Tracking
the Journey
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Distance to go:
0 Mi
Distance
Ben and Tarka will cover 1800 miles starting from Scott's Terra Nova Hut at the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back to the coast again. That's equivalent to 69 back-to-back marathons hauling up to 200kg each (the weight of roughly two adult men) of kit and supplies necessary to survive.
Distances here are shown in statute miles.
As Good as it Gets (Day 35)
Day 35: S82° 32' 17.988", E169° 31' 43.320"
Duration: 8 Hr 30 Min
Daily distance: 18.7 Mi
Distance to go: 1443.6 Mi
Temperature: -8 °C
Wind chill: -17 °C
Altitude: 138 Ft
I wondered during the first ten or so days of this expedition if we'd ever get a day like today. Early on, when the surface was like glue and our nearly 200kg sleds seemed almost impossible to move; when we worked like dogs and bruised our hips from pulling so hard just to get 3.5 miles (5.7km) in a day, I was hating this expedition. I had never suffered physically so much in my life, yet I didn't want to admit my misery.
People sent well-meaning messages like "Enjoy every second, you've worked so hard to get there" and "Don't forget to take time to look around and appreciate how lucky you are", and all I could do was swear and curse and grit my teeth as we dragged our absurdly heavy loads inch by inch into the murky whiteout, our skis sinking into the snow's soft crust and the blizzard lashing and spitting at us, raging against the insult of our presence. Perhaps I've gone soft, I wondered to myself. I'm sure I used to have moments of pleasure and contentment on expeditions so profound that they've kept me dragging sleds for twelve years. Yet it never came. I'd expected to fall in love with Antarctica in a flash, yet all I seemed to feel was horror at the sentence I'd imposed on myself, embarrassment that we could hardly move our sleds, and a gloomy resignation at the monotony of the cloud, the wind, the sticky snow and the pan-flat horizon whichever way I turned.
Things have improved each day, of course, and today was the one where it all made sense. The sun was out, the wind was gentle (and even puffed feebly at our backs for a brief spell), the surface was fine, and we pushed beyond the 30km barrier for the first time. All day, the mountains to our right seemed to expand in scale and majesty, and framed by a few high brush strokes of cloud, the beauty of the view and the sense of awe and gratitude and privilege I felt at being here were something I'm struggling to put into words. How many people, I thought, have seen this range with their own eyes?
It was a special day, and given the pace we're sustaining (and way the distances we're covering each day are increasing) Tarka and I are both feeling pretty content as we lie here this evening with bellies full of chicken and pasta.
I'm going to sign off by wishing all of my friends in America (I was happily reflecting today that there are too many of you to list here) - and indeed everyone in the United States who's reading this - a very happy Thanksgiving.
And I've got a few answers for Liz Hoskins' class who posted some questions on the blog:
Q) (From Olivier) How many times have you fallen over? A) Haha! That's top secret. (Actually, I think Tarka's going to talk about that when he sends his blog post back - apparently it's nearly ready...)
Q) (From Sasha) Why is it called Antarctica? A) Hi Sasha. Embarassingly, I'm not really sure, other than that it's at the opposite end of the planet to the Arctic. Let me know if you can find out any more detail than that!
Q) (From Mia) Have you had any fun with snowballs? A) Thanks Mia! I'm sad to say that the snow here is rubbish for snowballs (or snowmen) - it's dry, powdery and fine and doesn't stick together at all well. The most fun I have in the snow is digging a hole every evening in the porch of our tent, about two feet deep, so we can step down into it and sit on the edge of our inner tent like a chair in order to take our boots off (and put them on again in the morning). I'll send back a photo soon to show you what it looks like, but I've always loved digging holes!
Comments
# Rosie, November 29th 2013
Glad to hear you are having a good time even if it is just occasionally.
