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December 17th, 2010

They have left Antarctica!

Posted in South Pole 2010 | Tags: LAst Degree, Punta Arenas, South Pole | by Lars Ebbesen | No Comments »

The jury gave good marks to all involved! Photo Knut

Friday: Back in Punta Arenas! Marit and Terry were originally scheduled to fly out the Saturday the 18^th. But they were stronger and faster than expected, so they got themselves on a flight very late on Thursday!

That means they are back in Punta now! All of you out there who have followed the trip and sent massages, now you cam bomb them with greetings!

Both are now in great shape to get themselves back home in time for Christmas. But right now we know they are enjoying our wonderful ‘civilised’ life: Cold beer, wine, food that can be ordered, chairs in stead of a tent floor, toilets in stead of a ‘quick-shit’ in the freezing winds, and – a soft, nice bed with no rattling from the tent.

From what we hear they have not stopped smiling yet.

And for all of you who are dreaming of the South- or the North Pole, don’t just dream…

Thank you for now.

December 16th, 2010

The South Pole reached!

Posted in South Pole 2010 | Tags: LAst Degree, South Pole | by Lars Ebbesen | 4 Comments »

Three happy campers at the Pole!

Wednesday, Day 5: The last stint was 17 kilometre. It was a quite exciting day as the Pole came and went on the horizon, but it grew bigger and bigger ever so slowly.

Finally, after a week in total solitude, they wee at the Geographical South Pole surrounded by people, heavy vehicle and buildings. Surreal. But true. Very different from the Point Amundsen found, but still, the pleasure of reaching it was immense.

After tons of photos on the ceremonial place where the famous silver bowl stands surrounded by flags, they were given a tour of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. That is an impressive scientific station that is crowded by scientists in these few months of summer. In early February they all fly back out and a few handful of people operate the station through the winter isolation.

After a visit to the souvenir shop (frantic X’mas shopping?) they sat down and waited for the flight back. It was strange to suddelnly sit in a chair and not hear the wind rattle the tent. But nice.

Around midnight they boarded the plane back to Union Glacier Camp. There a big celebration-meal waited!

Stay tuned!

December 15th, 2010

Jubilee!!!

Posted in South Pole 2010 | Tags: LAst Degree, South Pole | by Lars Ebbesen | One Comment »

Terry, Marit and Christian, 99 years after Amundsen

Tuesday, Day 4 – 99 Days after Amundsen: The 14^th December is etched into every Polar Explorer as a THE DAY. 99 years ago Amundsen and his men reached the South Pole as the first ever. It was one of the biggest and most dramatic polar races of all time.

Our friends had hoped to reach the Geographical South Pole today, but weather put a stop to tat. Anyway, being totally alone out there and not on he crowded Pole is exactly like it was in 1911.

The day was geared towards the ocation. -24°C (which by now is like summer…). Not a cloud. AND no wind! The only struggle ewas that the snow in this area was at it’s slowest. It is more like man hauling the sledges on sand. Amundsen called the snow up on the Polar plateau ‘fish-glue’… Anyway, they put another 23 kilometre behind them, and are now on due course to hit the Pole tomorrow after noon Chilean time.

The celebrate Amundsen they sent us this photo of their interpretation of Amundsen’s famous photo.

Well done. We will update tonight (Wednesday) as they arrive.

December 14th, 2010

Another world – another day

Posted in South Pole 2010 | Tags: LAst Degree, South Pole | by Lars Ebbesen | One Comment »

Monday, Day 4: Very little else in this world resembles what they go though right now. There is absolutely no sign of life at all. Everything is pristine white and clean. The snow is fantasticly sculptured in sastrugis. The sun is up 24 hours a day. The high pressure makes for a very cold environment. Outside it is minus 30°C, helped by a bit of wind we are talking between -40 and -50°C effective temperature.

