Børge Ousland

Hi, this is Børge – we are on the South Pole! We’ve had a good day with excellent weather. It’s been about –30˚C and we have had the Pole in view all day as we skied.

We arrived a couple of hours ago, have taken photographs and received a guided tour of the station. The crew here has even served us coffee and biscuits.

I was glad to see an old friend, Svein Widstrøm, who is here on a research project. They’re drilling many kilometres down into the ice and have just completed their 16th hole, so they invited us to a bit of a celebration in one of the tents. Right now we’re just relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

We’ll give you a more complete report and share some photographs later today.

In our blog entry for the 13th of January, we told you how Svante’s team built a 400 metre long runway on the snow and ice, so that one of their team members could be picked up by aeroplane. He needed medical attention for frostbite. What we haven’t told you, is the full story of how John actually beat everyone else on his expedition to the South Pole!

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“I have no idea exactly how the frostbite happened. But it was foolish, really. My problem is that I didn’t wear inner silk gloves inside my mittens. It must have happened when I had the mittens off, perhaps when I was fiddling with the pulk.

“It was Otto who noticed that my face didn’t look right when we stopped for a short pause. Børge immediately asked to see my hands. The left one was fine – the right one was not.”

Critical Antarctic challenges
In 2006 John Bourke joined Børge and Thomas Ulrich on an expedition to the North Pole. He says he didn’t have any problems then.

“Before the present expedition to the South Pole, I recall asking Børge which he thought was tougher. He used to think the Arctic is more punishing; now he’s not so sure.

“You see, there are two critical challenges in Antarctica, in addition to the cold. One is the wind, which is almost ever present, and which can be quite fierce. When temperatures fall down to –30˚C and the wind is blowing at 8–9 metres per second, it’s no joking matter. The other is the altitude, and quite a few members of the team had difficulty with that.”

Others have had difficulty, but John’s frostbite required medical treatment. After the expedition split into to groups, John’s good friends went to work with shovels, evening out a long stretch of snow and ice.

Twin Otter and hot chocolate
“They did indeed build a runway, and I am very grateful for that. And I must also confess that I had a most interest time after leaving Svante and the others. That Twin Otter was on its way to the South Pole to fetch a Canadian team – so I had a good hour and a half there. It’s quite an irony, really, that I beat the others there by a week.

“Eric Phillips and the rest of the Canadians served me vast quantities of hot chocolate. They had spent 38 days advancing south and had many stories to tell. Eager to talk, they basically adopted me into the group.

“With their team was a 60-year-old Norwegian doctor, Merete Spilling Gjertsen from Porsgrunn, who had done a lot of skiing on Svalbard. She examined my hands and told me they would be ok.”

Camping out with the pilot
The flight back to Patriot Hills, a base that is equipped to provide full medical treatment, did not proceed entirely as planned.

“No, it didn’t. On the way back, our pilot received a message that the weather had worsened at Patriot Hills. So we extended our refuelling stop at a depot in the Thiel Mountains. The others, and even the pilot, set up their tents, while I slept on board the Twin Otter.”

Treatment for frostbite
“What the treatment is for frostbite? Well, when we got back to Patriot Hills I was taken care of by a Danish doctor – a Hans Christian Andersen, believe it or not. First he had me hold my hands in tepid water, about 40˚C, for about 20 minutes. That softened them up. Then he cut open the blood blisters and drained them of fluid. He also cut off dead skin from all five fingers on my right hand, and from one finger on my left.

“The next step was to put on a special jelly and gauze, which both protect the wound and drain away excess fluids.”

“Well, John, did the medics keep you there at the base for a long time?”

“Not at all. They deemed me fit to fly, so I joined the Canadians as well as some Irish on a flight bound for Punta Arenas that very night. They put us all in the same hotel in this southernmost of Chile’s cities, so it is quite lively. The Canadians are still telling stories, as are we Irish, too, of course.”

Postcards and pubs
“Since my return here I’ve been going daily to a medical clinic. There they soak my hands again, changing the special jelly and gauze. My hands are coming along just fine.”

For the time being, however, he is writing postcards with his left hand.

“I am fortunate to have a wife back in Dublin who is amazingly calm, so she took it all very well. And my sons were early on assured by the blog that things would be all right, so they weren’t worried either.