# Matt Healy , November 29th 2013
Loving the journey you guys are taking us all on as you slowly move toward the pole. I am becoming increasing addicted to the daily updates. Glad you had a really good day. Amazing to see the trans Antarctic mountains slowly creeping into view. I’m loving every second of your journey (from the safety and comfort of home)
# CaninesCashews, November 29th 2013
Hi guys,
So you’ve knocked down over 86 miles in 5 days - amazing - not long to Beardmore!
Talking of which most people will have heard of Movember, raising awareness and funds for men’s cancers. Now in the UK we have Beards for Bowels - for the month of Decembeard!
So if any of you out there want to grow a beard for Decembeard take a look at http://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/decembeard/
although it might be a bit tricky to catch up with Ben’s magnificent (if slightly greying!) facial follicles!
Back to the expedition - good to read a searingly honest description of your thoughts over those first couple of weeks. We felt your frustration here and now we feel your joy.
Lovely to see some more of the school kids getting answers to their questions - how wonderful that must be, sitting in a classroom thousands of miles away receiving answers from two men, alone in the middle of this amazing landscape whilst they attempting this tremendous challenge. There is no better tool for teaching than putting children at the heart of history as it is made, you should be very proud - they won’t forget it.
Stay safe.
Gav
# Tor Bertin, November 29th 2013
Is there any chance of posting a full (or mostly full) list of gear you’ve taken on the expedition? Your last post on the subject inspired me to buy a gorilla balaclava and wool socks. Would like to further supplement my winter gear, and sate my curiosity.
# Nansen, November 29th 2013
Agreed - that would be fantastic.
# Richard Pierce, November 29th 2013
Great distance again. You’ll be at S83 soon.
It’s very interesting (and I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday) that as your writing has become more rythmical and cohesive, so has your sledding. I know most people would put that the other way round, but I think this is the right way. Your mind is now in the right zone to carry your body forwards.
I hope that all your days will be like this one.
R
# varry mccullough, November 29th 2013
As in all things the good days make it more possible to cope with the bad days and also appreciate the good days with huge amazement! I share your utter joy!
# Peter Seaborn, November 29th 2013
Hi guys, I am interested to do the walk in a couple years. Thanks to you two I can now show my wife how achievable the pole is, Anyhow my question is how do you avoid getting foot blisters which would be my biggest concern?
# Lucy Scott (Scott's great granddaughter), November 29th 2013
Hello Ben and Tarka, It is fantastic to see the progress you are making. Another day with an incredible mileage and still with such heavy sledges - you are steaming ahead towards the Beardmore! It’s incredibly inspiring to read your blogs every day and to see the stunning videos and photos. Your descriptions of each day on the ice are really bringing your expedition to life for us following along. As many others have said your writing is wonderful!
Glad the surface is giving you some good slide for those sleds! I read this quote the other day from Sir Raymond Priestley (Geologist from Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition and Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition) which is pretty fitting.
“Half the fascination an Antarctic expedition possesses is to be found in the sharpness of the contrasts experienced during its course, for it appears to be true that a hell one day is liable to make a heaven the next.”
It is fantastic to see so many school children are following and engaging with your expedition. You are inspiring a new generation!
As far as I know regarding the origin of the name Antarctica.
-The belief in an Southern landmass dates back to classical geography. The Ancient Greeks believed in the existence of a ‘great southern continent’. They believed that the large known landmasses of the Northern Hemisphere had to be balanced in the South, derived from ideas of symmetry in nature.
(And this partly comes from the Oxford dictionary) It is the polar opposite in name of the Arctic. It originally comes from Greek (antarktikos) - ‘opposite to the north’ - ‘ant’- meaning against and arktikos - arctic. The word ‘Arctic’ or ‘arktikos’ comes from the Greek word for bear ‘arctos’ and is named after the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and Little Bear (Ursa Minor) constellations that appear in the Arctic sky all year round.
Arctic - land of the bear (meaning constellation of stars, rather than polar bear)
Antarctic - land without bear, opposite of Arctic.
