We only covered a few hundred metres more today than we did yesterday, and the surface is still very poor, but we had a bit of sunshine today and for some reason both my spirit and my stamina seemed a great deal higher than they did 24 hours ago. In fact I'd go as far as saying I actually enjoyed at least part of today, and I'm feeling upbeat about the coming weeks.

I'll keep it short now as I'm a) exhausted and b) on cooking duty but here are answers to a couple more questions:

Q) What have you enjoyed most so far?

A) Seeing Scott's Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans was an incredible experience. Other than that, a hot meal and climbing in my sleeping bag each evening are daily highlights! 

Q) Do you build a wall around the tent to protect it from the wind?

A) We've done this once so far, but generally our Hilleberg Keron is pretty good in the wind, as long as it's pitched facing into it. 

Q) How do you prevent frostbite?

A) Mostly through having good clothing and equipment (thanks Mountain Equipment!) and by being diligent. I avoid having bare hands when I'm outside and use thin fleece gloves for fiddly tasks (tying a knot or using a Leatherman to tighten a screw, for example) and big mittens over the top when we're skiing. I keep my face covered a lot of the time as well, with a mask called a Gorilla. We have big polar boots (Alfa North Pole Extreme Gtx) with Intuition liners and so far they seem great.

Also, a belated thank you to everyone that answered ours about runny noses, and a quick hello to my brother Steven, to Cat, Lottie and Eva, and to his pupils (and indeed all the pupils!) at Aiglon College.