Summary of the Pole to Pole progression (Pat Farmer)
Published on 23.04.2011 - Pole to Pole Run
The troops on their way to Canada
© Farmer's website
As the follow up of this expedition is very well done, we just publish for this first update a list of the daily dispatches. Daily positions included.
6 April : departure from the Pole
7 April (camp 2) : 17 km done / position : 89°44'55" N / 91°22'02" W
8 April (camp 3) : 17 km done / 89°33'24" N / 88°64'41" W
9 April (camp 4) : total distance so far, 69.26 km / 89°22'44" N / 86°47'11" W
10 April (camp 5) : total distance so far, 89.75 km / 89°11'50" N / 89°10'43" W - bad drift during day and night
11 April (camp 6) : total distance so far, 114.12 km / 88°58'45" N / 87°57'41" W
12 April (camp 7) : total distance so far, 140.57 km / 23 km done on a very good surface / 88°45'02" N / 84°40'04" W / (note : "we are flying")
13 April (camp 8) : total distance so far, 156.01 km / 88°37'11" N / 82°39'55" W / Note : a lot of first year ice, they are looking for names to baptise their sled
14 April (camp 9) : total distance so far, 170.56 km / 88°29'53" N / 80°45'29" W
15 April (camp 10) : total distance so far, 185.93 km / 88°22'27" N / 78°31'16" W / Note : Rubble rubble toil and trouble petered out by midday. The bow of Clarks sled has stoved in leaping from a giant ice boulder.
16 April (camp 11) : total distance so far, 201.99 km / 88°13'55" N / 79°19'01" W / Note : Fortune favoured the fabulous four when we found an expressway direct to Canada. But luck comes in small doses and we are now amongst pressure.
17 April (camp 12) : total distance so far, 221.36 km / 88°03'29" N / 79°30'59" W /
18 April (camp 13) : total distance so far, 240.91 km / 87°52'59" N / 79°55'53" W / Note : A bitter headwind & -32 °C. Ouch! Sled Names. Clark-Frankenstein, Pat-Bubba, Jose-Nanukin, me-Mike, after a friend, both are doing it hard.
19 April (camp 14) : total distance so far, 258.57 km / 87°43'31" N / 80°20'48" W / Note : Expecting a Canadian Airforce flyby tonight.
20 April (camp 15) : total distance so far, 281.58 km / 87°31'09" N / 79°58'04" W / Note : Eric Philips writes a longer dispatch today. Excerpts : "...We change tent partners every two days. Next to me in the tent is ourcomms wiz, Clark, who only yesterday sent a 4mb video to our base team. From what I know, which is not much really, this is unprecedented from these regions. So far we have had plenty of power for our faultless devices which include twoMacbook Air’s, a bank of external laptop batteries, 4 Iridium phones, iPods and iPhones, twoprosumer Sony video cameras, four compact cameras, a truckload of AA lithium batteries, charging packs and cables. ... We are just a fewkilometres short of one third distance to Canada and hope to reach halfway on our scheduled resupply on April 25. Things are going better than we hoped for despite a multitude of breakages and nightly repairs to equipment. ..."
21 April (camp 16) : total distance so far, 303.16 km / 87°19'31" N / 79°58'22" W / Note : A bit of a cocktail today; lashings of flat pans, a dash of rubble, a swirl of giant crumbling ridge and a garnish of bear prints. A delicious 21km.
22 April (camp 17) : total distance so far, 322.81 km / 87°08'58" N / 79°38'43" W.
