| Polar Quest South Pole Expedition (a team from The Royal Navy on the trek Hercules-SP and back) |
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The end of their expedition
January 16th 2007
Like anyone else who chooses using powerkites, the Polar Quest team is at the mercy of the wind. Since January 7th, the day they left South Pole, they have covered half of the way and find themselves now abreast of the Thiel Mountains. That means that in 9 days, they have done around 350 nautical miles. On January 12th they knew the fright of their lives. Excerpts :
"
" Sean's Diary Extract:
Day 62 and what a day it has been. From 10pm last night my watch alarm bleeped every 2 hrs prompting me to check the wind speed, I would normally be able to gauge it by the sound but Andy was on full form and snoring his head off. Darting outside to take a wind reading, it read 26 knots - a 'no-go'. This continued through till 4am t is morning when the wind had dropped to 9 knots, we could move again. After some hot drinks and rolled oats we set off with 6m Flexifoil Rage's on 50m lines. Progress was going really well, some patches of sastrugi to meander through and Theil Mountains on the horizon.
After about 2 hrs the wind unexpectedly increased twofold gusting in excess of 25 knots. Just as I witnessed Craig being lifted 6ft into the air I was pulled sharply to the left and up into the air. It was as if I was moving in slow motion as I looked down to the ground as the gust that engulfed my kite lifted me to the extent of rope trace - about 12 ft. My next thought was the realisation that I was now falling sideways to my left. I had taken a couple of hard falls on my left shoulder over the past few days which was now continually painfull and I knew this would hurt. I hit the ground with some force (luckily not on a block of sastrugi) and was then dragged by my, still inflated, kite. I grappled with and engaged my quick release and pushed away, the kite brakes were automatically applied and the kite deflated, I stopped moving.
As I lay in the snow, with my left shoulder in quite some pain, I noticed the lack of tugging at my harness; although the kite brakes had been engaged the kite should still be attached to me by a safety line. I fumbled around with my right hand but I couldn't find the safety cable - panic!. I then heard Craig, who had kited alongside me, yelling me to stay still and don't move. Glancing downwind I spotted my kite some 200 metres away, the safety cable had somehow come off. I shouted to Craig to get the kite and he sped off, and fortunately recovered it.
Shortly Andy came running over, helped me up and gave me a quick once over, he was concerned that I may have dislocated my shoulder. The tent was quickly erected and while Paul made everyone a hot drink (Steptoe Paul is slightly more cheery now!) Andy carried a full medcheck of my shoulder, he was 60/40 that I had dislocated it, but due to the amount of body weight I had lost it was difficult to identify if bone was protruding or not. He waited 1 hour before a second check to see if any muscle spasm would relax so he could check closer - a very tense hour for me facing the unwanted prospect of an emergency evacuation from Antarctica. Andy rechecked my shoulder and thankfully ascertained that it wasn't dislocated, but I had damaged the shoulder joint area. Not a show stopper, but regular painkillers and a carefull approach to kiting! ... "
Their position on Januray 14th : 84° 507 S / 84° 000 W
January 7th 2007
After the rest taken at the Amundsen Scott base, Polar Quest team is on the move again. As planned they are going back to Patriot Hills using powerkites this time and hoping they're going to have good winds. They left SP on January 2nd and since then they have done already more than two degrees. On January 2nd, they made 113 km and three days later they performed 95 km. No doubt that they are going to be faster on this part on this part of the trek.
Their position on January 6th : 88° 634 S / 83° 410 W
December 29th 2006
Royal Navy team has arrived at the SP on December 27th. Their communiqué : MESSAGE SENT TO
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF FLEET
OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED. POLAR QUEST EXPEDITION REACHED GEOGRAPHICAL SOUTH POLE 02 18 Z 27 DEC 06. TEAM MEMBERS WELL AND IN HIGH SPIRITS. FURTHER DISPATCH AND IMAGES TO FOLLOW ONCE POLE CAMP ESTABLISHED.
