The tourists perform super well with more than 30 km a day !

Published on 12.12.2011 - The South Pole Jubilee Expedition

Christian Eide's (group leader) birthday celebration on 8 December

Christian Eide's (group leader) birthday celebration on 8 December

© Expedition website

Chirstian Eide, the head of this group, is suprised to see his people on the ice performing extremely well, be it during a good or a freezing day.

The good side

Let's start with the good days : on 8 December (day 11), the leader of the group, Christian Eide (co-organizer of these treks with Børge Ousland), was 36 years old. Here is how they celebrated his birthday : "... hat is the biggest cake on Earth? Antarctica! Today Christian celebrated his 36th birthday by being in the middle of the cake. His teammates acting as candles and colourful decor, all wrapped in different colours and outfits from Bergans, Rab, Mountain Equipment, Arcteryx and Sir Joseph – the inner wrapping a bit more standard: Brynje..." (From Lars Ebbesen).

After such a feast, the group could have been excused for taking it easy the next day. No way! On 9 December, they performend another 31.5 km. Of course they had no wind whatsoever, and the temperature was on the mild side. Some of the team members start to feel the altitude though and they are quickly out of breath. But that does not prevent them to push forward : if they carry on with this pace, they should be on the pole in about 9 to 10 days -approximately about 20 December.

The harsch side

Now the harsch side : these people are now negociating the slopes of the Titan Dome -a terror territory according to all the polar explorers. Excerpts (from Lars Ebbesen on 11 December) : "... After the great day yesterday the Cold struck back. The weather was good, but the cold was at least -30°, it made for difficult working conditions. The feet and body was ok. The fingers too, but every move had to be calculated and fast. Eating, drinking and pissing in the breaks was like seeing Formula 1 pit stops. – Efficient.

But the worst part was the face. The facemask had to be on all the time, and it had to fit as the slightest leak would give instant frostbites. Inside this, doing a considerable bit of work, the breathing was heavy. The direct result was that the goggles iced up. Trond and Rory was the worst effected and for the best part of the day they had no idea where they were. The others fared a bit better and took turn in finding a way as south as possible.

Christian, writing the days report, reflected on how incredibly impressed he is with his teammates Linn-Elise, Gøril, Silje, Teo, Rory and Trond. They were cut a really raw deal today, but still climbed to 3085 m covering 28,8km! 262km left to the South Pole, that is 8-9 days...."

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Antarctic 2012-2013 - ongoing

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Sir Ranulph Fiennes is back in the Antarctic for a world first. He will lead a team of explorers to conquer…



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