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.
Day One Hundred, the Man Hug and the Rocky Punch (Day 100)
Day 100: S79° 10' 17.65", E168° 34' 32.88"
Duration: 10 Hr 30 Min
Daily distance: 23.6 Mi
Distance to go: 111.3 Mi
Temperature: -12 °C
Wind chill: -18 °C
Altitude: 118 Ft
Apologies for what will be a quick one again; I'm cooking (and cooking more than usual as we picked up the first depot with extra grub in it today) and we ended up skiing for ten-and-a-half hours as the conditions were so lousy, which meant about thirteen hours outside on our feet, and not getting inside the tent and taking our boots off until 9pm.
The sun shone for the first hour or so (and we had a cracking view of Minna Bluff to our north west, or to the front and left hand side as we ski towards Ross Island) before a giant blanket of cloud descended with tedious predictability, giving us every combination today from fog so thick we almost lost sight of each other a few metres apart, to a merely irritating flat light that made navigating hard. The surface was hopeless as well; really sticky with lots of lumps and ridges and mini-sastrugi, and it's been snowing most of the day which doesn't help matters either.
Despite all of that, our mojo was much improved today, principally as we're no longer starving hungry thanks to the bonus ration bag we can split over the next two days, giving us an extra 3,000 or so calories per day. I've gone for the Winnie the Pooh approach with mine (if I eat it all now there'll be less to drag tomorrow) but managed to save a few bars and the main meal so it'll be double dinner night tomorrow evening.
I've also been meaning to write about two other important techniques we've used to keep going. When Tarka was mid-way through a particularly epic expedition on the southern Patagonian icecap with his wife Katie (so epic that their tent was eventually shredded in a storm) he turned round during a blizzard to see her performing miniature shadow-boxing moves with her mittens on. "I'm pretending I'm Rocky. He would get through this", she shouted into the wind, by way of explanation.
The man hug is something the English rarely perform well or with any degree of comfort, except perhaps muddied, bloodied and battered after a good game of rugby, but it's something we're doing more and more out here, as a way of reaffirming our solidarity and defiance in the face of Antarctica's daily attempts to make our lives as challenging as possible. It's looking like four days left in the sledge harnesses as I type this, so the end is very much in sight now...
Comments
# Raffaele Mura, February 2nd 2014
Well guys.
Remember that you are walking,writing,and suffering for the history.
perhaps a century later…....................
Please live a virtual rose for Scott and team.
good luck
# Colin Buckley, February 2nd 2014
You both look good, you’re smiling and that’s important, it means the moral is still strong in you.
Not long now, Double dinner? Where? The sheraton? Ok I’ll book a table I’m offering…
Keep going.
God speed.
Colin
# McDowell Crook, February 2nd 2014
The Rocky Punch is now how I’m going to deal with every adverse condition I find myself in, ever.
# AlisonP, February 2nd 2014
You two amazing incredible guys look great in that photo. Despite the Antarctic monster continuing to throw all she has at you, you persevere triumphantly, hugging your way through it. I am a huge hugger myself (from the orher side of the pond), and I always think hugs can improve and delight in just about any situation. I wish we could see your huge man hug at the end! Just a few days/hugs to go!
# bee, February 2nd 2014
Fabulous!!
Hoping the surface improves for your last few days.
Keep hugging, stay safe and well.
# Nick, February 2nd 2014
Wait a minute people. For anyone to travel 1800 for a ‘free’ ride in a LandRover, surely all 1800 miles needs to be done.
4 days to go.
Thing is people. Christmas is once a year. You can’t have Christmas Day 4 days early unless you’re a millionaire and live in somewhere like Hyde Park London or more exclusive like Holland Park London in a plush house with a nice staircase. Or better than that, Kensington Palace Gardens where ‘fine manufacturers’ live.
If you like in a £68,000,000 Hyde Park apartment with glass windows and central heating on every day throughout the winter…then winter would never come, would it not?
The cold that is.
So for the majority of ordinary ‘the people’ of Society, Christmas does come once per every year.
So 4 days to go on the calendar is strictly 4 days. Let’s be as honest as a person working in Whitehall. But this isn’t Whitehall, it’s White snow & ice. Yes.
And when that final meter of 1800 miles is done?
One would expect a ride in a LandRover. At least on the last 25 miles (a marathon, to these people who do things in 1 day)...at least on the last 25 miles, you could pretty much walk into the record books and a rewritten history of what has been known all along as…
‘The Scott Expedition’.