Wishing you both all the best! And many more days of magic like this one!
Lucy
# Boris Chrenko, November 29th 2013
Hey guys,
Huge respect from Slovakia :)
Love to look at the dots on the map and see how you are increasing your mileage every day! You are on your journey for more than 30 days now, which is a usual time to create a habit and your expedition is proving this. It’s amazing to watch how you are winning against the struggle like a rocket fighting with the force of gravity. Keep it up and the South Pole is yours!
Wish you luck guys!
B.
# Ben Kaufman, November 29th 2013
Ben - great work here on the blog. It must feel like a chore some days after a hard pull - but thank you for your persistence. LOVE the seamless mixture of grand philosophical vistas and candid/raw details of the daily struggle.
A suggestion for the little penguin if he is still looking for a name: “Parhelion” a derivation of “Parhelic” as in the Parhelic line/circle…that mostly invisible (but sometimes beautifully visible) line of circumference that is visible at your latitude…an oblique reference to that skinny/fleeting line that you two are making across a frozen wilderness that while obfuscated after only an hour of spindrift, is abundantly visible from our latitude…a metaphorical reference to the sun and it’s sustaining power as your source of energy, visibility, and constancy throughout your journey…we, like the Parhelic line itself depend wholly upon the sun for our continued existence - may Parhelion the Penguin (who is entry dependent upon you for his locomotion and protection) be a reminder that whether at the Pole or amongst the crowds if Picadilly, that our existence can be simultaneously viewed as both fleeting and permanent depending on our orientation to the Sun…
# Katherine, November 29th 2013
Digging holes now has a whole new meaning! Good to know you guys are having a variety of happy times. There is so much beauty in the world. Your descriptions of the land offers sentiments about an environment which I will probably never experience (unless there is a sudden ice age). Very appreciative of your efforts, communication, attention to details, and realness of experience.
# John Brain, November 29th 2013
Your great photo today is remarkable for its resonance with Scott’s diary entry for 1 December when they were at 82 deg. 47’.
“We started in bright warm sunshine and with the mountains wonderfully clear on our right-hand…”
# John Brain, November 29th 2013
..... but I am reminded that Scott’s ‘good weather day’ foreshadowed the blizzard which followed and kept him in camp for 4 full days before the ascent of Beardmore could begin. Fingers crossed!
# Dave, November 29th 2013
Thank you for the great daily blogs. Each and every morning I look forward to reading you notes while I eat breakfast. Several years ago I summited many of the “fourteeners” in Califonia. We frequenly camped in the snow. It was a satifying feeling to be in such a remote location relying on the food, shelter, and fuel we brought with us. Your stories bring back those memories.
A couple questions: Will anyone you know be meeting up with you at the south pole reasearch station? How long do you intend on staying there before the journey back?
Keep up the good work. Stay strong.
# dj, November 29th 2013
They’ve previously mentioned that they don’t intend to go to the research station, they’ve never mentioned how long they intend to linger (probably won’t be long) - I’d like to fly over and be on the sidelines as they pull up to the pole (I don’t suppose they could say anything about it if someone was there with a cup of hot coco).
# Mal Owen, November 29th 2013
I think Ben would prefer a decent coffee !
# Mal Owen, November 29th 2013
Magical moment for it all to make sense…can’t begin to understand how that realisation must have felt.
Bad days allow a sense of accomplishment when the good days come. Fingers/everything crossed for those good days to keep on coming !
I love the way you’ve answered the kids questions…they will be sooo chuffed - you have given them their magical moments to remember… so important for a childs journey.
# dj, November 29th 2013
Can you believe it now? Three nights from tonight you’ll be camping either at the foot of the Gateway or on the Beardmore!
