Børge Ousland

Report from Svante: After two hard days’ work we finally completed our very own runway! And this in an area with quite uneven terrain. It took five of us two full days to transform this into a suitable landing site.

At 5pm today, the Twin Otter made a touch and go – a test landing – before landing properly. These pilots are fantastic, and the landing was perfect. We had marked the start and end of our provisional landing area with green pulk covers, with green rubbish bags at 75 metre intervals indicating the sides. All in all we cleared a stretch of 400 metres of rather bumpy snow. The plan was that we would fly closer to the South Pole today, but the weather further south was highly unfavourable, with “white-out” conditions and danger of icing on the wings.

The most important thing is that we evacuated John to Patriot Hills, where there is a physician waiting. His face looked very good today, but his fingers were swelled because of fluids. The rest of us are relaxing in our tents now, and we expect him to be fine after medical treatment.

This has been a big day for all of us. We are, of course, exhausted after two days of intense digging – but we also feel great after having been able to help save John’s fingers.

Even at 70, John is one of the strongest expedition member,
and he gladly pulls more than his share to help out others.
It was most unfortunate that he got frostbite.

A handshake of thick mittens: Helen and Britt take a temporary farewell. “See you at the South Pole!”

We have found the best solution, all things considered – and that is to split our expedition into two groups of six people each. Svante will lead one of them, and I’ll lead the other. The main reason is to protect everyone’s health. Three expedition members have light frostbite; we need to take that seriously, for if they freeze again, they risk suffering deep and permanent damage to body tissue. Two other members are struggling with altitude illness. Here at 3000 metres above sea level, they are nauseous, vomiting, and feeling decidedly unwell. As a result it has been impossible for us to proceed at our planned pace – a pace which really is necessary.

Our plan is to fly Svante’s group to S89˚30’. That will give them the opportunity to conquer one degree latitude, including what we’ve skied together so far. The most important consideration, however, is that this will enable them to take it easy and proceed at a comfortable pace. They need to take care of each other, so as not to suffer additional frostbite or greater problems than they’re now dealing with.

Making a runway on the ice
The immediate challenge of Svante’s group is to make a level runway. It has to be long enough for the Twin Otter to be able to take off with six people and all their equipment. Yesterday’s campsite was surrounded by uneven terrain, so that posed a bit of a problem. But we finally managed to find a suitable spot and marked it for them. Svante is there now, level out the bumps and filling in holes and depressions. The plan is for the aeroplane to land tomorrow. There’s a flight headed for the South Pole tomorrow afternoon anyways, so Svante and his team will be “hitching” a ride.

The members of Svante’s group are Adrian, Andrew, Helen, Rudi and John.

Fortunately the frostbite on these fingers is mild. However, health
is the No. 1 priority – that’s why we’re splitting into two groups.

A correct decision
My group consists of Stefan, Britt, Nick, Nils Thomas and Otto. We have to ski an average of 18 kilometres per day, in order to reach the South Pole in time for the planned return flight to Patriot Hills. That is not an extreme distance, but quite average for expeditions up here on the plateau. But due to injury and illness, we haven’t been able to proceed at that pace with a full group.

Those who have joined me will walk a total of two degrees latitude. Today we covered 20 km in nine hours, and are content with that. Everyone feels in fine shape, have acclimatised well, and is managing a good, steady pace.

We are convinced that the decision we made this morning was both necessary and correct. We are confident that Svante’s group will have the runway ready, and are hoping tomorrow’s flight proceeds as planned.

Happy birthday!
We’re celebrating Nils Thomas’ birthday today. He’s wearing a big grin after receiving greetings from Trude and his kids, and sends his love back to those at home. Our position is now S88˚34’55”, W96˚30’58”.

In the days ahead you will be reading two reports here on the blog – one from each group of our expedition.

Hi, this is Svante reporting. As you know, we have decided to split the expedition. Børge has gone on ahead with half the team members, while the rest are with me.

My group consists of John, who has gotten relatively serious frostbite; Adrian has lighter frostbite and is suffering altitude illness; the altitude also bothers Helen; Andrew has frostbite, which does not look serious.

We have walked 8 km today, and have started work on the runway. We are counting on being able to fly out John tomorrow, and move our group closer to the South Pole.

Tomorrow we’ll continue the work on our runway, so as to make sure that landing conditions are optimal.