Friday 12 April 2013

Daily Routine

The days skiing to the pole are very alike so I will give an overview of the typical day and then some highlights in later posts. Nowhere is it more true that time is relative. You can cross time zones here in a matter of minutes and the sun remains at about the same height in the sky the whole time. Teams therefore stay on the same time as where they were before they enter the pole regardless of what longtitude they are actually at and therefore what the time actually is.

Wake up at about 07:30am and whoever is up first puts on the stove to get the water going for tea, drinking water for the day. While the water is heating and continuing over breakfast we pack our camping gear and load the sleds. Breakfast is a hot drink, serving of oatmeal and a tortilla with cheese - there were also freeze dried 'breakfast skillets' (scrambled egg, onion, bacon etc) - apparently with a few extra steps these can be made to be pretty tasty but without those and especially if you add even slightly too much or too little water, they can be tough to stomach.

Each night mositure from our breath and drying gear condenses and freezes on the inside roof of the tents - this has only a tentative hold and the slightest motion of the material will cause parts to detach and fall (with unnerving accuracy) onto any exposed parts of your skin! Last to come down is the tent which we take in turns to carry each day, before heading off at about 10am.

Despite the cold, the effort of pulling the sleds mean that you generate a lot of body heat and as such wear relativlely light clothes during the day. I generally wore a thick base layer and waterproof shell on my legs; thin base layer, light mid-wight layer and windproof anorak on my top half topped off with a light hat, hood from my mid-weight layer and anorak hood if required. Apart from the head layers this would not be excessive for Winter walking in Scotland. Oddly, the main concern during the day is not getting to hot rather than getting to cold. If you get hot, you sweat and with an outside waterproof layer it is hard for this moisture to escape. You then spend the rest of the day keeping this moisture warm which is a real energy drain and once you stop this layer becomes very cold very quickly which can be dangerous.
On my face, I would alternate between just a buff (thin stretchy layer) or buff plus face mask - rotating depending on weather and the amount of ice that has built up on my face mask:



For the eyes it would be nothing or goggles. The sun is pretty low so there is no real risk of sun blindness but when it is cold or windy some physical protection is helpful. The problem then is that goggles tend to fog up and then freeze up when worn with a face mask.

We would head off at about 10am and walk for 1.5 to 2 hour blocks and have a 10 minute rest for drinks and snacks before the next push. The breaks are short as whilst you can generally keep warm when pulling the sled, the cold hits you very quickly when you stop. The first thing you do when stopping is to put on your down jacket to conserve your body warmth whilst at rest; taking it off and repacking it in the sled is the last thing you do before restarting. Even so, it takes a good 15 mins or more to get warm again after the stops and often longer for hands which aren't working so hard.
For the first few days we did 4 sets of these to ensure that we made good progress into the time that we had to catch up, but later only needed to do 3 given the progress that we had made.

This would get us into camp at around 7 or 8. Again, first action is to put on the down jacket and insulated trousers (if required) to maintain body warmth whilst doing the various chores to get the camp set up. This was mainly erecting the tents, getting our gear stowed inside the tent and stoves started as well as chatting to rest of the team. After that it was supper - hot drink, soup, packet of freeze dried food and bagel with cheese.
Again, simplicity in the freeze dried food tended to give the best results. Mince rehydrates well as does pasta so dishes like Chilli Mac (chilli and macarone) and lasange (small chunks of it) were good. Rice dishes are very dependent on the correct proportion of water which is hard to get right with no equipment (and US measurements required). A crucial additive is a bottle of chilli sauce or tabasco which you can thaw by putting in the kettle for a few minutes. Last thing it to fill water bottles with hot water and pop them into the sleeping bags. This warms the bags up before you get in, keeps your feet warm throughout the night, helps dry out your wet gear and also provides water to go into the kettle the following morning which is much quicker and so uses less gas than having to melt snow or ice
After dinner would be reading, chatting or visiting other tents and then to bed at about 10 to get ready to do it all again the next day.

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