But the enormous radiation from the sun in Antarctica makes the tent a very nice place. Inside it is +20° on the sunny side of the tent, and -5° on the other…

They did 23km today which was a new record again for Terry. He keeps surprising the two Norwegians with his enormous progress on skis. He is a transformed man. All those who saw him pull tires in the beaches and dirt roads around Perth should have seen him now.

36km to go! The are sure they will make in mid day on Wednesday. We will try to update live!

Stay tuned!

All flat and nothing to look at? Hardly. Quite a ballance acto too, - on skis...

December 13th, 2010

The Perfect Day!

Posted in South Pole 2010 | Tags: LAst Degree, South Pole | by Lars Ebbesen | No Comments »

Out little caravane trodling through Antarctica

Sunday, Day 3: Today the slowly continued south. The terrain was about the same as the Sastrugi fields come and went. But the best part was a cloudless sky, a ‘comfortable -25°C and hardly any wind!

Had all days been like this in Antarctica.

Without pushing, they skied 21 kilometre closer to the Geographical South Pole. That is a new record for Terry from Perth. He is doing very well. His hands are cold, but that is hardly shocking news. But his spirit and good humour is warming everyone.

When will they reach the Pole? With the progress they have they have set their sight on Wednesday. We’ll see!

December 12th, 2010

In the freezer.

Posted in South Pole 2010 | Tags: LAst Degree, South Pole | by Lars Ebbesen | 2 Comments »

Christian, Marit and Terry as they were dropped off by the DC3

Saturday, Day 2: The ’party’ last night must have been a success as the overslept by an hour! Christian was less than impressed by himself as they woke up at 07:30. But it goes to show that on expeditions you sleep like a baby – .

But they had work to do. The weather was good, but the temperature was devastatingly cold- A minus 30°C with a small wind facing them made it very important to do everything correctly. That they must have done as they covered 16,7km which is very good on a last Degree. At this altitude that is in fact vey impressive.

The landscape have been like a frozen sea in at a gale force wind. Tons of wild sastrugi (bumps wiped up by the winter storms) made for tough going but wonderful viewing. It was like a sculpture park.

Well done, and keep up the good work.

December 10th, 2010

Big summary!

Posted in South Pole 2010 | by Lars Ebbesen | No Comments »

What a day. In Antarctica, things either happen very fast – or not at all!

18:50 Chilean time we got a call. “We are in the tent and have done 3,5 km today!”

Since Christian and Marit arrived back at the Union Glacier camp last night we have had very busy times. Immediately they gathered and had a meeting. There they learned that Karl had opted out of the Last Degree Team. In the long wait, he and Terry had done a lot of skiing with sledges. In fact they did 55km! That is very impressive, and having done half the Last Degree distance Karl found out he wanted to be sure to be back home well ahead of Christmas. He was able to join a South Pole flight and flew in to tick off that very unique spot on out Globe.

He is done and happy and will fly out later today or tomorrow.

The others rolled up their sleeves (literary that is, Antarctica is not the place to flash the flesh) and organised the expedition. This morning all was ready to go – apart for the weather. Bad weather seemed to dictate that they could not fly out to the drop off point till late Saturday!

But then at13:25 we got a rush call. They had gotten a small weather window and take-off was in 15 minutes!

We waited and just now the call from the tent came in. The happiest 3 people in Antarctica had done a short trek, made the camp and was now enjoying life in solitude and peace. Terry was over the moon, they were eating a Norwegian Christmas cake and all was looking forward to dinner. And all was feeling very well.

The last thing is good. They are now at nearly 3000 metres, but that is about equivalent of 4000 meter in the Himalayas so the altitude is very real. And the chance of altitude sickness is severe. Luckily, they were so far ok after drinking and breathing a lot.

We wish them a good night and are very eager to get news tomorrow. Their plan now is to reach the South Pole in the 16^th or the 17^th of December.

Time will tell, stay tuned!

Goodbye to Union Glacier camp, now for the real stuff!

December 8th, 2010

Vinson summited, Now for the Pole!