“Originally I thought I would wait for the rest of my expedition to come to Punta, but it depends how long that might be. I’ve been to all the bars and pubs in Punta Arenas and am not quite sure what I’d do with myself,” he says with a laugh.

“John, did you ever think you would beat everyone else to the South Pole?”

“No, I most certainly did not.”

Tonight’s camp is positioned at S89˚50’50”, W100˚59’. Today has been a beautifully day, with sun shining from a clear sky. The thermometer shows –27˚C and the wind has turned back to a southerly direction. We have a strong hope of clear weather for the next few days. As you know, we have had our fair share of whiteout and fickle weather conditions, with the wind often changing direction. Now it’s back to more normal Antarctic summer weather – and we’re hoping it stays stable.

And we’ll need that. For the plan is to fly Svante’s group closer to the Pole with the aeroplane that picks up our group. For various reasons we are unable to make a joint finish. Our group expects to arrive at the South Pole late tomorrow afternoon, perhaps five or six’ish. We have just 18 km left and will spend one night at the pole.

The Twin Otter should arrive on the morning of the 20th, first flying Svante’s group a bit closer to their destination. Then it will fly our group to Patriot Hills, while they ski their last stretch. A new aeroplane is scheduled to pick them up on the 21st. At least that’s the plan – and for the plan to hold, we need good weather.

Today we have skied up a very long uphill that took us almost four hours. When we reached the top, we could se some black spots on the horizon. That could only be the South Pole, or rather the top of the building there, which we were seeing from a distance of 25 kilometres. We were rather surprised to be able to se it from such a great distance, but the new station they’re building there is very high, much higher and larger than the old one.

At the end of the day, we were challenged by a new uphill. Our destination disappeared from view, and we cannot see it from our camp either. But we know the Pole is “just around the corner” – a mere 18 km to go.

It was a huge inspiration to have something to fix our eyes on. But the most exciting thing will be what happens tomorrow. Needless to say we’re very much looking forward to that!

Finally – we have reached 89th degree latitude. This is a big day for our group, and we have worked hard to get her. We have been skiing for 11 days now, with injuries, and altitude sickness. We’ve stopped to build a runway, and we safely evacuated John so he could get treatment for frostbite.

We will need transport help to reach the South Pole. Our hope is to fly to a camp located a few miles from the South Pole, rendezvous there with Børge’s group – and to walk the final stretch together, as one expedition.

Today we learned how to build an igloo. That was a great success, and none of the participants had done that before, let alone master it. Spirits are high, and we keep moving closer to our goal.

The position of our camp tonight is S89˚37’35”, W96˚40’30”.

We have had a fine day – and incredibly enough the wind has been at our back. That is actually quite rare up here on the Antarctic Plateau; usually there is an almost constant wind from south or southeast, but today we’ve had a north-northwesterly wind.

Ice mists have come and gone, but for the most part it hast been sunny today. There is a huge ring around the sun, and due to the atmospheric conditions we see several secondary suns – at 6 o’clock, 9 and 12 o’clock. It’s a wonderful spectacle!

Temperatures have been about –15˚C today, although yesterday seemed warmer since there was less wind. But packed snugly in our many layers of clothing, we’ve nevertheless found it more comfortable to ski with the wind at our backs.

Our position places us within two days’ reach of our goal. However, we would really like to link up with Svante’s group, so that the expedition can share the final stretch – reaching the South Pole together. And we will gladly wait an extra night or two to make that possible. Tomorrow we’ll know whether or not we can fulfil that dream.

Everyone here is doing fine. There is a great team spirit and our routines are functioning smoothly. We’re enjoying our magnificent surroundings, our days together – and not least of all being within reach of our destination.

Last night we set ourselves a goal – to come as close as possible to the 89th degree latitude. That means we have progressed one degree together.

The members of our group have in various degrees suffered the ill effects of frostbite or altitude sickness. Until today! Now it looks like everyone is feeling much better, and that means we’re ready to pick up speed.

We covered 18 kilometres today. That is an impressive feat, especially considering that many have hardly eaten anything this last week. The stamina and team spirit is impressive. Another good news is that I have no injuries or illness to report today.

It has been a cold day with lots of wind, some snow and a spell of whiteout. There are, however, many ways of staying a southerly course without falling back on using GPS. Today we learned how to “read the snow” – in other words the signs and tracks the wind makes in the snow.