# Minna, Finland, February 2nd 2014
Tired but happy, it´s good to see you smiling Ben and Tarka! Antarctica is getting tired too, it can´t beat you guys, although it´s still trying. Smile to the Antarctica too when you ski your way to your home. I wish bright days to both of you from Rovaniemi, Finland!
# Štěpán Hnyk, February 2nd 2014
Your endurance,both physical and mental, is utterly unbelievable. Every mile you pull is an impressive milestone by itself. Good luck fighting the beast of Antarctica for just a few more days!
# Sheila, February 2nd 2014
You look wonderful!
(I’ll miss these posts, but will forward to the Ted Talk !)
The Henry V speech someone posted earlier is very appropriate.
Getting closer guys…..
# Nora Wolfe, February 2nd 2014
I have not missed a single blog but soon will be missing you both. Thank goodness I will be able to see and hear the TED talk. Since you have the email address of all your commenters, I hope we get notified about up coming things like books, articles, talks, other comings and goings. I feel so gifted for being able to follow you here.
# Nick Webb, February 2nd 2014
Truly inspirational - you guys need to get on Jonathan Ross to inspire others….....
Interestingly, what do you have planned for your first couple of days in civilisation?
# dj, February 2nd 2014
How about an explanation for the ragged way the Pilot GPS system is treating the map the past few days. Sporadically misses trackpoints, shuts off at critical times along the trail, shuts off early, comes on late. Some of that is probably either Ben and Tarka or the “team’s” intervention, but is the poor old thing finally giving up the ghost? Has the weather gotten to it? or the terrain? [Does your arrangement with the “Pilot company” permit you to give an explanation?] So far it missed all the transmissions during the night (probably shut off) until one at an odd time (12:03 am) then shut off again all the way past former camp 18, was on for what looks like 7 transmissions (past camp #17) and now as they should be passing/visiting camp #16 it shuts off again? Can anything be done to at least show where they camp? Even if we’re not going to be able to follow the final legs of their journey?
# dj, February 2nd 2014
The times I reference are MST - GMT would be +7. It’s now shut off to miss the 7 pm GMT transmission as they SHOULD be at or passing former camp #17. Was there anything at that former camp that they needed to rearrange the sledge for and accidentally “bump” the wiring or something?
# dj, February 2nd 2014
Sorry, camp #16.
# Andy, February 2nd 2014
Hi DJ,
It has nothing to do with the Iridium Pilot - this is simply used to send back images, video and the daily blog post and there have never been any problems with this.
The hourly tracking positions come from the NAL Shout Nano tracking beacon which Ben and Tarka have been carrying for the entire journey. The occasional hourly point has been dropped over the course of the 101 days Ben and Tarka have been in Antarctica. This could be due to several reasons - for example the beacon not picking up enough satellites to get a fix or the internal battery in the unit dying if it gets too cold. The only outside reason that a position would not be sent (for example last night) would be that Ben and Tarka have switched it off over night to recharge the battery fully following my instruction. I would instruct them to do this if I had noticed a couple of hourly positions over a day have not been received (again yesterday would be an example). This is ensure that you are able to follow the journey in as real time as possible.
Ben and Tarka’s nightly camp positions are shown every day on the Scott Expedition Google Earth file regardless of positions on the tracker being dropped and we have always made sure their camp positions are documented on each blog post.
I will obviously inform Ben and Tarka that some positions have been dropped today on my daily call with them once they have set up camp tonight. They will make sure the battery is full but beyond that there is nothing they can do to ensure an hourly position is sent back and we have to assume the tracker is slowly giving up the ghost. At least its only needs to survive four more days :-)
# dj, February 3rd 2014
Thanks Andy… So, I assume that the Nano has its own transmitter relayed (I assume) through satellites; and that the trouble you had with it near the pole - which was resolved by going back to the Pilot - had to do with “recharging” (or something) and NOT going through a “stronger” transmitter? [Sure wish I knew specifically how you were accomplishing routing the GPS signal and track from it back through your server and out to the .kml file so I could discuss with intelligence instead of a bunch of guesses - it’s embarrassing.]
# dj, February 3rd 2014
Andy… I assume that because their GPS tracker wasn’t turned off after you spoke with them, they knew the problem wasn’t due to a low battery issue (perhaps just being turned off) - it looks like it transmitted the complete coverage during the night AND (more importantly to me) no “blackouts” during today.