SEAN CHAPPLE /
CAPTAIN, ROYAL MARINES,
EXPEDITION LEADER
They are now awaiting for notherly winds to start their journey back to Patriot Hills, using this time their powerkites.
December 17th 2006
Polar Quest is just over the degree 87! Great shape, high moral, best relations between the team members, very good daily progressions. Perfet health. Excerpts : "
All things said & done, we are fit & well - the odd minor medical hitch (generally of a Cold nature) - but for 34 days in the 'field' - things are 'top-notch'. Relations are excellent - when you think we are living pretty close (i.e. this tent fits 4 sleeping mats side-by-side with no spare) - nil arguments as yet, all 'hands' more than pulling their weight & a good measure of amusement still being had. ..."
Their last position, on December 15th : 87° 067 S / 84° 384 W
December 12th 2006
Just a glance at our map helps to realize that the Royal Navy team is doing great job over there!
Not only they are ahead of all the teams (but it's not a competition after all and in addition, they have started the first ones from Patriot Hills) but they progress quite regularly day after day -averaging about 17 nautical miles every day. Despite the sastrugis fields and the days of wite out. On December 5th, they have announced : "Less than three weeks to go!"
Another thing is quite interesting with this team. We have written earlier that every day, one member of the team publishes his own diary speaking more profoundly about his own experience of the day. Quite often this diary goes about personal matters like family, lack of good food, fatigue, muscles stress, etc. But this time is different. In his writing of December 11th, cameraman Paul Mattin has choosen to speak about the difference existing between the time of the great explorers (Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton and the others) and our modern era. What an astonishing review ! He deals not only with the material and the technology that have changed quite considerably (clothes tents, pulks etc) since those times but he writes also on communications and facilities people now have that these great explorers did not at their time !
Two days earlier, it was the turn of Andrew Brown (the one who is reading Harry Potter books while skiing) to publish something: he had choosen to deal with the big question "Why". Why are we here ? Why undertake such voyages ? Amongst other, he focuses on the ones who nowadays are seaking for so-called world premières ! "Up until the end of the 19th century, most expeditions to far flung regions of the world were organised and financed by the Admiralty in order to expand the Empire, claim and name new lands on behalf of the monarch, and generally remind the French and the Spanish who was 'the daddy' in terms of sea power. In the first half of the 20th century, people like Mallory & Irvine, Scott, Shackleton, Hunt & Hillary pursued the South Pole and Everest as pure goals in their own right. Following them came the last of the real explorers such as Bonnington, Fiennes and Messner who pushed the boundaries and achieved many 'firsts' in their fields. Once the big goals had been achieved, people began to resort to ever more diverse ways of doing the same things. It is now quite common to hear of people claiming to be 'making history' by being the first to pogo stick naked across Greenland etc."
No need to say that the ego is in the hot seat ! It is also a great piece of polar litterature. To discover and to read absolutely (see their website)
Their position on December 12th : 86°363 S / 84°235 W.
Decembre 8th 2006
On December 5th, the Royal Navy team
could catch sight of the Thiel Mountains. This range is quite an important mark for the teams that are making the Hercules - SP trek, just because it marks a sort of halfway point of the total distance : in this case, it's just the quarter, as Polar Quest has decide to go for the return trip.
What frightens the most the team for the moment are the quite large and numerous crevasses fields that they have to negociate with great care. Nevertheless, these guys keep moving on fast, averaging about 15 nautical miles every day (about 27 kms) ; 15.7 NM on December 1st, 15.2, the next day, 15.1, on the third and 13.4 on the fifth.
