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.
Happy New Year (Day 68)
Day 68: S88° 19' 52.44", E159° 01' 12.66"
Duration: 10 Hr 15 Min
Daily distance: 21.9 Mi
Distance to go: 783 Mi
Temperature: -24 °C
Wind chill: -35 °C
Altitude: 10243 Ft
After a long day on the ice covering almost 22 miles (35.2km) and finishing up after 10pm Ben and Tarka headed straight to bed last night so no blog today.
They send their very best for 2014 and will be back online soon.
Happy New Year!
NB. Today's photo was taken in Greenland on a training expedition earlier this year.
Comments
# Thea, January 1st 2014
2014 will turn out to be an amazing year for you both, maybe not today….but just you wait and see. Keep it together, keep rested, keep focused, keep warm, keep each other going, I am thinking of you every minute.
# dj, January 1st 2014
Looks like they’ve stopped early in the day - perhaps a whiteout? Their hourly (?) pings of position also seem to be varying quite significantly - perhaps due to the way the atmospheric ionization is currently peaking this afternoon (noon - 4 pm MST). All seems to be making for a blustery start to the new year at the lands end.
# Lydia , January 1st 2014
Happy New Year B&T and what a year it is going to be for you both. You are such an inspiration to so many including me. Take care, rest well, on into the History Books.
Lydia x
# Pavol Timko, January 1st 2014
Fantastic achievement so far, keep going!
Yesterday when I read about cold fingers it reminded me of my experience climbing in -20°C in the past. Many people don’t realise how fragile everything is and how a little detail can change the course of destiny. Remember Herbert Tichy frostbite on Cho Oyu in 1954? I am simply amazed by the unbelievable performance by Ben and Tarka and how you guys are able to tackle all and every big and small troubles on your way. This is simply a great inspiration for many. Imagine what the mankind could achieve if every man would be able to focus and being willing to follow through on any task we face every day by just a fraction of the performance shown by Ben and Tarka…
# uncle pete Sampras , January 1st 2014
Wishing Ben And Tarka, support team and blog followers a very good 2014.
# Abhishek Kulkarni, January 1st 2014
Best wishes for 2014! This will be a historic year for you guys!
# Richard McGehee, January 1st 2014
Ben and Tarka, your blogs are greatly appreciated. It is a real treat for us to be able to share your adventure in the great outdoors. Keep up the good work.
Happy New Years from Kentucky.
# Mal Owen, January 1st 2014
May all your dreams come true in 2014… Happy New Year to all.
# Richard Pierce, January 1st 2014
I am simply gobsmacked at the boys’ ability to just keep going. Respect.
Happy New Year to Ben and Tarka, the team, and all those reading this blog.
R
# thea, January 1st 2014
Happy New Year, Thank you so much for your support, your comments, messages, and concern. Your imput together with everybody else following this adventure, really helps them AND I might say, their families.
# Katie Emmer, January 1st 2014
Amazing, wonderful work! Following along, wishing you well, and sending Happy New Year greetings from New Mexico! Your progress is an inspiration. It’s going to be a great year.
# Kat, January 1st 2014
You’ve created a monster! Your reading public! Seriously, though, I hope I speak for more than just myself when I say I understand when you’re too tired to write. It’s a miracle that you’ve written as much and as often as you have.
Can you tell us how the elevation is affecting your energy levels, give us some perspective on the experience of being on the plateau? Hearing about your chilled hands and body yesterday brought me back down to earth, reminding me again how dangerous an undertaking this is. I thought about those early explorers, especially Scott’s men, deeply chilled, succumbing to frostbite, and how most of them stopped writing in their diaries on the return journey, and no wonder at that. I think of the two of you down there often, often.
Wishing you both all the best for the coming year, strength, success and happiness!
# bee, January 1st 2014
Happy New Year, Ben and Tarka.
Thank you for taking us all along on your journey, you continue to be an inspiration.
May the sun warm you, the wind be at your backs and your skis glide smoothly.
Wishing you well everyday. Stay safe.
# CaninesCashews, January 1st 2014
Hi guys,
Another day and other great mileage - and into another year!
Well done guys.
Stay Safe.
Gav
# dj, January 1st 2014
After only about 10 miles, they seem to have stopped for awhile (two ‘pings’ worth - 2hrs?) a bit off their former path but still heading directly at their “ol’ camp 57”. (Isn’t that where the Pilot currently resides? Or close there unto.) On the MODIS image, it shows them directly abeam (22 miles to their left) an ice lake or some 34-mile long massive feature with a different density than the snow they are on. Just 12 miles to degree # 88.
# AndreaTP, January 1st 2014
Hi Dj. I see in your Google Earth file you have two different sets for the camps (“There” and “Back again”), that’s fine, now I’m asking, I would like to have two different color plots for the tracks, same as above, to see more clearly the deviations between the original path towards the Pole, and the return path. Is it a feature I can activate myself ?
Sorry if it’s a dumb question, I’m really a beginner in Google Earth.
Andrea
# dj, January 1st 2014
#andrea… not a dumb question at all. I spent almost 10 hours yesterday trying to figure out how to program around the doubled back trail and waypoints the expedition is serving on their site. Like you, I don’t find the current method very user friendly and would love to see the trail in two parts so I could use two different colors. Additionally, perhaps they don’t realize it yet, Google Earth has a known issue where it completely borks without warning once the line-string gets too long. After 10 years of making GE maps, I’ve just learned to never double up trails and that seems to have kept my maps out of trouble. And thirdly, every time they serve up a new file as they have it now, they have to RE-transmit all the trails, waypoints, and blogs from the last two months all over again - every hour!
So, trying to find a way around it, I split the links to the posts and camp waypoints into two - that was easy. I even found a way to find the turn-around waypoint at the pole and split the track; however, as it stands, every hour their new refresh transmission merely wipes it out and stitches it back.
I’m still trying, as you’ve seen the latest attempt uses a different lighter color on the first part of the trail; but with them stitched together in one full lump the only part that shows a new color is where there was a noticeable variance on the return trip. I’m still working on it, chalking the effort up to honing my programming skills, but don’t have much hope in succeeding due to Google’s idiosyncrasies and the expeditions methods.
# AndreaTP, January 1st 2014
Dj, I really appreciate your work.
Thank you very much for your answer!
Andrea.
# Sheila England , January 1st 2014
What a way to start the New Year.
Happy and Blessed New Year Guys!
-Sheila
# Christian, January 2nd 2014
Ben,Tarka, a Happy New Year (in German “Ein gesundes neues Jahr”) 2014. Take care and stay strong..still following you daily
# Intrepid, January 2nd 2014
Dear Ben and Tarka,
Here we are, in 2014. May you always go the distance and live life the way you know is possible!
In appreciation of what you are doing and always looking forward to your next post.
Be well.
# Nick, January 2nd 2014
If you just did 1800 miles in ice and snow on foot?
I think a trip out to a supermarket in a Landrover would be like winning the Lotto.
Just think all the food and drink you can buy. Fish & Chips, Curry, Crinkle Cut crisps, Bread, Jars of coffee.