Posted in South Pole 2010 | Tags: LAst Degree, Patriot Hills, South Pole, Vinsin | by Lars Ebbesen | No Comments »

Short message today, they toped out at Mt Vinson Wednesday just before 16:00 Chilean time! That is very good news. Now they are heading back and we hope the team will united tomorrow.

Karl & Terry are more than ready to get going. We will now more about the progress and plans during tomorrow. Stay tuned!

December 6th, 2010

The waiting game

Posted in South Pole 2010 | Tags: LAst Degree, Patriot Hills, South Pole | by Lars Ebbesen | 2 Comments »

Antarctica is windy, and Patriot Hills is no exception.

Karl & Terry are well in Antarctica. They are based in Patriot Hills and are awaiting the other two on the team. Problem is, they are stuck at Mt Vinson!

Last Saturday they were 12 hours away from the summit when the mountain was hit very strong winds. That has grounded them at the highest camp. The wind is so far relentless and a summit push seems still a day or two away.

That means that K&T have leisure days in Antarctica. The good thing is that they have lots of time to acclimatise and ski and walk to get up to speed.

Another thin is that just being there is wonderful. Lots of other expedition folks are there and in the mess tent, where everybody eat and meet, is Mecca for all of us.

We’ll be back with more from them as soon as it gets in.

ALE provide great logistics but also great service and FOOD. Patriot Hills is etched into every Polar explorer memory with delight.

December 4th, 2010

Report from Bengt

Posted in South Pole 2010 | by Lars Ebbesen | 2 Comments »

So I guess you have noticed that Karl are here!

He is pretty good at speaking Spanish which i really is really convenient for Terry and me.

Karl is back in his hometown Punta Arenas for the first time in 20 years! He has been looking at his old home and his old school. He think it is great to be back, there’s quite a few changes here, but a lot is also as he remembers it to be. The only thing is that he remembered all as being bigger (familiar wit that )

We have had a great packing process. Before going to the ALE (flight & logistic providers) meeting we had been finished it all after a mammoth 24 hours stunt. And everything had also been weighted in. We were spot on which is good as every extra kilo cost a small fortune in overweight.

The Ale meeting was as usual nice, lots of great pictures (and a few bad ones… notably frostbites). We got to meet the others that are going out on the same flight.

After the meeting we went to meet the Magelan statue on the square. That is important, if you kiss the foot it means you will return to Punta in good health – which is high on out list of wishes… (I only took pictures with Karl and Terry’s camera… sorry.)

Back at the hotel they came to pick up the gear on time. We weighted in at 45kg each, and then the waiting game started. We had so sit stand by at the hotel till they got the go ahead from the met guys.

The gear check-in. Every gram counts. We were spot on with our allocation, - thus the broad smiles...

The first call was 1830, then new time was set to 0200 in the night, which is a pretty unusual time. That was because they believe the weather could deteriorate.

After a big dinner downtown by the shore, we waited and waited. Karl and Terry were truly excited, they both had a hard time sitting down, I guess there was lot of tensions. Their stomach butterflies were roaming around in every corner of the body.

At 0200 the cal came, spot on time. “Hi, this is Tyson. You are on for a pick up at 0250″.

This was extrordinary good news, we were not on schedule we were ahead of it! When did that happen last time? The bus came in time, and suddenly my two new good friends were on their way to Antarctica. At 0500 in the morning I heard the ilyushin plane roar over the city and head for the Drake Sound that separates the Southern tip of South America from the Antactica.

The sound is quite spectacular. The whole thing reminds me of astronauts going into space, – but this is the “Skionauts” I guess.

I truly hope our Skionauts will enjoy Antarctica as much as I did – it is different in a good way.

Cheers – Bengt

(Bengt will now take a walk in the stunning Torres del Paine National Park before returning home, – we get the feeling he was very envious of Karl and Terry and wanted very much to go with them. – Next time, Bengt. The Home base)