After a long day skiing we are ready for a solid dinner, and a night of rest in our sleeping bags.

Adrian sends his love to his wife Pam, and the children Edith, Rianna and Alisha.

Report from Svante: Today started as a rather warm day – a comfortable –18˚C. After a while we had to stop and remove one of our layers of thermal underwear, because we were sweating and simply too hot.

The last few days we have gotten used to –30˚C and wind, plus a chill factor due to the wind. Well, there was virtually no wind when we started, just sunny, nice and calm weather. But in the afternoon the cloud cover drifted in, and everything became white, the horizon all the contours disappeared. It’s called whiteout.

Without either sun or wind, it is really easy to lose all sense of direction – and it became a real challenge for me to stay the course. And when you can’t even see the surrounding terrain, it becomes almost impossible. Almost, but not quite …

Under such conditions one has to navigate by the shape of snow drifts on the ground. Today I kept our direction by continually studying two types of snowdrifts. One of these was relatively soft and fresh, deposited the day before yesterday, when the wind was blowing at about 90 degrees relative to our direction. The other type of snowdrift was a bit older, perhaps made a week or so ago, when there was a hard wind from south-southwest.

In this manner I “felt” my way forward, and was able to keep us moving on a fairly straight course. That’s reflected in our distance: 22 km in 8.5 hours. And that is up to par, so we’re very pleased. The position of our camp this evening is. S89˚24’15”, W95˚38’50”.

Report from Svante: Today started with absolutely fantastic weather. It was minus seven or eight, sunny, and not even a breeze. On days like this, it gets so warm in the tent that you scarcely need a sleeping bag. We started the day with a navigation course after breakfast – and we believe that is well-invested time. We have a number of days of skiing the snow and ice to look forward to.

We walked for seven hours, and during that time each group member was given an opportunity to lead, setting our course in relation to the sun and the shadows we cast on the snow. Elementary geometry tells us that the sun moves about 15 degrees through the sky per hour, so there is no need for GPS.

The magnificent weather made this day feel like an Easter excursion. However, in this white, reflective landscape at 2800 metres altitude, the sunlight is scorching – although it’s easy not to realize that until it is too late. We protected our exposed skin with a factor 50 sun lotion and … to avoid burns. Despite not being in a hurry, we’ve covered 12 km.

It’s been a wonderful day.

Summers here ain’t nuthin’ like they are back home.
Britt preparing dinner. A “chef’s hat” for Antarctic conditions has a very different design.

Report from Børge: It’s the 15th of January and our position is now S89˚12’, W96˚35’. It’s been an average day, at least with regard to temperature – the thermometer shows a stable –30˚C. But it has been clear, with excelling ski conditions, in other words no whiteout, and happily a day without any surprises.

Nils Thomas’ ski that showed signs of cracking is still holding up; it hasn’t gotten any worse. And we hope it will last all the way to 90 degrees latitude – better known as the South Pole. That’s our goal.

This has been one of the first days where we have actually been able to relax a bit down here, and let our thoughts roam free. The Antarctic is magnificent when the weather is like this! The heavens seem huge, and one feels rather humble in this vast expanse of ice. It seems strange to think that there is 3 km of solid ice below us, with aeons of our planet’s history stored right below our feet.

Today we have skied 22 km in 8,5 hours. That is as expected and we are satisfied. Everyone in our group is in fine shape and in good spirits, and we send our greetings to everyone who is following our expedition from a nice, warm living room.

Report from Svante: It was almost perfect weather when we started our day – no wind and an almost comfortable temperature, relatively speaking. Our goal is to reach S88˚44’ in the course of tomorrow. Snow conditions there are supposed to be ideal for landing a Twin Otter. We plan on flying closer to the Pole so as to reach our final destination in time.

Everyone is feeling in far better shape, and within a day or two we expect to be back to normal. Up to now, three members of our group have suffered adverse effects of the high altitude – and the combination of skiing seven hours a day, and not eating, is hardly conducive to good health. Fortunately, biscuits, water and Norwegian crisp bread (knekkebrø) seem to have done the trick, speeding recovery.

We have progressed another 14 km today and are now camped at S88˚41’. It’s been a good day.

The weather clears up – Adrian, Helen and Andrew find good reason to smile.