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.
Deja Vu (Day 104)
Day 104: S77° 52' 32.34", E167° 24' 47.88"
Duration: 10 Hr
Daily distance: 25.1 Mi
Distance to go: 11.1 Mi
Temperature: -9 °C
Wind chill: -22 °C
Altitude: 197 Ft
As I type this, we're camped about 15km from our Ross Island finish line, which is less than four hours' skiing away. We'll have a massive lie-in tomorrow before setting off in the afternoon, principally as the bases here run on New Zealand time, which is 11 hours ahead of us, so if anyone's going to be there to wave us over the line and take a photo for our holiday snaps, we need to fit in with their time zone.
Antarctica, true to form, didn't make life easy or comfortable for us today, and the weather seemed to be messing* with us in a spookily adversarial fashion; luring us - wearing far too little - out of the tent with bright sunshine and a still warmth first thing, before pelting us with a blizzard barely ninety minutes later. The wind intensified just as we stopped to eat and drink at our first break, and as we sat on our sledges with our down jackets on and our backs to the gale, whirling eddies and vortices of sandy spindrift were spun up into our faces, filling our pockets and sledges and anything else left unzipped for more than a few seconds with fine, gritty snow. It calmed down before we started skiing, then revved up again at the next break, in a pattern that dogged us for most of the day.
As I mentioned yesterday, our sheer exhaustion seems to be overriding any chance of outright back-slapping glee at being so close to pulling this vast journey off (our GPS says we've clocked a cumulative 2,859km now, which is 68 back-to-back marathons dragging sledges) but team morale is definitely much improved, and the prospect of skiing a mere 15km after a big lie-in seems infinitely more manageable than another mammoth day. Interestingly, despite never having seen the view we faced today, skiing past White Island towards the giant flanks of Mount Erebus until we picked up our final (hundred-day-old!) depot, before hanging a left and heading past Castle Rock towards McMurdo Sound, the scenery felt strangely familiar after so many years of dreaming of reaching this point.
We'll start skiing tomorrow in the late afternoon UK time so don't be alarmed if the tracker doesn't budge for a while after our usual kick-off. We should finish in the evening, but it may take us a while to get online again and send a blog post back, so watch this space. I'm sure Andy, Chessie and the team in London will update the site as soon as we phone in from Ross Island, so you'll be the first to know when we're home and dry.
At the moment, the magnitude of it all hasn't really sunk in yet, though I'm excited about getting more than five hours sleep for the first time in weeks, and I suspect lying here tomorrow morning the excitement - and if I'm honest, the sheer relief - may start to finally kick in...
*This may not be the precise word Tarka used as we were shouting at each other in the blizzard, but it was hard to hear him over the wind.
Comments
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
(9:17 GMT) About 2.5 miles from the towers and containers at the end of Willy Field Road. Not long until they hit the road into Scott Base. Did 0.27 miles that last segment - must have taken a break. Good on ‘em!
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
( 8:32 pm GMT) Somethings happened to the tracker - no trackpoint for this time segment.
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
(9:36 pm GMT) They’ve been about a quarter mile south of their former outbound trail and now look like they’re turning slightly north to join it as the most direct route to the end of the Willey Field Road. Those watching on Google Earth can zoom your view in to about 1,000 feet altitude and actually see markings on the tops of the containers in the storage field at the end of the road. Google must have gotten it’s recent image from a low altitude source (lower than the usual satellite). It’s kinda neat!
In their first hour they did 2.42 miles (3.9 km) - right on the money compared with first hours on previous days. This last segment they’ve sledged 1.19 miles, which was posted at 9:36 pm GMT
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
(9:48 pm GMT) For those following on Google Earth: while you are zooming your field of view altitude in to about 1,000 feet, you not only can see very good detail of the containers in the Willy Road container field you can see good texture in the snow they are trudging over as well. It looks like your seeing cottage cheese from about a half an inch through a magnifying glass. Keeping in mind those “bumps” are big enough to be seen at 1,000 feet they probably aren’t the kind you would trip over in the dark - more like the kind you’d fall off of!
This past segment they traveled 1.25 miles and are pretty much on their former outbound trail leading them to the end (or beginning) of the graded road. [Looks like their automatic timing has ‘slipped’ by a minute]
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
Sorry, had my machine set on metric. The last two segments were 0.74 miles and 0.77 miles respectfully. Pretty good time any way you look at it!
# Heidi, February 6th 2014
I love this information! Thank you.
# Mal Owen, February 6th 2014
Love the commentary… Thx
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
(3:03 pm GMT) about 0.8 miles now from the storage containers and 1.4 miles from the graded Willy Road - well, as graded as snow can be. Making great time. Sledged 0.36 miles that last segment.