# Nick, November 29th 2013
I know how you feel, but from a warmer Northern climate, Northern England. Many people bust their gut everyday and do hard work, only for a system of Government departments to rubbish those on benefits. I say, ‘we all do hard work’. Many people work hard throughout their lives, i’m nearly 40, but many others don’t see our work or see us whilst we work, whether we’re employed, unemployed, on the sick or rich enough not to do any work, but do it anyway. Whatever our circumstances. And then there’s people like you, extreme journey/extreme sports or extreme expeditions who also bust your gut working for it - what you get from it. The purpose and reason of it all.
No one can take away what we ourselves know inside us. Who we are and what we have done.
Like I say, Government departments trash us all the time with help of a ‘media TV News’ and we try and ‘get through the system’ of it all, back at home in the ‘real world’...and we don’t have any TV to broadcast to millions. We don’t have that. We only have the internet.
And they you are in the real world, but very extreme. And breaking pace, and breaking through it all and you really do want a thanks now and then, like manual labour/graft. But thanks comes in little amounts.
I think Intel, a company who works very hard 24 hours of the day, keeping those cleanrooms dust free, they know fine and so does Land Rover who make vehicles for this planet Earth to ride and climb through mud and dirt and soil. They’ll thank you two, one day, given a few months maybe. And you need so much luck and strength.
But there’s so many people on the internet and it’s our way this internet thing. Our voice in certain shapes and sounds if you like and we pretty much get it. Sense of humour or advice or a bit talk? Or our own experiences? But I for one have done some extreme laboursome jobs and when you spend 7 hours taking out a tree root and succeed or 2 months sweeping a street of leaves which you don’t get paid for….i’ve done it….there’s something inside us what keeps us going and i’ve been through the breakdown of life as well and there I was two weeks ago doing my 4/5 mile run around the long block and I woke up one mornign and did a 13 mile run in the Great North, because I needed to ask a question…
How long would it take me to do the Great North run (non stop)? Answer 2 hours 40 minutes and the last mile was really tough and focusing. People who do the 2 hour of that run ! that’s not harder, just fitter than myself.
When you spend years of doing laboursome jobs, breakdown, then do it all again. How many people do these things? And then you give yourself more time for a run?
Why? Because I like the rush adrenaline and pain I guess. It is a thrill. Maybe personal push and drive.
And there’s so many of us out here ! there is. And we’re not a GP living in a world of £100k pa office. Our strength comes from within a ‘knowledge of life experience’ - not some thrilly text book group therapy !
Sorry, but no.
If people only knew, our very own (life situation) and your expedition is something we now know ! it’s in the open of the internet. And I wish I could broadcast a few facts of Government over the airways of self opinionated media reporters !
For that I go and do another dvd or run or shopping trip to live like we all do.
# Sheila England , November 29th 2013
Great perspective in that photo! Lovely view. As I was trying to warm up under the covers last night, hot-water bottle by my feet (I love to switch the thermostat down at night), I was wondering how long it takes for you to warm up in your sleeping bags when you finally bed down for the night, and what is it like sleeping it that environment, esp. when the wind kicks up?
I hope the good weather keeps up for you.
Sweet dreams,
Sheila
# Helen, November 29th 2013
Hi guys,
Warm greetings from Russia!
Thank you for such an inspiring description of your expedition. It is already a habit to open your blog and read about the great job you are doing every day.
It doesn’t matter how hard all this is now, cause when you will be at safety of your home you will remind every single second of your journey with absolute 100% happiness.
Wish you luck guys!
# ale, November 29th 2013
Hi Ben and Tarka,
it seems that the most tricky questions were the ones from the kids!!!! :-)
Good to know that even you super heros are sometimes soffering a little! But I am even so sorry about your poor situation in the previous days.
Wish you a pleasant going!!!
Ale
# roy foreman, November 30th 2013
anyone tell me how far before they start to climb the breadmore
# Nate B, December 1st 2013
Arctic means Bear in some native language of the Eskimo. Therefore Antarctic is Anti-bear or the place without bears. Eagerly reading your updates each morning at McMurdo Station! All the best from all of us here with the United States “Anti-bear” Program!