-07.12.2008- Back on skis again at Camp Brandit I

Finally the weather cleared so I'm on the move again! Unfortunately few days of flights delayed caused me to start closer to the Pole, because the flight schedule became strained and I have to be on particular return flight to the Patriot Hills.

This is camp Brandit I and it starts the last part of the expedition. It takes little more than 100 km to the Pole from here and I have maximum of 9 days till the return flight leaves from the Pole. What makes it tough is that my altitude is 2800 meters and the fast ascent by airplane causes some need for acclimation. I really felt the difference in altitude when I skiied from the drop off point to my current location. My heart was beating faster than normal and breathing was little harder. Tomorrow I'm going to ski only few kilometers to give my body some time to adjust to higher altitude.

Drop off point:
S88° 59.262'
W82° 25.377'

Camp coordinates:
S89° 00.761'
W82° 09.895'

Route travelled: 2.8 km

-06.12.2008- Finnish Independence Day fiest

Independence Day salutation to Finland from Antarctica!

In honor of the Independence Day I wanted to be active, so in the morning I decided to climb to Patriot Hills to enjoy the view from the top. Patriot HIlls was very windy as usual but luckily there were shelter from the wind every now and there during our climb. On our way ALE's guide enlighted me about the geology of Antarctica which was nice. After few hours of walking lunch tasted really good.

After the lunch there didn't seem to be much to do, so some of the ALE personnel and I evolved an idea to build an IGLU. Set to straight away... Our building constractor was Mike, who already had a bright idea of how things should go down. My job was to saw blocks from the snow and with everybody's input, the iglu was ready after just couple of hours. It's diameter was close to two meters. After it was finished, we had a Finnish Independence Day fiest in our brand new iglu with some home made mulled wine. And believe it or not, the attendance was as high as 16 at a time.

-05.12.2008- Wind, wind and more wind

According the meteorologist it was gusting over 40 knots last night and it definetely sounded like that. Luckily I have earplugs with me so I that I can get sleep even inside a jet turbine. Although in the morning I woke up to complete silence. I took the earplugs off and after I've taken them off I had to try if I had accientally put on two pairs of plugs last night as I still didn't hear anything. Finally I had to say something out loud to be sure if I had an acute deafness or if it was just complete silence all around. Right after I got scared of my own voice I realised that the wind is indeed died out and the camp bathed in complete silence.

The mercifull silence only lasted about half an hour and the wind picked up again. Now it's steady 40 knots and gusting even more. It looks as though the planes are still grounded until tomorrow afternoon. The forecast says that the wind should slowly decrease tomorrow but we'll have to see what happens.

-04.12.2008- The waiting game

So... Now the waiting game has started. A snowstorm started yesterday evening and seems to continue today so all flights are cancelled. According the weather forecast the same kind of weather is continueing at least for a couple of days so the waiting continues...

-03.12.2008- Addition to yesterday's update

Around nine o'clock yesterday evening I went to climb on top of Patriot Hills with Shawn and Asti. We drove to Windy Pass with Skidoos and started climbing from there. The wind was quite strong so we decided to turn back after an hour or two eventhough we hadn't reached the highest peak yet. The wind was steady 40-45 knots so it was hard balancing on the ridge.

When we arrived to the camp two TwinOtters left for Mount Vinson to take a few climbers there and to bring almost twenty back to Patriots. It was a bit hard to get sleep as the planes get around.

Today it's been a windy day at Patriots and the flight from Punta Arenas to here has been cancelled so the earliest day I get to start skiing is the 6th. The waiting here is really boring but the start day is always a day closer... I've charged all the batteries and organised everything so that everything a ready to go.

-02.12.2008- Empty day

Today was an empty day. I planned to go skiing today but ended up organising my equipment. I walked around Patriot Hills camp for awhile but eventually ended up sitting and drinking tea at the dining tent.

The next flight from Punta Arenas to here is most likely a day or two late. The weather forecast for tomorrow is snow and a bit wind so the visibility is not good enough for the plane to land. The runway is in 90 angle to the main wind direction so if there is more than 15 knots of wind the landing is not possible. Also if the temperature is higher than -6 degrees celsius the ice gets so slippery that safe landing is not possible as the plane will skid too much. When I arrived from Punta Arenas to Patriot Hills you could feel the plane skid sideways before the plane came to a full stop.

The Chileans have put their tent near the blue base which was dug up a few days ago. Most of the their tents are the old Scott tent type and you could get a really nostalgic picture of them unless there were the snow-mobiles and other modern stuff next to the tents. The camp itself is off-limits but it would be interesting to see what kind of activities the Chileans have.

-01.12.2008- December

Today was again a sunny day eventhough there were some clouds on the sky. The temparature here is summerlike and it's about -15 degrees celcius when the sun shines. A lot of suncreme is been used and eventhough the spf is 36 it still doesn't seem to be enough at times.

I've been organising my tent and sled the whole day so that I'm ready to go when the time comes. I've left all the extra food and fuel off as I'm not able to continue from the same place were I was picked up. So, I don't need all the 40 day food anymore. Now the sled feels quite light and roomy.

As the flights from Punta to here have been late so far, it might be that I have to still wait a few days extra here at Patriot Hills. The plan is that the flight to 89 dergee is scheduled on 5th of December but we'll see how that goes.

Yesterday I forgot to mention that I finally recieved my proper spare jacket which was sent to me by Fjallraven after the original jacket was stolen from the cargo. The jacket arrived a day before yesterday when a flight from Punta arrived here but I recieved the jacket yesterday morning when I came to breakfast. Before I left from Punta Arenas to here the replacement jacket was stuck at Santiago because the customs personnel was in strike. Just before my flight to Antarctica I went and got a whole new jacket from an outdoorshop but that jacket hasn't worked very well and I've needed to use an extra mid-layer underneath the shell. Now I get to do the last bit of skiing with a proper jacket.

<== 24.11.2008                 NEWEST UPDATE                          08.12.2008 ==>