# Roderik, February 6th 2014
11 miles - no kidding. How fitting, one could argue.
Ben and Tarka, I salute you. I salute your effort, your sheer determination, your zest and the true grit you have shown. Thank you for the honour of letting us share in the adventure. You have made the world that bit more beautiful over the past few months, and everywhere on the planet people eagerly await your safe return (and will have to go cold turkey on those delicious daily updates). Thanks a bunch to the support team as well of course, what a wonderful team of people you must be.
A few years ago when standing at Shackleton’s grave in Grytviken, South Georgia, I told the Boss how important it is to know about brave men, about role models, about fulfilling dreams and, as you as no other can attest, that perseverance and believing in yourself will pay off. Leading by example is the phrase that describes best how you have etched yourselves into Antarctic history. This all may sound corny as heck and I’m not sure what I’m trying to say but, if anything, the fact that there are people like you out there does give people like me an opportunity to shed a man-tear once a while.
May the –very!- near future be filled with many, many warm hugs, giant steaks, and the knowledge that the journey on ice you started quite some time ago, has ended. Safely, and completely. You have done it. Oh yes Sir, you have done it.
# Andy, February 6th 2014
Just had a call from the boys. They have just stopped for a quick hot drink from their flasks. They are incredibly excited and its slowly sinking in…. They’ll be moving again any minute now.
# varry mccullough, February 6th 2014
You are an absolutely awesome pair : )
# Marcin, February 6th 2014
Guys. You are inspiration!
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
(10:17 pm GMT) Those watching on Google Earth and using the Resource File ( http://offroadinghome.blogspot.com/2014/01/scott-expedition-coming-home.html ) you’ll see that they have just passed their former camp #2 - it’s the “red dot”(if you’ve got the outbound trail turned on) and the clump of while line from all the night-time trackpoints. Seeing that has just GOT to be exciting for them.
They did 0.1 mile this last segment - another rest period. They will be getting close enough to hear sounds from the base soon and may already have spotted the towers and containers in the distance. The beginning of the road is probably within an hours reach.
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
(10:33 pm GMT) Google Earth users can see a great “overview” of the whole Scott Base area by zooming field of view out to 13.5 miles. You’ll notice that Google changes its entire background image to a much more recent “matrix” of images and shows the current edge of the ice and the water which now surrounds the peninsula. That is why they need to keep to the north and come in from the back side.
It also shows the 15 or so satellite images that they are stitching together to make up the background. All different colors and textures, taken from different times and under different conditions. Fortunately, for us, the segment at the end of the road is very clear and detailed. You can not only see the markings on the top of the containers but the shadows of the towers on the snow as well. Really neat.
They traveled 1.97 miles the last hour, good time, and 0.7 miles the last segment.
# Offroading Home, February 6th 2014
(10:36 pm GMT) Extra note: On this last GPS trackpoint, it looks like they’ve changed course and are heading directly for the middle of the hundred or so containers and towers placed in a grouping at the end of Willy Road. Perhaps a little sight seeing? Or, perhaps they’ve had reports of open water/thin ice a bit farther east than is shown on our Google Earth images. OR, perhaps that’s where they’ve been told to park their sledges during their stay at the base. Can’t wait to find out - if they remember to tell us. (Andy, are you there?)
# Andy, February 6th 2014
They’ll be heading for Willy’s Field road which winds round the edge of the containers at the WF airstrip. Ben and Tarka will have to stick close to this road all the way to Scott Base because of the open water and crevasses and it is a proven safe route.
# dj, February 6th 2014
Thanks… you’re probably typing as fast as I am.
# Richard Pierce, February 6th 2014
The main thing this last leg highlights is the issue of climate change, and how the Antarctic is a bellwether of climate change. The ice breakout (which means they have to take extra care on this last stretch, and which has prevented them from either getting to the Discovery Hut or the Terra Nova Hut) is caused by rising sea temperatures, not necessarily by rising air temperatures. This is a significant point, because it’s the rise in sea temperatures that will cause rising sea levels around the world. I just hope that anyone covering the expedition in the media picks up on this.
R
# Intrepid, February 6th 2014
Wow… fluttering between GE, FB, and Twitter, and each pass ratches up the excitement level as well as a tension to breathe into ... smoothly…. fini… fini…
# Andy, February 6th 2014
Yes they will most likely leave their sleds at the NGO campsite next to WF road as this is where they will have to return to and camp tonight. They will then ski with a day sack, camera, tracker and thier sat phone to Scott Base to finish.
# Richard Pierce, February 6th 2014
Thanks for that, Andy. Time for them to pop into Scott Base bar ;-) R