Antarctic Record Breaker!

As of 7:00AM (GMT) Bryony Balen became the youngest Britain to ski to the Geographic South Pole from the Hercules Inlet! Overall Bryony and the team have skied 1134.9km (705miles) over a period of 56 days. The journey took her across the planets coldest continent, where temperatures reached as low as -45°C (-49°F) and facing the daily struggle of high winds, white-outs, sastrugi, and an almost permanent uphill climb!

In the last two days of the expedition the team trekked 67km, a huge push to get there just a little sooner! Bryony told me she would promptly sleep after the long days (and nights) skiing, followed by a visit to the centre and the pole marker before heading back to the Union Glacier Base (via aeroplane) at 4PM (GMT). Naturally, she is ecstatic! 

Congratulations Bryony!

Antarctic Update - The Final Push

Upon her arrival, Bryony will become the youngest Britain to Ski from the Hercules Inlet to the Geographic South Pole, skiing a total of 1135km (705miles) and ascending 2076m (8878ft); and taking a meagre 57 days to complete it! Of course, Bryony and the team haven’t made it yet, we all need to show our greatest support and wish the team all the best for this final push to the Pole!

Passing 89° yesterday was a big milestone for the team, as Bryony mentions in her audio update (at the Polar Explorers blog). When discussing the proximity to the Pole, Bob made the remark, “the thinnest veneer of civilisation awaits us”! Conditions are fair and the team see little obstruction on the final push (bar the usual troublesome sastrugi). As normal with an update you can find new maps on the tracking page!

Antarctic Update - then there were 3!

The team reached the resupply on the 7th, when it became clear that something was wrong. Dennis, the other British member of the team, had been suffering from chest problems, preventing him from sleeping, or carrying the entire pulks weight (which until this point had been decanted around to the others to help). The plan was to meet a doctor due to fly from the South Pole to help Dennis and see if there was treatment beyond the course of antibiotics he was already taking.  
After reaching the resupply, the team contacted ALE and were told that due to bad weather, the plane was unable to take off. This meant the team had to wait for a doctor at the resupply before continuing.  Unfortunately, Dennis was evacuated the next afternoon, and is currently awaiting diagnosis. With respect to Dennis and his family, this was not made public until the situation was fully known. Skiing over 700km even in the face of illness is a fantastic feat, and the humour and banter won’t be the same without him. A big thank you to Dennis from Bryony and the team for being a great team member, and we wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.

The team, now down to 4 members, no longer required both Lisa and Oskar as guides. Oskar was flown out by ALE to lead a shorter expedition for Polar Explorers, leaving the team down to a streamlined three! Bryony talked of a interesting meeting with the crew of the plane heading to the pole with Oskar.

“It was surreal, a few of German tourists! They took out cameras and had pictures with us. Rather strange after seeing so few faces out in the Antarctic!”

Everything was back on track by the 9th though; with the team’s eyes set on the pole. No more resupplies; just a straight run for the pole. This gave the team a few surprises.

During they’re route; the team has taken a southerly curve from the direct route to the pole from the Hercules Inlet. Now the team were back on the ‘straight and narrow’, they found that they were not alone out in the blue and white…

If you’ve never heard of the Antarctic Super Highway, you have now (not to be confused with the Penguin Super Highway)! The team found tracks for the first time! They’re southerly detour had landed them on the exact bearing to the pole as a number of other expeditions. As well as sled tracks however, there was also the tracks of a car! Bryony and the other speculate that this could be the World record attempt for the fastest overland journey to the pole (which they smashed managing the journey in under 2 days)!

The team now just had to follow the tracks to make it to the pole (though the tracks were faded in places and would soon be covered with snow). This was no comfort however, with yesterday being one of the longest, most difficult days yet; with heavy pulks, and Bryony carrying some of the extra weight of the 4 man tent. The difficultly came from the large ridges. After climbing to the top, it is demoralizing to ski down the other side. “Going downhill feels like a step in the wrong direction”.  Sharp Sistrugi didn’t help either!

Despite this, the weather was reasonable (though colder with the altitude), and the team managed a fantastic 25km. Bryony has now skied a whopping 945km!

Antarctic Update

With two weeks until the Centenary of the British Scott Expedition, Bryony still has a total of approximately 350km left to ski to get to the pole. This means the team need to average 25 km per day or more (assuming they want to arrive there in the ‘day time’). At this point, the team has managed an average of 23.592km per day (includes half days, but not rest days). This puts the team in good stead to make it on time!

Now all the team need to overcome is the final straight to the pole across the baron Antarctic Plateau (though there are a few days incline remaining). Those with a keen eye will have noticed the maps on the website show the team deviating from a direct path to the pole. This has been due to the navigation towards resupplies, around crevasses, and through mountain passes. The effect of this is an increased distance of skiing – The original calculated distance of the expedition is 1109.24km; though assuming the team now navigate directly to the pole, they will have skied a total of 1201km!

One of the big issues faced by the team is visibility in white-out conditions. The team have had very favourable conditions, though this doesn’t mean easy skiing. In a matter of minutes it can become difficult to see a few metres in front of you; so the team has to take precisions to stick together and not get lost! One of the bets tips mentioned was skiing with the tips of one person’s skis almost touching the sled of the person in front. In normal conditions the team can be much further apart (as much as 100m).

Don’t forget to check out the team’s position on the updated maps at www.southpoleadventure.com/tracking