In rotation, each member of the team is writing something special every day. Something more technical or something more personal. The ones explaining with many details how they manage to pass above and cross the covered crevasses, others speaking about the stress they feel not being with the close family, some like Paul Mattin (the cameraman) who writes about pet-likes and pet dislikes (what he dislikes the most, for isntance, is "the mandatory lump of butter that floats to the surface of the porridge! (this looks like an egg yolk, but no amount of fantasy will transform it to such), as far as Andrew Brown is concerned, he writes : "We each have our own strategies for keeping ourselves motivated to push on hard when we're leading, a favourite of mine being listening to talking books on my Ipod. For the last few days I've been listening to a Harry Potter book which has taken my mind totally off the burning fatigue in my legs..."
All of them starting seriously thinking-dreaming of food fantasies :
"Today's food fantasies involved home made bread with thick slices of mature cheddar", writes the same Andrew Brown, "ham and mustard and a pint of Doom Bar (Amanda please take note). Sean's was remarkably similar to mine, and I was not surprised to hear that Craig's was fish and chips and a can of Irn Bru (him being Jockanese and all), while Paul's involved a supermarket Indian takeaway menu kit, and a pint of beer. I was beginning to drool all over the inside of my mask, but morale rose immesurably when I found a green jelly baby in my snack pack during the 3rd break!
December 3rd, 2006
On November 28th, team has crossed degree 83. That marks a 'Ramp-up Point' to increase daily hauling hours. They have a strategy to
gradually increase tempo, or 'ramp-up hauling hours', coupled with new menu plan has seen the team experience minimal fatigue yet gain strength each day. This eans that since this new trekking rythm, they cover an average of more than 15 nautical miles a day (27.78 km) - before they covered 12 NM. Expedition is on schedule !
November 26th, 2006
Everything is OK with expedition Polar Quest. Yesterday, it was their 13th day on the ice. They just crossed the degree 82 and have covered since their start about 230 km - we write 'about' because their daily log isn't that clear about the datas of their progression (see here).
Major Paul
Mattin (photo), thrustor organizer and cameraman, takes bearings on his November 25th diary : "2 Wks down, 125 NM bagged, 14 camps built & packed, 56 rations eaten (60kg!), 2 lines of latitude crossed (8 to go), 300l of fluids boiled, 16l fuel burnt, 1 hip-flask drained & none of our 'hidden' gummy bears yet discovered ! ... But 468 NM to the Pole remaining !"
It's funny to note that during Hannah McKeand is suffering from the warm temperatures (she says joking a bit, that if such conditions continue, she would have to swim to reach the pole!!!), the guys of Polar Quest sign their last update with this title : "Cold, cold, cold...!", meaning that they have to endure until -40°C when they go out of the tent in the morning!
November 16th
Yesteday, progressing 8 hours a day and being at their fifth day in the ice, the Royal Navy team had reached an altitude of 1000m. Since the start, they acheive an average of 1.5 nautical miles an hour. Their position : 80° 649 S / 81 847 W. Everything is OK.
November 13th 2006
Royal Navy's team has begun the march the same day they arrived in Patriot Hills. Just a few minutes after the landing and afeter a quick meeting with the support staff . 4 hours hauling and they had Patriot Hills out of sight. That was on November 11th. The next day (Day 2), they skied the all day - that's 11,8 km southwards.
The team decided also that every day, another member would publish his diary. Today is Paul Mattin, the major : "...When you are skiing at the front of the group - you are aware that there is no living thing between yourself and the South Pole; some 650 miles away...."
November 10th 2006
As they other expeditions, Polar Quest is still waiting for the blue ice runway in Patriot Hilss to be cleared off. On their websie, they describe a weigh-in and skin fold measurements of each member. Here are the results : Sean - Weight 85.5kg, Arm skinfold - 10mm, Side skinfold - 24mm.
Craig - Weight 97kg, Arm skinfold - 16mm, Side skinfold - 40mm.
Paul - Weight 84kg, Arm skinfold - 12mm, Side skinfold - 20mm.
Andy - Weight 89kg, Arm skinfold - 10mm, Side skinfold - 22mm.
