egg is most likely the only surviving egg of the Antarctic cold climate dinosaur called Antarctosaur. According to the anonymous self-learned Antarctic paleontogist the Antarctosaurs were very large animals and are considers to be the opposite force to fire-breathing dragons. The Antarctosaurs breath super cold air and can freeze anything instantly and even form glaciers. The same anonymous self-learned Antarctic paleontologist says that this historical egg will reveal a new theory on how glaciers we formed around the world. Unfortunately no Antarctosaur remains have ever been found but now scientists will have new undisputed proof of their excistence.

Some sceptics might call the egg as the Chilean Inach Base but we all know the truth behind this...

-28.11.2008- A skiing tour

Today I made a 20 kilometers skiing tour to see how my leg and side reacts to the stress. I feel positive to see that my leg is starting to feel ok, but my side still hurts if I push hard with the ski pole. Yesterday we witnessed quite a snow drift here in Patriot Hills, so there was a lot of soft snow and a very poor contrast. It was hard to see the varying surface so I settled for a slow and careful pace.

En route I saw a DC-6 airplane that was embedded in snow and only the helm was visible. ALE's owner, Mr. Mike Sharp told me that the legend says that in 1993 or 1994 the DC-6 was landing to Patriot Hills in a bad weather. The pilot didn't know that there was a small hump on the surface slightly before the runway. The landing gear crashed into the hump and the pilot was forced to carry out an emergency landing 8,5 kilometers from the runway. During 14 years the plane has been embedded in snow and only a part of the helm is visible. The helm is aligned to the direction of the wind so it takes some time for it to completely disappear to the white, white landscape.

-27.11.2008- The expedition continues

Finally it seems that the expedition continues after all. Unfortunately the continuation isn't possible from the coordinates I was previously picked up because all the inner flights are fully booked here in Antarctica.

ALE has been very kind to me and Mr. Steve Jones has really gone to great lenghts trying to arrange me a possibility to ski the last degree to the Pole. I will get to ski the last degree in December. There has been one cancellation on the flight to the Pole on 5. December, so they will take me with them and drop me of near the 89. parallel of latitude. I will ski Solo from the 89.parallel to the Pole and wait there for the return flight to Patriot Hills.

My tibia (shinbone) is beginning to look like a leg again and the Doctor thinks that I could try out skiing tomorrow to see how my leg reacts to stress. My side still looks very black and blue. I quit the painkillers yesterday and now my broken costa actually hurts more than my leg. Especially the mornings feel uncomfortable if I have mistakenly slept in an undesirable position.

-26.11.2008- Waiting

It's a new day at Patriot Hills and waiting is the keyword today.

At the moment I'm not completely sure if it's possible for me to continue my expedition, because the pick up flight seems difficult to arrange. All the planes are fully booked and if there happens to be one place left, it's either me or my pulka that fits to the plane, not both.

If the ALE personnel comes up with a suitable pick up day, there's also the flight to arrange to my new starting point. I cannot continue my expedition from here because time will run up in consideration of the pick up flight and the food supplies.

I'm staying in a clam tent here in Patriot Hills. The ALE personnel have been kind enough to also offer me a possibility to use their mess tent. So they have been more than kind and helpful. Mr. Steve Jones has really made effort trying to arrange flights so that I would still be able to continue my expedition this year.

If it turns out that the logistics won't allow me to continue, there's nothing I can do but to come home and try again next year.

-25.11.2008- Plan changed

This time, the original plan has come to its end, which is not very flattering. My tibia (shinbone) is badly bruised and my costa is broken so I had to turn back to the Basecamp to heal my wounds, so to speek.

All the equipment and methods worked well and there's no single exterior cause for the injury. The skis and bindings turned out to be excellent and so did the pulka, cooker box and other equipment.

I have faced a lot of bad luck during this expedition. First the lost jacket, then the flu right when leaving Chile and now this falling. The falling happened on the sastrugi field. Those of you who have been on sastrugi field know that all of the roughness cannot be avoided or passed round, and there's no time to constantly do that. So at times one have to cope on a difficult ground. How did the falling happen? As I climbed down the sastrugi my ski came to the ground on its side and the "skin" in the bottom of the ski didn't hold as it normally would. So the ski just slid under me and the rest is history. When going solo it's not possible to have somebody around to ease the weight of the pulka so everything depends on one guy only. Every Solo expeditioner knows that in an blink of an eye, injury or disablement may cut the expedition completely and that is the risk you have to take.

In one second, three years of planning, training, all the effort and hard work...just blows in the wind like that. But it's the nature of the game. My leg and side injuries are not irrevocable so I might be able to get on my skis after recovering a while. As I fell, I got some other bruises too, but I think the biggest hit was to my pride. After the incident I went through a lot of feelings but the main thing is to be rational and base the decisions on that.

I'm staying in Patriot Hills couple of days and if the doctors and logistics give me green light, I will continue my expedition.

-24.11.2008- Bumpy road

I managed to email a picture of my leg to ALE's doctor and he strongly suggested that it would be wise if they took a look at my leg before I continue trekking any further.

My location was hard to reach by airplane so the ALE field crew used a caterpillar vehicle to take me to Patriot Hills. The ride from my camp to Patriot Hills was very long and bumpy. I spent about six (6) hours in a small vehicle cabin. Now and again the ride felt like being inside a washing maschine because of the rough sastrugi.